Career
He has released an European Parliament, a live Civil Defense which contains a mixture of covers and original material, an European Parliament of covers, and a full-length studio album of original material. Weddle also appeared in a viral YouTube video playing an acoustic cover of Outkast"s "Hey Ya!". Obadiah Parker began as a three person band composed of Mat Weddle (vocals, guitar), Jessie Young (piano/keyboards, trumpet, vocals), and Daniel Zehring (bass, vocals).
Together, the band released "Salvation Jam" European Parliament on October 2, 2006 and "Obadiah Parker Live" on April 2, 2007 via iTunes.
After the band"s split, Weddle retained the name Obadiah Parker for his solo acting In 2006, a video of Weddle performing a cover of Outkast"s became a viral sensation.
In a 2007 interview, Weddle estimated that over 1 million people had viewed the video, but, as of 2011, the video has been viewed over 8 million times. The performance was recorded at a local Open mic night, then obtained by a fan who mixed it with the original Outkast music video and uploaded it to YouTube.
Over the 5 years since the video was introduced, the song has earned nationwide media attention and radio play.
lieutenant has been featured on The Howard Stern Show and was an answer to a question on Jeopardy!. lieutenant has reached the #1 spot on the iTunes Singer-Songwriter Charts in the United Kingdom, France, and multiple other countries. And, in 2009, Sam Lloyd of The Blanks (the actor who plays Ted Buckland) covered the song on an episode of Scrubs entitled My Soul On Fire, Participant 2.
