Jeff Tweedy - Early Life

Early Life

Jeff Tweedy was born in Belleville, Illinois on August 25, 1967 as the fourth child of Bob and Jo Ann Tweedy. Bob Tweedy worked at Alton & Southern Railroad in East St. Louis while Jo Ann was a kitchen designer. Jo Ann bought Tweedy his first guitar at age six, although he did not begin to play it seriously until he was 12. Apparently Tweedy told people that he knew how to play the guitar once he got his first guitar, even though he couldn't. When he was twelve Tweedy was injured in a bicycle accident and was put up for the summer. He decided to learn how to play a few chords before somebody "called him out" on the lie. In 1981, when Tweedy was fourteen years old, he befriended Jay Farrar in an English class at Belleville Township High School West. All of the members of Farrar's family enjoyed playing music, causing Farrar to already have knowledge of the musical elements of rock and roll. By this time, Tweedy was a fan of The Ramones and country music while Farrar enjoyed The Sex Pistols.

Farrar was in a band called The Plebes with his brothers Wade and Dade, which Tweedy joined in order to qualify for a battle of the bands competition, which they won. Tweedy pushed The Plebes away from the rockabilly music that they had been playing, which caused Dade Farrar to leave the band. The band renamed themselves The Primitives in 1984, taking their name from a song by garage rock band The Groupies. Wade Farrar sang lead vocals and played harmonica, Jay Farrar played guitar, Tweedy played bass guitar, and Mike Heidorn played drums. In late 1986, the band decided to change their name to Uncle Tupelo, because a more popular British band was also using the name "The Primitives". The Primitives went on hiatus in 1986 after Wade Farrar left the band to finish his engineering degree at Southern Illinois University. While waiting for Wade to return from campus, Jay, Tweedy, and Heidorn formed Uncle Tupelo.