Wild Man Fischer, songwriter and performer was 66

Lawrence Wayne Fischer, known for a long time as Wild Man, was a musical partner of Frank Zappa until the two had a falling out. He collaborated at times with Linda Ronstadt, Tom Waits, Jim Morrison, and Janis Joplin, according to his Wikipedia page, and became known as the spiritual godfather of Rhino Records, writing and recording a theme song for the store. Rhino founder Richard Foos sent out a note today that reads in part:

Wild Man used to hang out at the Rhino store, So when we wanted to record a theme song for the store and press it on a 45 we had him make one up.

When we decided to record our first album the only fitting artist was Wild Man. Somehow we managed to sell five thousand records which gave us enough money to release the next album.

Wild Man's creativity, passion and chutzpah to become as he would say "bigger than the Beatles" despite having a total lack of musical training, ability to keep a tune, and being schizophrenia symbolized the can do spirit we had in the early days of Rhino and fueled us on to never give up.

Wild Man never achieved his goal of being bigger than the Beatles but his passion sparked a little label that has brought joy to millions...

Fischer's death was announced also by Dr. Demento. Derailroaded was a documentary on Fischer, who was schizophrenic. Fischer died of heart problems.