TERRY BOZZIO in ARGENTINA
MY ENCOUNTER WITH THE DEVIL!
by Marcelo Gasió
Terry Ted Bozzio was in Buenos Aires, Argentina between the 10th to the 12th of October 1993 for a clinic/exhibition sponsored by the Boston College of Music.
Terry came sponsored by Paiste Cymbals. He played during 80 minutes Sunday night, all alone with his drums. He also answered some questions, mostly referred to technical matters, Steve Vai, and of course FZ! He spent the next two evenings signing autographs. This was a great opportunity to approach him. Asked for an interview, he agreed immediately (being he SO CUTE!).
The following is what he had to said:
Q: I’ve heard you have a new band, The Lonely Bears, you have two CDs out and there is a third one coming.
TB: Yes. When I was going on my way on the Jeff Beck european tour, Tony Hymas had a problem with the drummer, who’d just got divorced, so he couldn’t make this gig that Tony was playing. It was called Oiate, it was a festival in Paris, for Banlieues Bleues, which is a jazz festival that takes about a month, and Tony had done a project with all these American chiefs, ethnic music and sort of Tony’s music mixed together, and he needed a drummer. So, he said please come a day early and play. So I played, and read the music, and helped them out. The director of this record company called NATO in Paris said "why don’t you put a band together, you four people from this orchestra", because there was about twenty people and then all American Indians. So we put this band together, called The Lonely Bears, and we played some festivals & some clubs in Paris, and then recorded. We made 3 albums.
Q: Why are they independently distributed?
TB: The director of NATO is the producer, empresario, musician, patron of the arts. And when it comes to the business part he doesn’t get it quite together. His motives are not in making money. From my part it bothers me because, you know, you have to have a balance. He is more concerned with art than with making money. So I said to him recently, Jean, you basically have no distribution outside of Paris. Can I buy the records from you wholesale and sell them to people who know who I am? He said yes. So now, I’m trying to form my own mail order business, like Zappa does.
Q: Do you consider yourself a session player?
TB: No.
Q: But you’ve done session work.
TB: Yes, I do session work. But I consider myself this way: I have skill on the one hand and if somebody hires me and I need the money I’ll play whatever. I can play damn near any style, and at the end of the day I take the money and my wife and my child eat, and everything is ok. But in my heart I want to do my own music. So, I have a solo project that it’s halfway done, I have a solo drum project which I’m very involved with. I have my video (a 3-volume drum clinic sponsored by Paiste). I have a band with David Thorn & Mick Karn with an album that will be released soon. This music is incredible. It’s and incredible band and I can’t wait to tour behind it. My definition of a band is unconditional acceptance of everybody in the band and their ideas.
Q: That’s why you quit Steve Vai.
TB: Yes. Steve Vai doesn’t understand me. He wants to be like Frank. But he IS NOT Frank. And he can’t hire me like Frank hired me and tell me exactly what to play and expect me to be happy. I did that 15 years ago with Frank. I’m not a sideman anymore. So, it’s my pleasure to play with Steve on his record and to get my fee. But I’m not going to tour behind it.
Q: You’ve played different styles, like pop new-wave with the Missing Persons, symphonic rock with UK, hard rock with Vai, and so forth. How do you adjust to each circumstance? Are you always you?
TB: Yes, I’m always me, but I’m always changing, like a flower or a tree grows in different ways. I’ve evolved. But to put Missing Persons before UK is a mistake. Zappa & UK were sideman gigs. I didn’t have much for choice in the music. With Missing Persons was the first time that I had a choice. I wrote most of the music, and I arranged it. We were trying to be commercial. We were trying to make money.
Q: That was the whole idea of the project.
TB: Yes.
Q: And how did you feel signing with a major record company, with all the experience with Zappa about getting screwed, etc.
TB: In a certain respect I felt I had to compromise, but in another respect I felt I wanted to do that. We had to play the game and we couldn’t do it all ourselves. We had done it all ourselves in order to get signed, and we knew how hard it was. And I wasn’t that well known. At this point of my life I’m not so concerned about making money or being famous, you know. I feel I have a certain amount of credibility. And a certain amount of people is going to buy what I do, if I’m with a popular band or not. I haven’t been with a popular band since I played with Jeff Beck 3 or 4 years ago and yet I’m still accepted all over the world as a drummer. So, at this point all I want to do is bring out of my heart what is me and do the best I can at it, either in a band or as a drummer with my solo music, and sell it to people who know who I am and are interested in it. If I can spread it a little bit, fine; but I am not interested in being a pop star or something.
Q: After you quit the Zappa band, you only kept participating as a singer. Why?
TB: Because I love Frank, and...
Q: But you never played again.
TB: Well, he had Collaiuta and lots of people who can play. Frank has asked me to play with him since then, but the demand to play with Frank Zappa is 100%. And I want to be LIKE Frank Zappa. I don’t want to work FOR Frank Zappa. So he understands this.
Q: And how do you feel about this Scott Thunes vs. rest of the band controversy?
TB: I don’t know anything about it. Scott is a very hyper personality. I don’t really know what happened between them. Let me just say that Scott is a musical genius. He is very well trained and understands very much about music, but he is a little bit hyper, so perhaps his personality got a really bit unruly for the rest.
Q: After you passed the audition, who taught you how to play the songs?
TB: Me. I had to listen to tapes and Frank gave me millions of charts.
Q: Does he write the drum parts?
TB: Yeah! Very difficult drum parts. Some, like The Black Page, are completely written out, every note I play.
Q: But I assume he didn’t write the part for "The Illinois Enema Bandit"!
TB: Well, there are three different ways Frank works. One is totally by ear, like "Illinois Enema Bandit". He makes the riff, says "do this riff", Ok, then another riff, then goes another section, then he goes, play like blues, now do this. And we worked for three months and every day we rehearse it he changed it. The other way is, he writes something completely, like classical music. Every note played is written out, like The Black Page, parts of the Purple Lagoon, parts of Manx needs women, Approximate, things like these. Then there are others things that are charts, where the rhythm is written out, and the bars are written out. Like, say the Black Page number 2. Some of the rhythms were written out, and other parts I improvised and I make out my own beats. So a drum chart is a skeleton, you know, as oppose to a completely flashed out piece of music.
Q: Being the music so complicated, how many mistakes could you, meaning any member of the band, make per show?
TB:
You might make one or two. But for the most part, everybody who stays with Zappa fairly
long has a consistency. And I found that I developed a consistency where I would almost
never make mistakes. There were some nights when I was tired and things that I didn’t
think were important, I would make mistakes on. For instance, when we were in Europe,
Zappa would give everybody a hand signal, and this would mean for us to say a special
word, and the word changed everyday.
Q: The secret word for tonight!
TB: Yes, "the secret word for tonight". And I could never remember my secret word! When you are thinking about playing all this difficult music, the last you are thinking about is to go whatever your secret word was. I forgot my word two or three times in a row, so he stopped giving me my secret word!
Q: If you have to criticize Frank, what would you criticize him for?
TB: My only criticism of Frank is... personally I think his mixes are not to my taste. I think a lot of the music he writes and creates is amazing, but sometimes I would much rather hear someone else mix it.
Q: What do you think about Thingfish?
TB: I haven’t really heard it. Is that the one with Harry & Rhonda?
Q: Yes (!)
TB: I don’t know. I know I heard it once.
Q: And it was enough!
TB: Well, you know, it’s not really music. For my part it was just like being an actor. I went to visit Frank one night and he handed me the script and said, "here, read this". So I started to read it.
Q: Do you know what actually happened between him and Herb Cohen?
TB: All I know is they were 50-50 partners, and with Frank’s money, Herb formed a company which rented out Frank’s PA and bought PAs and trucks and things like these. And we got to Europe expecting our PA system to be there. But it come without warns, and drivers & crossovers. So Herb had taken parts of Frank’s PA, put in another PA, put it out on the road with Earth, Wind & Fire or somebody to make money and sent his own artist a PA system that wasn’t ready to go. And that was fucked. And he had done this with 30,000 dollars of Frank's money, which was a lot of money in the early 70s. So Frank was furious, and fired Herb, sued him, and sued Warner Bros. Then Warner Bros. had possession of 3 of Frank’s records and they put out those 3 records, Studio Tan, Sleep Dirt & Orchestral Favorites, with no credits and lousy artwork. And Frank was very very depressed during that whole time.
Q: How’s his health?
TB: Not good. He can’t work a lot. He has good days and bad days. I try to see him once a week, and hang out with him.
Q: Has his attitude towards life changed? I mean, his relationship with friends and relatives; the way he looks at things.
TB: I don’t talk to him enough on that personal level. With Frank I’ve never discussed feelings like that, you know. The things we talk about are music and humorous things. When I found he was sick I called him up and said "Frank, I can’t tell you; you’ve been a major influence in my life. I go around and I do drum clinics and I make a living telling people how I got in your band, telling them stories". I don’t want to sound like a Sammy Davis tribute, you know. (Laughs)
(photo: Terry with Marcelo during autograph session)
Q: Do you still meet Patrick O’Hearn or Warren Cucurullo?
TB: Yeah, Patrick is my best friend. I speak with him all the time. Hopefully we are doing some work together. I’ve worked on two of his movies, one just come out called "Fatherhood". Recently I went to see Warren about a month or so ago with Duran Duran in LA. I’m very happy for his success with them. We are not as close, but I love Warren.
Q: Despite his wardrobe!
TB: Oh, Warren’s always had a wardrobe!
I want to express my thanks to Terry for his time & to Rich Mangicaro (from Paiste Cymbals) for his support. You can visit Terry Bozzio's Official Page clicking here.