Dweezil Zappa: Guitar Odyssey

Dweezil Zappa:

“LISTEN TO MY FATHER’S GUITAR PLAYING and how far he progressed from Freak Out to Roxy and Elsewhere,” says Dweezil Zappa. “Frank evolved in leaps and bounds in less than ten years. The amount of growth was insane.” The younger Zappa, now 41, could just as easily be talking about his own progression as a guitarist. Nearly five years after the inception of Zappa Plays Zappa (detailed in the August 2006 GP cover story), Dweezil Zappa has continued to retool his own guitar playing to near “lobotomy” proportions. Not only to be able to handle the elder Zappa’s ridiculously complex tunes, but also to understand and convey his old man’s highly personal, and filthy-beautiful guitar stylings. During it all, ZPZ has won a Grammy (“Peaches En Regalia” won Best Instrumental Rock performance in 2009) and enjoyed a more-than-robust touring schedule to boot. Not bad, especially considering that Zappa wasn’t sure about the band’s prospects starting out.

“We’ve toured twice a year for the past five years with probably 100 shows a year,” explains Zappa, fresh off a two-month, 47- show jag that took ZPZ to Japan, Israel, and the U.K. among many others. “But in the beginning, we didn’t know if we would be successful enough initially to keep on doing this, so in the band’s first year we really honed in on the period of my dad’s music between ’73-’79,” says Zappa. “I figured if it was a one-shot deal, I might as well focus on the music that I grew up loving the most.” more