Scarlett Johansson drops favourite musician name from ‘80s decade

Apart from acting, Scarlett Johansson has a knack for music. And she once revealed the musician who made a solid impact on her.

In a chat with KCRW in 2009, the Marvel star, who rolled out her debut album a year earlier, opened up about his favourite singer Tom Waits.

Gushing over his 1977’s Burma-Shave, the 38-year-old called the music a “heartbreaking beauty”, crediting his gravel voice which left soothing traces.

“The next song I have is a Tom Waits song. When I was about 12, a friend of mine and I, we would take trips. We would take driving trips with her father. We would drive to Maine or wherever from New York, but long driving trips and stuff like that. And her dad listened to all different kinds of music, a very eclectic group of different types of artists and everything, but he loved Tom Waits.”

She continued, “Often, we would only listen to Tom Waits for hours and hours and hours while we were driving. At first, my friend and I were sort of like, ‘Oh, your Dad listens to such weird music’ or ‘My Dad’s a freak,’ kind of thing.”

Adding, “I think because Waits’ songs often – I think they really appealed to us as kids, because they are beautiful stories and strange stories and the sounds can often be, I don’t know, there’s a certain big top quality to some of the songs, and then others are just really dark and spooky, and some are just beautifully melodic.”

The Black Widow star noted, “We just ended up – after such a long drive and only listening to Tom Waits the whole weekend and the drive back and everything – we both were completely mad for Tom Waits, and I’ve listened to him ever since then.”

Concluding her fangirl moment remarks, Scarlett said, “It’s such a beautiful song, and the lyrics are so heartbreaking. It sort of reminded me of Last Picture Show kind of — it’s just got this — again, I will say, a cinematic quality to it that is just heartbreaking and I absolutely love. And his voice is so beautiful in it. 

Even when I work on a film, I often listen to a lot of music, and I always go back to Tom Waits. I just love him. So I have picked ‘Burma-Shave’ to share with you today.”