Chapter 1

He's Vegan

"Weird Al" wears a meat dress in the 'Perform This Way' film clip.

Well, kinda.

"I don't eat meat," he told Bon Appetit in 2014. "Sometimes I stray from the vegan thing and do dairy products, so I'm somewhere between a vegan and a vegetarian right now. I try to eat vegan, but I've slipped too many times to be a card-carrying vegan."

Being vegan is not weird in and of itself. It's a perfectly natural lifestyle decision and more power to those who choose to adopt it.

But, you have to remember, this is a man who has written songs like 'My Bologna', 'Steak No. 3' and 'Don't You (Forget About Meat)'. A man who has written lyrics like:

"Spam in the back of my car (ham and pork)/Spam any place that you are (ham and pork)" ­– 'Spam'

"We gonna schlep on through to Flatbush Avenue/Kielbasa and chopped liver" – 'Flatbush Avenue'

"Get yourself an egg and beat it /Have some more chicken, have some more pie" – 'Eat It'

"Well, I hope they feed us lots of chicken fajitas/And a pitcher of margaritas" – 'Taco Grande' (Yankovic rarely drinks, either).

In his 1989 film UHF, Al came up with the concept of a Twinkie Wiener Sandwich, featuring a hot dog sausage inside a cake, covered in processed cheese. This was before he made the switch to vegetarianism in the early '90s, though he apparently still makes a vegan version using soy products.

While Paul McCartney is apparently a "Weird Al" fan, he is one of the few artists who refused to give Yankovic his blessing for a song parody. The plan was to turn the hit 'Live and Let Die' into 'Chicken Pot Pie', but McCartney said to allow that would go against his vegetarianism.

Chapter 2

His Parents Bought Him Accordion Lessons From A Door To Door Salesman

"Weird Al" is synonymous with the accordion. You can't say that about too many acts in modern music.

A young "Weird Al". From his official website.

How does a man born after 1920 become skilled on an instrument that hasn't been in vogue in decades?

He gets lessons purchased by his parents from a door to door salesman, of course.

Yankovic was just seven years old when he had his first lesson and he has been playing the incredibly unpopular instrument ever since.

He went on to teach accordion when in high school and even went on to become an "accordion repo man" for a short while.

"When kids start taking accordion lessons, they don't buy accordions because, generally, they're expensive and the school wants to get the kids roped in and make sure it's something that they want to continue first," Yankovic told The A.V. Club in 2014.

A young "Weird Al". From his official website.

"But they loan the accordions out to the kids so they can practice at home; the problem is that they can stop taking lessons and don't return their accordions, so the company has to send out the accordion repo man."

It could have been a very different story. His parents were offered the option of purchasing him guitar lessons instead of the accordion.

Perhaps a guitar-slinging Yankovic would have been too cool to follow the path he ended up on and we'd never know the wonder of "Weird Al".

Chapter 3

He Finished School Very Young

Giving his Valedictorian speech in 1976. Photo from his official website.

If you ever take issue with someone calling "Weird Al" a genius, you might want to cool your jets. While his musical comedy might not be to everyone's taste, the guy is incredibly smart. Well, at least he was.

Yankovic started kindergarten a year earlier than his peers, but apparently that wasn't challenging enough for the young parodist-to-be. He went on to skip a year of school early on in primary school, meaning that by the time he had finished school he was only 16 years old - two years ahead of the game.

Some might see being so young might as a disadvantage, but it didn't seem to faze Yankovic. He finished school as valedictorian.

He then went on to study architecture at university and graduated with honours, but after graduating he realised that it was a career path that just didn't suit him. He was destined to become "the country's preeminent rock 'n' roll-accordion-parody artist".

Chapter 4

He Doesn't Accept Ideas. Except From Madonna

Taken from the 'Like A Surgeon' single cover.

One of "Weird Al"'s biggest hits was 1985 single 'Like A Surgeon'. It's also the only song idea that came directly from the artist he was parodying.

According to Al-oholics Anonymous, Madonna asked Jay Levey, a friend of Yankovic's manager, "I wonder when '"Weird Al"' is gonna do 'Like a Surgeon'."

The idea got back to "Weird Al" who actually thought the idea was pretty good and ended up writing the song.

It ended up being something of a hit for "Weird Al", making the top 20 in Australia and the top 50 in the US.

But this is definitely an isolated incident. To this day, Yankovic's website has a disclaimer that says he won't accept submissions for song ideas from anyone due to legal and personal reasons.

Chapter 5

He Loves The Number 27

Look at the number on his bib.

The "Weird Al" Wiki is a good place to go if you want to learn a lot (too much?) about Yankovic. One of the most interesting pages lists all the times "Weird Al" has made some kind of reference to the number 27 in his work.

When you first hear about the innumerable references to 27 in "Weird Al"'s work, it doesn't seem like a big deal. But when you start noticing how frequently 27 appears in his lyrics, artwork and videos, you might start to wonder if there's a deeper significance.

While the use of 27 was initially just because it fit in a song, "Weird Al" began deliberately inserting it into his work once he realised his fans were making a big deal out of it.

"As soon I realized that they were fetishizing this, I started doing it on purpose," he told The A.V. Club's David Wolinksi in 2007. "I started making sure there was at least one number 27 in the lyrics on an album, or incorporated in the artwork, or making sure the video had the number 27. It became a whole cult-like attraction. [Laughs.] People have hypothesized what the number means, or the significance, but that's the honest story. It's just a number I started using that people started attaching a lot of importance to.

A few highlights:

At his official site in the questions gallery, he answers exactly 27 questions every month.

The "Weird Al" Live! video recording contains a photo gallery with 27 photos.

In the 'Word Crimes' film clip, during the line "To learn some grammar", there are 27 retweets on WowMuchShiba's tweet.

A few more tenuous examples:

When Al was on Wheel of Fortune, he won $27,800 on his first episode, and $2,700 on the Friday Finals.

The metallic symbol aluminium, which has the chemical symbol "Al", has a molecular weight of slightly less than 27.00 grams per mole.

He has 27 members of his close family (siblings, parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins).

If you want to know much, much more about the number 27 in "Weird Al"'s music, check out The 27 List.

"Weird Al" Yankovic plays the following Australian dates over summer:

Falls Festival, Lorne: Monday 28 December – Friday 1 January



Falls Festival, Marion Bay: Tuesday 29 December – Friday 1 January



Falls Festival, Byron Bay: Thursday 31 December – Sunday 3 January



Southbound Festival, Busselton: Friday 8 January – Sunday 10 January