Stephen “tWitch’ Boss had been twitching his whole life. Boss just could not stand still. That’s how he got his famous moniker. Because not even school or church could keep him in a chair, those close to him started calling him “Twitch,” The New York Times reported. “It remains very hard for me to sit still today, especially when music is playing,” Boss explained in a 2015 interview with Kam Williams. “I had trouble in school because I didn’t want to focus. Honestly, I would have rather been dancing.”
But the word was used sporadically throughout his adolescence. It wasn’t until he was 20 that Boss adopted the nickname. And before he did, he applied it to his car. Boss’ first ride, a 1992 Toyota Paseo, also seemingly couldn’t stand still for long. “[It] would accelerate on its own sometimes,” Boss told AL.com in 2013. Twitch the Toyota became a key part of Boss’ early career as a dancer.
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So it made sense to dedicate his stage name to his car. “A lot of my dance knowledge and a lot of my dance thoughts took place in that car,” the Alabama native explained. “Driving from place to place. Whether it was to Huntsville, Tuscaloosa, Bessemer, Birmingham, whatever. I’d choreograph in the car.” Boss never regretted working his childhood nickname into his career. “It’s a part of my being. It’s become part of my persona, when it comes to dance,” he told Williams.
