HOLLYWOOD (CNS) - A star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame will be unveiled today honoring Grammy-winning song parodist “Weird Al” Yankovic.
Disc jockey Dr. Demento and actor Thomas Lennon are set to join Yankovic in speaking at the 11:30 a.m. ceremony across from the TCL Chinese Theatres on Hollywood Boulevard.
Yankovic was a shy, accordion-playing 16-year-old attending Lynwood High School when Dr. Demento spoke at his school. Yankovic gave him a homemade tape of original and parody songs performed on the accordion in Yankovic's bedroom into a tape recorder.
The tape's first song, “Belvedere Cruisin' “ about his family's Plymouth Belvedere was played on Dr. Demento's comedy radio show, launching Yankovic's career.
The star is the 2,643rd since the completion of the Walk of Fame in 1961 with the first 1,558 stars. The ceremony will be livestreamed on walkoffame.com.
Born Alfred Matthew Yankovic on Oct. 23, 1959, in Downey, Yankovic won his first Grammy in 1984 for best comedy recording for “Eat It,” a parody of Michael Jackson's “Beat It” that reached No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Yankovic won his second Grammy in 1988 for best concept music video for “I'm Fat.”
Yankovic won best comedy album Grammys in 2003 for “Poodle Hat” and 2014 for “Mandatory Fun,” the first comedy album to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard Top 200 chart.
“Word Crimes,” a single from “Mandatory Fun,” debuted in the Billboard Top 40, making him one of four artists to have had Top 40 singles in each of the last four decades along with Michael Jackson, Madonna and U2.
Yankovic has 11 other Grammy nominations.
Yankovic's other memorable songs include “Like a Surgeon,” “My Bologna," “Another One Rides the Bus," “Smells Like Nirvana” and “I Lost on Jeopardy.”
Yankovic wrote and starred in the 1989 film comedy “UHF” and created and starred in the 1997 CBS Saturday morning children's series, “The Weird Al Show.”
Yankovic authored the children's books “When I Grow Up” and “My New Teacher and Me!” in 2011 and 2013 and an illustrated hardcover on his life and career, “Weird Al: The Book” in 2012.