During an era of rock music known for controversial lyrics and heavy drug influence, Weezer made their debut with their "Blue Album," a record on the opposite end of the spectrum that featured songs like "Undone — The Sweater Song" and "Buddy Holly." Thanks to lead singer Rivers Cuomo's Beach Boys-style lyrics, Weezer carved out a place in the crowded rock genre, and they're still making music 30 years later. Weezer's biggest fans already know a thing or two about the band's famous frontman, like his love for meditation or his period of temporary celibacy, but there's a whole lot more to find out. From growing up on an ashram to his mathematical approach to songwriting, this is the untold truth of Rivers Cuomo.
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00:00Did you know that Rivers Cuomo once recorded a rap album about...wait for it...vegetarianism?
00:08Sound strange?
00:09You'll want to keep watching to learn more about Weezer's famous frontman.
00:13Rivers Cuomo and his brother, Leaves, had a unique childhood.
00:16According to Cuomo's official biography, the two boys were raised on an ashram known as
00:21Yogaville, located in Palm Frit, Connecticut.
00:24Cuomo elaborated on his upbringing in an interview with Integral Yoga magazine.
00:28He recalled his time at the ashram school, which he attended from age 4 to 7, fondly,
00:33telling the outlet,
00:34"...the ashram itself was so nurturing and creative.
00:37I just remember being in school and feeling that if I had any crazy idea, we would be
00:41encouraged to try it out.
00:42You want to build a spaceship?
00:44Sure, let's try and build it."
00:46He speculates that the ashram's constructive approach to education is part of the reason
00:50why so many former Yogaville children have gone on to have successful careers in the
00:54arts.
00:55Award-winning actor Liev Schreiber attended the ashram school, as did Dave Matthews Band
01:00member Stéphane Lessard.
01:03It's possible that musical talent runs in Rivers Cuomo's family.
01:07His father, Frank Cuomo, was a musician in his own right.
01:10According to Cuomo's official biography, the elder Cuomo contributed percussion to the
01:14album Odyssey of Isca by jazz saxophonist Wayne Shorter.
01:18Diffuser notes that he also played with jazz fusion band The Weather Report in the 1970s.
01:24Cuomo has honored his dad's musical chops by inviting him to jam out with Weezer on
01:28several occasions.
01:29In 2015, he brought him on stage to bang the drums while Weezer played Back to the Shack
01:34at the Burgerama Festival in Los Angeles.
01:36A year later, he summoned him into the spotlight to play the quintessential Weezer hit, Beverly
01:41Hills, at a show in Irvine.
01:43Frank isn't the only Cuomo who has performed with Rivers on stage.
01:46During the same tour, Rivers invited his daughter Mia to play the keys during Perfect Situation.
01:52Rivers Cuomo grew up having to deal with a mild physical defect.
01:56According to Rolling Stone, he was born with a condition making his left leg 44 millimeters
02:00shorter than his right one.
02:02He lived with this condition until 1995, when he decided to use his earnings from Weezer
02:07to undergo a procedure that would remediate the issue.
02:09The surgery was quite painful, involving the breaking of his leg bone.
02:13Recovery wasn't easy, either.
02:15Cuomo had to wear a steel brace over his leg for months.
02:18He also had to stretch his leg four times a day, which he described as an agonizing
02:22process.
02:23Per Songfacts, Cuomo's struggles with his leg inspired the Weezer single, The Good Life,
02:28featured on Pinkerton.
02:29The jacket for the single also features an X-ray image of Cuomo's leg.
02:34According to an interview with The Harvard Crimson, Rivers Cuomo first enrolled at Harvard
02:38in 1995 when he was 25 years old.
02:41It's just as terrifying to give an oral presentation to 15 smart kids as it is to sing on Letterman.
02:50At the time, Weezer had enjoyed some mild recognition with singles from their Blue album.
02:55Yet Cuomo wasn't sure whether the first album's success had been a fluke.
02:59While attending Harvard in the 90s, Cuomo wrote several songs that would appear on the
03:03band's album Pinkerton.
03:04He took some time off in 1996 to tour with Weezer after the album's release.
03:09Then he returned for a semester in 2004 before dropping out to focus on his career.
03:14He made a triumphant comeback shortly after and finally graduated in 2006.
03:19Cuomo first studied music composition.
03:21He then changed his major to English.
03:23His initial experience at Harvard was significantly different from his second stint, largely due
03:27to Weezer's spike in popularity.
03:29When he set foot onto Harvard's campus in 95, he wasn't recognized as a celebrity on
03:33campus.
03:34Cuomo told The Harvard Crimson,
03:35"...I had pretty long hair and a really long bushy beard, glasses, walked with a cane.
03:41On top of that fact, our album was not successful with college kids.
03:44It was successful with 10-year-olds."
03:46Things had changed by 2004, however.
03:49Cuomo told the university's newspaper in 2006,
03:51"...The best part about being famous is that people want to get to know me.
03:56People come up to me and introduce themselves, and I make friends.
03:58I have a very happy and comfortable social life."
04:02In a 2019 interview with the Los Angeles Times, Cuomo refers to himself as a lifelong vegetarian,
04:08inspired to take up a plant-based diet by the five precepts of the Buddha.
04:12Cuomo is deeply passionate about the vegetarian lifestyle, to the extent that he once recorded
04:16a vegetarian-themed rap album, according to Rolling Stone.
04:19While Cuomo was undergoing a creative crisis in the 1990s, he challenged himself to write
04:2450 songs in a row before allowing himself to play live again.
04:27It was during this period that he wrote Weezer classic, Undone, the sweater song, as well
04:32as the aforementioned vegetarian concept album titled Vegeterrorist.
04:36Each track featured Cuomo waxing poetic about his dietary preferences in the style of Public
04:41Enemy and Run-D.M.C.
04:43Jason Cropper, a founding member of Weezer who eventually parted ways with the band,
04:47commended Cuomo's rapping talents in the Rolling Stone article, saying,
04:50"...Rivers can drop mad beats and spit mad rhymes with the best.
04:54Unfortunately, the world may never get to corroborate his opinion."
04:57To this day, Vegeterrorist remains unreleased.
05:01Per his official bio, Rivers Cuomo was a major fan of soccer growing up, and to date, he's
05:06written two odes to the sport.
05:08In 2006, he penned Our Time Will Come, an unofficial hype song for the U.S. men's soccer
05:13team during the World Cup.
05:15In 2010, Weezer debuted another World Cup anthem, this one titled Represent.
05:20In the lyrics, Cuomo lays out the stakes for the athletes, but also engages in some good-natured
05:25boasting.
05:26Cuomo has also spent some time on the field himself.
05:28In 2008, he participated in the Mia Ham and Nomar Garcia Parra Celebrity Soccer Challenge,
05:34alongside Tony Hawk, Andy Samberg, and Elizabeth Hsu, among others.
05:38He put up a real fight during a charity match, even scoring his team's first goal.
05:43The next year, he laced up his cleats again, this time for the Athletes for Africa 5v5
05:48Charity Soccer Tournament.
05:49This time around, he and his teammates were playing to raise money for a youth center
05:52for arts and culture in northern Uganda.
05:56Rivers Cuomo has occasionally gone to extreme lengths for songwriters' sake.
06:00In a 2005 interview with L.A. Weekly, he elaborated on the drastic method he used to write the
06:05song, Hold Me.
06:06Fasting.
06:07After a short period of starvation, Cuomo began to notice changes in his mental state,
06:12telling the outlet,
06:13"'I felt really sad and I really pitied myself and I felt a lot of loss and, of course, I
06:17was really hungry.
06:18So I entered into this very concentrated state of extreme longing and started playing that
06:23song."
06:24Fasting had done what he had hoped, and not only did he like the song he'd written, the
06:28music actually made him feel considerably better.
06:30Despite being proud of his results, Cuomo is hesitant to encourage artists to follow
06:34his example.
06:35Cuomo said in the L.A. Weekly interview,
06:37"'It can't be sustained.
06:39If you're relying on extreme emotions, you just become a wreck, and it's tough for other
06:43people to live with you, and it's just not a good life.
06:45Who wants to be constantly cultivating anger and sadness?
06:49Not me."
06:50Shortly after fasting, Rivers Cuomo said in his interview with L.A. Weekly, he turned
06:55to meditation.
06:56Cuomo wasn't a total stranger to the practice.
06:58He meditated while living on the ashram as a child, but gave it up around sixth grade.
07:03He was initially skeptical about picking it up as an adult, but he was in such need of
07:07a creative breakthrough that he decided to give it a try.
07:10"'When I was 32, I felt like my creative energies were drying up.
07:16I got the idea to try meditation again."
07:20According to ABC News, Cuomo tested out several meditation techniques before settling on the
07:24Vipassana method.
07:26He has meditated for two hours a day every day since 2003, except for one day in 2009
07:32when he was knocked unconscious in a bus crash.
07:35Cuomo told L.A. Weekly,
07:36"'It definitely improves your concentration and creativity, even in rock music.
07:40It's about fighting through whatever internal struggles there are and really focusing in
07:44on what it is you're trying to say.'"
07:46He feels that meditation has helped shape his life choices, adding,
07:49"'I don't know if I ever could've gotten married without this meditation practice to settle
07:55me down and get me focused on my core values.'"
07:59Meditation is such a major part of Cuomo's life that he's made an effort to pass his
08:02knowledge on to others.
08:03A 2009 newsletter from the Vipassana Research Institute reveals that Cuomo used to teach
08:09children's meditation courses there.
08:11He also supported the production of The Dahmer Brothers, a film about Vipassana meditation
08:16in an Alabama state prison, according to a press release.
08:19In 2003, Cuomo decided to give up intercourse, temporarily.
08:24In a 2005 interview with fans conducted via AOL chat session, Cuomo elaborated on his
08:29choice, saying,
08:30"'I decided to try celibacy because I heard it would help the meditation, and I tried
08:34meditation because I heard it would help with the music.
08:37So it all really comes back to the music.'"
08:39He asserted that this exercise yielded positive results, revealing in the AOL chat,
08:43"...I know I can hear a difference in my singing.
08:45I also notice a difference in the lyrics.
08:48I'm much more open and communicative about my emotions now."
08:51On top of that, he believes his lifestyle of discipline has affected his demeanor in
08:55the studio as well, saying,
08:56"...I don't have so much fear that I won't get my way.
08:59I don't have so much anger if people have opposing opinions, and generally I'm much
09:03more happy and comfortable in collaborative situations."
09:07Cuomo's period of abstinence ended when he married his girlfriend, Kiyoko Ito, in 2006.
09:13According to Cuomo's 2006 interview with The Harvard Crimson, Ito and Cuomo met at one
09:17of Cuomo's solo shows in 1997.
09:20The fact that Ito was originally a Weezer fan isn't something that factors into their
09:24relationship, and it's something he's grateful for.
09:26Cuomo told The Crimson,
09:27"...Thankfully, I haven't thought along those lines very much.
09:30I just kind of forget how we met, and she's just my woman."
09:34Scrolling through Weezer's discography, you might notice that few of the band's songs
09:38are labeled explicit.
09:40This is by design.
09:41Weezer's Cuomo isn't a big fan of swearing in music and prefers to keep his songs fairly
09:45curse-free.
09:46In a 2008 interview with Rolling Stone, Cuomo explains the artistic logic behind his decision,
09:52citing the Beach Boys as an inspiration.
09:53"...I don't like to use real swear words."
09:56Weezer came up at a time when Jane's addiction released Nothing's Shocking.
10:00Everyone was trying to be controversial.
10:02We look back to rock and roll's pre-drug days, to the clean images of the Beach Boys, that
10:06felt ironically rebellious.
10:09In 2019, Weezer released their Black album, which saw Cuomo using stronger language.
10:14However, he soon reverted to his former ways, keeping it relatively clean on the band's
10:18following records.
10:20Rivers Cuomo has been known to approach songwriting from a mathematical perspective.
10:25In a 2002 interview with Rolling Stone, he spoke of a notebook he kept in the late 1990s
10:30in which he meticulously dissected every song Kurt Cobain had ever written.
10:34According to Todd Sullivan, Weezer's A&R man, he figured if he could home in on Kurt's
10:39formula, he'd figure out his own formula.
10:41That way, he would be a never-ending supply of songs.
10:44After filling out his Nirvana notebook, Cuomo moved on to another creative exercise, a three-ring
10:49binder he called the Encyclopedia of Pop, in which he stores his in-depth analysis of
10:54songs by various artists he admires.
10:56The work isn't tedious to him, but entertaining.
10:59Cuomo said,
11:00"...I'm probably just a natural-born scientist.
11:02I like taking notes and analyzing things."