Very few local music scenes have a history that is as famous as Los Angeles’s. From jazz to rock ’n’ roll, it’s been a hotbed for influential artists ranging from The Beach Boys to Kendrick Lamar. That’s why it’s no surprise that LA is also home to some of the longest-lasting acts in history—including alt-rock darling Weezer.
This year, the four-man band celebrates its 30th anniversary! Weezer’s self-titled debut album, released in 1994, was a hit: the music video for Buddy Holly alone won four moonmen at the 1995 MTV Music Awards. Today, Rolling Stone ranks it as one of the 500 greatest albums of all time.
The most interesting thing is that Weezer achieved all its success despite the fact that it didn’t fit traditional expectations for what a “rock band” was at the time. It completely steered clear of the rebellious, “badass” image often associated with their genre, and the resulting clean sound and aesthetic helped Weezer stand out when they started playing at LA’s clubs in the ‘90s.
Through it all, the band’s long-term success anchors itself on one crucial factor: its frontman, Rivers Cuomo. Now one of only two of the band’s remaining original members, his musical knowledge helped drive Weezer forward. But who exactly is he, and where is he now?
Rivers Cuomo’s lasting impact
Cuomo was born and raised in New York, where he helped form his first project—the glam metal band Avant Garde—in 1989. The group eventually moved to LA but broke up the following year. Cuomo then began balancing industry experience with schoolwork, working as a roadie for the band Kingsize while in college. That led him to Tower Records and Patrick Wilson, who eventually became Weezer’s drummer. During this time, he ran into more alternative musical influences like Nirvana and moved away from metal, feeling that doing so helped him feel more authentic as a singer. By 1992, Weezer was born—and the band’s beloved debut release, fondly known as the Blue Album, came out two years later. Though the Blue Album definitely made waves, it didn’t guarantee immediate success for the band. Weezer’s songwriting—mostly provided by Cuomo—particularly took a hit after he got leg surgery in 1995 and constantly required painkillers. Around the same time, his eyesight also started affecting his ability to play. In 2009, Weezer canceled the rest of its tour after Cuomo sustained serious injuries from a road accident. However, he didn’t let these incidents stop the band from moving forward.
Today, he uses more than four kinds of eyewear, including prescription eyeglasses. He’s particularly partial to Ray-Ban and is now often seen wearing horn-rimmed frames similar to the RB5228. The RB5228 Ray-Bans are thick enough to accommodate the necessary lenses that help him see better in the studio and on stage—and effectively ensure his eyesight doesn’t get in the way of his work. They also anchor his signature laidback aesthetic: to highlight just how different Weezer is from grungier bands in the genre, Cuomo often fronts the band while wearing more casual tailored button-ups paired with blue jeans. Of late, he’s even been getting them from Ash & Erie, a brand that specifically designs clothes for short men—something that particularly suits him since he still taps out at 5″5 despite the surgery he underwent to elongate and even out the length of his legs.
More importantly, though the band always went on hiatus to facilitate his recovery from major surgeries, he never let his spare time go to waste. After his leg surgery, Cuomo started studying classical composition at Harvard, and that eventually led to the creation of another critically acclaimed album: Pinkerton. “I had this really painful surgical procedure on my leg, which lasted 13 months in all, and it took me to a place, emotionally, where the whole idea of this whole rock opera started to feel too whimsical for where I was emotionally, going through the pain of the procedure,” he shared with Rolling Stone in 2010. “And so I scrapped the whole idea and went to a more serious and dark place.” Today, Cuomo and music critics alike credit Pinkerton with establishing Weezer’s alt-rock legacy by revitalizing the band, giving it a more complex sound, and helping it resonate with more listeners.
Where is Rivers Cuomo now?
In May 2024, Cuomo revealed that he’s never taken a break—even after 30 years with Weezer. Cuomo, Wilson, and their new bandmates recently took Weezer’s fans on The Voyage To The Blue Planet Tour. Finishing with a bang in October, the tour veered off the indie alt-rock track and went straight into sci-fi with what Cuomo called “crazy special effects,” perfect for commemorating the three decades since the Blue Album’s release. Weezer then went on to perform at the 2024 When We Were Young festival alongside other big names like Blink-182 and Panic! at the Disco. Cuomo notes that life on the road is different, and he now regularly meditates, does physical therapy, and plays pickleball to look after his health and well-being between venues. That’s because he doesn’t want to rest anytime soon. “Yeah, we haven’t broken up. That’s one of the things we haven’t tried yet,” he told Men’s Health.
That’s especially so given that Cuomo’s impact continues to inspire today’s most popular artists, with Taylor Swift citing him as one of her musical heroes alongside Blink-182’s Travis Barker and Fall Out Boy’s Pete Wentz. In response, Cuomo offered to help Swift write a rock album in the future. His continuing influence isn’t surprising: the singer also told Men’s Health that Weezer’s music didn’t resonate with adults in the ‘90s—instead, it was a hit with kids as young as 10. “And for some reason, [the Blue Album] (and maybe Weezer in general) have just always resonated with younger people. It’s never gotten much respect from the old guard, or at least from people of our generation.” Cuomo adds that he wants to see how Weezer can use modern digital technologies in its future ventures.
Now, the band is set to come out not with a concert documentary but with what Cuomo calls “a movie movie”—as well as new music, with all signs pointing to Weezer still wanting to prove themselves on a larger scale. “We’ve always had this chip on our shoulder because there are so many giant bands that came out around the same time as us, and we’re trying to catch up to them, but we still have a little work to do,” Cuomo concluded. “We want to get to stadiums, too.”