Rivers Cuomo

Rivers Cuomo (pronounced /ˈkwoʊmoʊ/; born June 13, 1970) is an American musician, best known as the lead singer, lead guitarist, and principal songwriter of the alternative rock band Weezer. In addition to fronting Weezer, Cuomo has also worked as a solo artist. In December 2007, he released his debut album, Alone: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo, which featured home demos that Cuomo recorded from 1992–2007. He released his second solo artist album, Alone II: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo, in November 2008. Alone III: The Pinkerton Years is scheduled for release in March 2011. Cuomo was born in a Manhattan hospital to parents of Italian and German/English descent and raised on an ashram run by the late yoga master Sri Swami Satchidananda in Pomfret, Connecticut. His mother, Beverly, was inspired to name her son "Rivers" because he was born between the East and Hudson rivers in Manhattan. Her appreciation of the sound of running water further reinforced her desire for this name. His father, Frank Cuomo, was a musician who played drums on the album Odyssey of Iska by jazz saxophonist Wayne Shorter. During his early childhood Cuomo attended a private school on an ashram farm  where his parents raised him and his brother Leaves. Cuomo's parents moved to nearby Storrs, Connecticut when the ashram (known as Yogaville) was relocated to a plot of land along the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia. Cuomo attended E.O. Smith High School in Storrs, Connecticut under the name Peter Kitts, Santa Monica College,Berklee College of Music, and Harvard University, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa. In high school, Cuomo played the role of Johnny Casino in the stage production of Grease.