80s Icon’s Career Was On Life Support…This Solitary Rocker Saved Him! | Professor Of Rock

It was a dark, dark time back in the summer of 1989. Or at least it was for today’s featured artist. After conquering the 80s with his own unique brand of musical genius Weird Al Yankovic found that critics and audiences had turned against him. After his should’ve been a hit movie UHF bombed. From there things got even worse when his longtime A-list partner Michael Jackson Rejected his latest song parody. Al wondered if he Was he doomed to be a relic of the 80s? Or could he write a comeback hit for the ages? Enter Kurt Cobain and Nirvana. He recorded a send up of Smells Like Teen Spirit… He did it with a mouthful or marbles…It saved his career… The story is next on Professor or Rock.

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After an incredible run through the 1980s, Weird Al Yankovic entered what he called his dark period. It began in the summer of 89, with the release his tour de force, should’ve been a blockbuster, UHF. Before its release, the movie had actually tested extremely well with audiences. In fact, it was Orion Pictures’ best bet since the original Robocop. And people in the company, they were thinking Al’s movie could finally turn things around for the flailing studio. Because of this he was treated very well. But instead of turning Al into a bonafide movie star, UHF tanked, only grossing 6 million dollars worldwide. And from there Al’s career started to skid.

Al, would later say, "Every morning I would wake up to fresh strawberries next to my bed. Then, when the movie bombed, I woke up and...no more strawberries! The movie’s prospects weren’t helped by the fact that it opened in the middle of one of the biggest blockbuster summers ever... Batman, Lethal Weapon 2, Honey I Shrunk the Kids, Do the Right Thing, Ghostbuster 2 and Indiana Jones: The Last Crusade all vied for moviegoers’ attention. Critics, not understanding Al’s particular brand of comedic genius, only made matters worse In time however, Al would be vindicated and UHF massed a significant cult following. In fact, on Rotten Tomatoes it even has a 77% Fresh rating from over 50,000 reviewers. But that day was still in the distant future, and for now Al’s professional prospects had come to a grind halt.
For a three-year period between 1989 and 1992, Al didn’t release a single album and really fell out of the public eye.

It was during this time, in a moment of desperation, that Al wrote another Michael Jackson food-related parody... His third after Eat It and Fat. This time around he targeted Jacksons 1991 world-wide smash Black or White... reworking it into ‘Snack All Night.’ According to Al’s drummer Jon “Bermuda” Schwartz it wasn’t Al’s best work... And in fact, the King of Pop actually told Al ‘no’ when he asked.

Said Yankovic, “I certainly don’t hold that against him. At the time, he was saying that “Black or White” was this big social, political statement and he wasn’t comfortable with [the parody]. I’d like to think that he was actually doing me a favor, saving me from myself. He was the adult in the room going, “Al, come on, really?