Rickie Lee Jones wrote Chuck E's In Love about him. His best friend Tom Waits wrote both I Wish I was in New Orleans Again and Jitterbug Boy about him. He co-owned the Viper Room (the club outside which actor River Phoenix died in 1993) with Johnny Depp. Yet few have heard of Chuck E. Weiss. Pádraig Collins has though.
The son of an inventor, he grew up in Denver, Colorado. As a teenager he hung out at the Ebbett's Field blues club. After sitting in on a Lightnin' Hopkins session, the old bluesman was so impressed by the skinny Jewish kid's drumming he took him on tour.
His reputation took off and soon Weiss was playing with the likes of Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon, Dr John and Spencer Davis.
During the late 1970s, Weiss moved to Los Angeles and ended up living at the Tropicana Motel at the same time as Waits and Jones. He was already friends with Waits, having met him in 1972 at Ebbett's Field and co-written the song Spare Parts for Waits' 1975 Nighthawks at the Diner album.
The Tropicana, a fleabag on Santa Monica Boulevard, had once been a legend in rock circles. Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin and Alice Cooper had all once made it their Hollywood HQ.
It wasn't the legendary past that made Weiss move in, though. Duke's, the greasy-spoon diner next door, was the real reason. Weiss loved the food and the atmosphere, so he figured he'd move closer to it.
He later took over a Hollywood dive called the Central, where he had had an 11-year residency, when the place was about to close down. Weiss called his friend Johnny Depp looking for funds and soon the place was re-named the Viper Room and became the place for LA's young and beautiful to mingle with the city's seedier rock 'n' roll types.
Part of the reason he is not better known is that he has released so few records. The brilliant Extremely Cool (1999) was only his second in a 30-year career.
His first, 1981s The Other Side of Town, was just a demo tape released against Weiss's will and was never widely available.
He had been writing and singing all along, but Waits knew a talent like Weiss's deserved a wider audience and got him into the studio by agreeing to co-produce and sing on the album.
The resulting mix was rock, blues, jazz and zydeco with hilarious lyrics. Deeply Sorry is about the ultimate love triangle - a man finds his girlfriend having sex with his mother. Weiss was, however, keen to stress that the song was in no way autobiographical.
Last year's Old Souls And Wolf Tickets album continues his journey to long-overdue acclaim.