Dweezil Zappa

Dweezil Zappa
Dweezil Zappa in Denmark with Zappa Plays Zappa, October 13, 2007
Background information
Birth name	Ian Donald Calvin Euclid Zappa
Born	September 5, 1969 (1969-09-05) (age 42)
Origin	Los Angeles, California, United States
Genres	Rock, hard rock, heavy metal, instrumental rock,
Instruments	Guitar, Vocals, Bass, Piano, Banjo
Years active	1986–present
Associated acts	Frank Zappa Ahmet Zappa Extreme Ozzy Osbourne Spinal Tap Steve Vai Warren DeMartini Zappa Plays Zappa Dream Theater Winger
Website	Official website
Notable instruments
Gibson SG Hagström Viking Eric Johnson Stratocaster

Dweezil Zappa (born September 5, 1969) is an American rock guitarist and occasional actor.

Early life

Zappa was born in Los Angeles, California, the son of musician Frank Zappa and Adelaide Gail Sloatman, who worked in business.^[1] He is the second of four siblings: his older sister, Moon, younger sister Diva and younger brother Ahmet. He is the cousin of actress Lala Sloatman.^[2] Zappa's father was of Sicilian, Greek, Arab and French descent and his mother was of Danish, French, Irish and Portuguese ancestry.^[3]

Dweezil's registered birth name was Ian Donald Calvin Euclid Zappa.^[4] The hospital at which he was born refused to register him under the name Dweezil, so Frank listed the names of several musician friends. "Dweezil" was a nickname coined by Frank for an oddly-curled pinky-toe of Gail's. At five years old, Dweezil learned that his legal name was different, and he insisted on having his nickname become his legal name. Gail and Frank hired an attorney and soon the name Dweezil was official.^[5]

Career

In the 1980s, Zappa worked as an MTV VJ and was promptly fired after badmouthing MTV on The Howard Stern Show. He also recorded some solo albums, as well as playing for other artists. Zappa can be heard playing lead guitar on The Fat Boys "Wipe Out" (1987) and can be seen in the music video for Don Johnson's top 40 song, "Heartbeat". He also played co-lead guitar (along with Reb Beach) on Winger's cover of Jimi Hendrix's "Purple Haze". Dweezil has said that Eddie Van Halen was his favorite guitar player, and he began copying Van Halen's distinctive guitar style. He also had a part in the futuristic Arnold Schwarzenegger film The Running Man as Stevie ("Don't touch that dial!"), and gave his most famous cameo role in John Hughes's Brat Pack film, Pretty in Pink (starring Molly Ringwald), as Andie's friend, Simon.

Since the early 1990s, Zappa has been working on a piece of music named "What the Hell Was I Thinking?", a 75-minute piece featuring guitar solos by dozens of famous guitar players. The project has suffered from numerous difficulties and has been reworked several times since the '90s. Dweezil said in September 2004:^[6] "I started recording it on analog tape almost 13 years ago... There are probably about 35 guest guitar players on it, everybody from Brian May to Eddie Van Halen, Eric Johnson, Angus and Malcolm Young — it's quite a crazy project. I'm still waiting and hoping to record Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page as some of my final guests on there."^[6]

In the mid 1990s, Zappa voiced the character Ajax Duckman on the animated series Duckman. He also briefly appeared in the television sitcom Normal Life with sister Moon Unit Zappa and former Laverne & Shirley star Cindy Williams. He composed and performed the theme music for The Ben Stiller Show (the solo from Spinal Tap's "Break Like the Wind"). In 1999, Dweezil, alongside his brother, Ahmet, starred in a television series called Happy Hour which debuted April 3, 1999 on the USA Network. The show lasted for one season.

Dweezil Zappa performing on the "Zappa Plays Zappa" tour in 2006.

In "Weird Al" Yankovic's 2003 eleventh studio album Poodle Hat, Zappa performs the opening guitar solo and lends his vocal talents to the track, "Genius in France". In 2006, Zappa organized the "Zappa Plays Zappa" tour. He assembled a band of young musicians with a view to bring the music of Frank Zappa to a younger audience. The tour also featured guest appearances by Steve Vai, Napoleon Murphy Brock and Terry Bozzio. The tour began in Europe in May with dates in the U.S. from June. After a break it continued in the U.S. on October 18, 2006. The 2007 version of the tour ran from July, finishing in Australia in early December, and featured Ray White as special guest. The shows ended with the promise: "There are so many songs we want to learn to play ... see y'all next year ...", and further tours have followed each year since 2007.^[7]

Dweezil Zappa at Bluesfest 2008 in Ottawa

Personal life

For six years, Zappa dated musician Lisa Loeb. Zappa and Loeb wrote and performed music together, and Zappa toured with Loeb's band. The couple co-hosted the cooking show Dweezil & Lisa on Food Network in 2004. The couple broke up in the summer of 2004.^{[citation needed]}

Zappa married fashion stylist Lauren Knudsen on September 3, 2005 in Los Angeles. They have two daughters: Zola Frank Zappa (born 2006) and Ceylon Indira Zappa (born 2008).^[8][9] In March 2010 Knudsen filed for divorce in L.A. County Superior Court. According to the documents, she cited irreconcilable differences and applied to share legal custody of the two daughters.^[10]

Musical equipment

Guitars

• Gibson SG - Custom built to replicate his father's SG (the replica is so accurate that it is often mistaken for Frank's original guitar by fans).
• Hagström Viking - Modified with an extra switch which changes the tone.^[11]
• Custom PRS - Built with materials chosen by Zappa for their "naturally occurring oddities".^[12]
• Eric Johnson Fender Stratocaster - Custom fitted with a piezo pickup.^[13]
• Fender Stratocaster - Originally used and burned by Jimi Hendrix and given to Dweezil's father.
• Babysnake SG - Luthier built guitar with onboard effects originally owned by his father.
• Gibson Les Paul - Late 70's early 80's model with onboard effects and coiltaps.
• Gibson ES-5 Switchmaster - Originally used during his father's early career. It was heavily modified with various onboard effects, the functions of some being a mystery.
• Moser SG - Used as a backup for his Gibson SG.

Effects

Some of the effects were originally in his father's setup and were restored for use in the Zappa plays Zappa project.

DBX 162 Stereo Compressor[14] Freekish Blues - Betty Boost (Clean Boost/Overdrive) Freekish Blues - Freek Out! (Fuzz) Freekish Blues - Coily Fuzz Eventide 949 Harmonizer Eventide Delay MicMix Dynaflanger x2 Aphex Expressor Compressor Axess Electronics MIDI Foot controller Mutron Bi-Phase

Systech Harmonic Energizer Chandler Delay Afro Fuzz Real Octavia Janglebox Compressor Digitech GSP 1101 Native Instruments Guitar Rig[15] Sound Sculpture Switchblade system[16] Fractal Audio Systems Axe-Fx[17] Performance Guitar - Jumbo Foot - Parametric Eq

Amplifiers

Acoustic 270 amplifier Peavey Wiggy[18] Cornford MK 5011[16] Cornford MK 50H Cornford RK 100 Cornford 4x12 Cabinet (One regular and one from the RK series.) Blankenship Leeds 18w

Fender Super-Sonic head Fender Cyber-Twin SE Fender '65 Twin Reverb Fender G-DEC Fractal Audio Systems Axe-Fx Fuchs Tripledrive Supreme Red Wirez Guitar Cabinet IR files

Discography

Solo

• 1982 - My Mother Is a Space Cadet
• 1986 - Havin' a Bad Day
• 1988 - My Guitar Wants to Kill Your Mama
• 1991 - Confessions
• 2000 - Automatic
• 2006 - Go with What You Know

With Ahmet Zappa

• 1994 - Shampoohorn
• 1996 - Music For Pets

With Zappa Plays Zappa

• 2008 - Zappa Plays Zappa
• 2010 - Return Of The Son Of...
• 2011 - In The Moment

Guest appearances

• 1984 - Guitar solos "Sharleena" and "Stevie's Spanking" on Frank Zappa's Them or Us
• 1984 - Guitar on Frank Zappa's You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. 3 (album) on "Sharleena"^[19]
• 1985 - Vocals on Frank Zappa's Frank Zappa Meets the Mothers of Prevention
• 1986 - Guitar solo on "Whipping Post" on Frank Zappa's Does Humor Belong in Music?'
• 1988 - Winger on "Purple Haze"
• 1989 - With sister Moon Unit, contributed the track "(In Love) With You Gumby" to the novelty album Gumby
• 1990 - Opening and outro solos on Extreme's Pornograffitti on the song "He-Man Woman Hater"^[20]
• 1992 - Lead guitar on "Diva Fever" on Spinal Tap's Break Like the Wind
• 1993 - Lead guitar on "Dirty Love" and "Chunga's Revenge" on Zappa's Universe tribute
• 1994 - Barks on the track "Waffenspiel" on Frank Zappa's Civilization Phaze III
• 1997 - Guitar solo on Pat Boone's cover of "Smoke on the Water" (the No More Mr. Nice Guy album)
• 2000 - Guitar on Dixie Dregs's California Screamin CD performing "Peaches en Regalia"
• 2001 - 911, on "Top of the World"
• 2003 - "Weird Al" Yankovic's Poodle Hat album, on "Genius In France"
• 2006 - Lead guitar on "Chunga's Revenge" and "Bavarian Sunset" on Frank Zappa's Trance-Fusion

References

1. ^ Dweezil Zappa Biography (1969-)
2. ^ "Lala Sloatman at IMDB". http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0806080/. Retrieved ?2007-08-06. 
3. ^ Miles, Barry (2004). Zappa. Grove Press. pp. 124. ISBN 080211783X. http://books.google.com/books?id=2pPgG9AXjN4C&printsec=frontcover. 
4. ^ These were the names of Frank Zappa's musicians and associates Ian Underwood, Don van Vliet, Calvin Schenkel and Euclid James "Motorhead" Sherwood; see "What are the names of Frank Zappa's kids?". http://www.science.uva.nl/~robbert/zappa/faq/main/main-2.html#ss2.4. Retrieved 2007-08-06. .
5. ^ Zappa, Frank; Occhiogrosso, Peter (1990), The real Frank Zappa book, Simon & Schuster, p. 254, ISBN 0-671-70572-5, http://books.google.com/books?id=7lqfAAAAMAAJ& , Snippet view page 245
6. ^ ^{a b} James, Daniel (September 2004). "Dweezil Zappa: 64-bit Computing & The Frank Zappa Archive". Sound on Sound. http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/sep04/articles/zappa.htm. Retrieved 2008-02-20. 
7. ^ http://www.zappaplayszappa.com/tourdates.html
8. ^ Edler, Molly Snyder (2007-06-17). "Dweezil and Frank reunite in "Zappa Plays Zappa"". Archived from the original on 2008-06-15. http://web.archive.org/web/20080615031626/http://zappa.com/zpz/clippings_onmilwaukee.html. Retrieved 2008-02-20. 
9. ^ Zappa, Dweezil (2008-06-06). "On the road again/Dyna Flangers". http://www.zappa.com/zpz/tourlog/index.php?year=2008&month=6&day=6. Retrieved 2009-04-13. 
10. ^ "Lauren Knudsen Leaves Dweezil Zappa: Pictures". http://www.zimbio.com/Lauren+Knudsen/articles/-6lRt-JTXZf/Lauren+Knudsen+Leaves+Dweezil+Zappa+Pictures. 
11. ^ Hagström - Dweezil Zappa
12. ^ PRS artists - Dweezil Zappa
13. ^ Artist: Dweezil Zappa Fender.com Retrieved: 2009-05-17
14. ^ In the Studio with... Dweezil Zappa Guitarworld.com Retrieved: 2009-05-17
15. ^ http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=0gqCtPcN5NE
16. ^ ^{a b} http://www.fuzz.se/main.asp?go=8&src=&sgo=0&am=1&aid=425
17. ^ Fractal Audio artist - Dweezil Zappa
18. ^ "DWEEZIL ZAPPA ON THE WIGGY WORKS.(guitar amplifier)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)". Guitar Player. 2001-11-01. http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-10228680_ITM. 
19. ^ NOTE: although recorded 12-23-84, the above version of "Sharleena" was first released as a 7" flexidisc in the Jan 1987 issue of Guitar Player magazine.
20. ^ cdUniverse.com - Extreme II: Pornograffitti CD

http://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=4294

External links

• Dweezil Zappa's website
• Dweezil Zappa at the Internet Movie Database
• 2008 Dweezil Zappa interview with Jon Niccum
• December 2010 interview with Tom Waring

Persondata
Name	Zappa, Dweezil
Alternative names	Zappa, Ian Donald Calvin Euclid
Short description	Musician, actor
Date of birth	September 5, 1969
Place of birth	Los Angeles, California, United States
Date of death
Place of death