Wolfman Jack, the rock 'n' roll disc jockey whose gravelly voice and wolf howls made him one of the nation's most recognizable personalities, died Saturday of a heart attack. He was 57.
The Wolfman collapsed shortly after returning home earlier in the day, said Lonnie Napier, vice president of Wolfman Jack Entertainment.He had just completed a 20-day trip to promote his new book, "Have Mercy, The Confession of the Original Party Animal," about his early career.
"He walked up the driveway, went in to hug his wife and then just fell over," said Napier from the Wolfman's home, about 120 miles east of Raleigh.
Born Robert Smith in Brooklyn, the Wolfman rose to prominence in the early 1960s on XERF-AM, playing the latest rock 'n' roll on a Mexican station that broadcast at 250,000 watts, five times the power allowed on any U.S. station at the time.
His howls and yips, and the blues and hillbilly records he spun, blanketed much of the United States all nightlong.
Between cuts, he would hawk plastic figurines of Jesus, coffins, and inspirational literature, and exhort his listeners to "get yo'self nekkid."
"This man was an original. He was energy," fellow disc jockey "Cousin" Brucie Morrow said Saturday. "He typified 1960s, 1970s radio. And he was a terrific, terrific radio character."
Though already well-known, it wasn't until Wolfman played himself in the 1973 movie "American Graffiti" that America saw the face that went with the voice.