Dweezil Zappa

I have what might not be a unique perspective but what has certainly shown itself to be a rarer perspective on the Zappas in that I grew up listening to Dweezil Zappa’s My Guitar Wants To Kill Your Mama record having no idea that Frank Zappa even existed. It wasn’t til later that I realized that Dweezil had a really-famous father who happened to be kind of a total genius. Instead of discovering Dweezil via Frank, I actually got to discover Frank via Dweezil—never more so than I have since Dweezil has been doing Zappa Plays Zappa.

Dweezil has been doing Zappa Plays Zappa since 2006 using various incarnations of the band, occasionally even using Terry Bozzio and Steve Vai as guests. Dweezil brings Frank’s music to life in the live environment as only Dweezil could—and check this out: in almost nearly every city that ZPZ visits on tour, Dweezil is giving a “Dweezilla Masterclass” – a class designed for Dweezil to share all the techniques he was forced to learn in order to bring his dad’s music to the stage. Talk about paying it forward.

Tone Report recently had the honor of meeting up with Dweezil to take a look at the rig he is using nightly to bring Frank’s music to life—and some of it just might surprise you. To the un-initiated, you should know that Dweezil is a brilliant musical mind—which you’ll probably figure out when you see his uber-versatile rig.