terry bozzio tour

Terry Bozzio

Similar artists on tour, bandsintown merch.

Live Photos of Terry Bozzio

Concerts and tour dates, fan reviews.

About Terry Bozzio

Terry Bozzio tour dates

• On tour: No
• Concertful ranking: #3471
• Category: Alternative Rock / Indie

Similar artists on tour

Terry bozzio past concerts.

Top Tours · Just Announced · USA · Europe · 2025 Tours

Terms of Service · Privacy and Cookie Policy · Contact © Concertful

Zappa Drum Legend Terry Bozzio on Touring the World’s Largest Tuned Kit

By Christopher R. Weingarten

Christopher R. Weingarten

Terry Bozzio — one of rock drumming’s most formidable and brain-circuiting forces — is currently touring America, playing solo dates on “the world’s largest tuned drum and percussion set.” Best known as the hurricane behind Frank Zappa’s late-Seventies and early-Eighties work, and the hit-maker behind new wave powerhouse Missing Persons, Bozzio, 63, is hoping to shed his reputation as technical solo shredder. Following successful tours in Europe and Japan, “An Evening With Terry Bozzio,” is the first time he’s touring a melodic solo percussion performance in North America — hitting 40 dates, playing on two-and-a-half octaves of tuned tom-toms and eight notes of bass drum. We caught up with him to ask the drumming legend exactly how he’s lugging this thing across America.

How are you doing? Man, I’m in hell right now!

Do tell… I’m on my way to San Diego for the first gig of the big tour here and we snapped a serpentine belt in my SUV, so we’re trying to find a garage to fix it in and make the gig on time.

So, wait, are you doing this tour in your own SUV? Yeah, I always do that. We tow a trailer with my drums — it’s me, my wife, and my tech — and that’s how we do it.

So this is your first solo tour of America doing this? Yeah. Essentially for me, personally, it’s like doing same thing, different day; it’s just packaging. My problem’s always been how to market myself, so now I have a booking agent and a press guy who’s come to bat for me and they believes in me. The idea of a solo drummer is a difficult thing to get across to people. They think of the thrashing and bashing of a typical rock-concert drum solo. And what I do is not that [ laughs ]. So, basically, I’ve been doing the same type of playing under the guise of a drum and cymbal commercial for 25 years — maybe 30 years now — for Sabian or Drum Workshop drums. And what I’m doing now is taking it to a more public level.

Editor’s picks

The 250 greatest guitarists of all time, the 500 greatest albums of all time, the 50 worst decisions in movie history, every awful thing trump has promised to do in a second term.

It certainly got our attention more than a drum clinic would… So, what I do, is my drums are tuned to chromatic and diatonic pitches and I have, I guess, I have two and a half, three octaves or so of notes to play on the toms. And then I have the eight different white notes of the piano as my bass drums. So I’m able to accompany myself much the same way a pianist would — with his left hand playing the bass notes and the right hand soloing against it. And that’s how I approach the drum-set. It’s very melodic, it’s compositional — it’s also improvisational — but I improvise in a compositional matter, it’s not just patterns and shredding and crap that you go, “Man, this guy does that perfectly. If on only if it meant something, you know?” L.A., it seems, has a glut of those kind of players that are just really enviable in their technique but don’t really say much, or maybe they don’t want to something that would make a producer not hire them for a session. So, for myself, it’s a pretty much a complete musical statement on the drums, and it doesn’t lose the primitive and the bashing and that fiery rock stuff that happens on the drum set. Otherwise, I’d just be a pianist or a marimba player.

It’s kind of a neat thing that it’s happened this year in the States because this is the 50th anniversary of my first drum lesson. It’s kind of neat how life and fate all work together, and here I am sitting in a broken car, sweating, hoping I’ll make the first gig. [ laughs ]

What’s amazing is that you have   one   drum tech to help set this behemoth up. It seems like it would take an army. I’m really into design and efficiency. I do this myself without a tech, sometimes, and I watch my techs suffer through certain things that I haven’t prepared properly. So, it’s a real efficient machine: The rack comes apart in several pieces but just rides on top of the cases in the back of the trailer. So, you could load that in, put in on a carpet that’s already marked, and it goes up in about five minutes. Then you just pop on the drums, pop on the cymbal booms, and the kit’s pretty much there.

The latest innovation is I have 22 pedals all attached to linkages and different bass drums and hi-hats that are remote — they’re out where I can’t play them directly. The pedal part’s by my foot and the beater part is out by the bass drum, six feet away. And these 22 pedals all have to be attached and tweaked every day so they don’t interfere with each other and they feel right. I just built these templates — so just by setting three templates down, all 22 pedals are ready to be connected. So things like that makes it go fast.

Normani Unleashes First ‘Dopamine’ Single ‘1:59’ Featuring Gunna

Elle king cuts loose on her 'baby daddy's weekend' in new song, the 14 best smartphone accessories for making better tiktok videos.

You have the kit details on your website from 2012 — have you added or subtracted from that kit? I think that one’s my Japanese kit. I have three of these big kits: one here, one in Europe, and one in Japan. They’re all a little bit different, and they all look really cool, and they’re a structural statements in and of themselves, but they do follow a function: putting instruments as close as possible to me so that I can play in a relaxed fashion. It is probably is the largest  practical  drum set in the world. There’s guys in the Guinness Book of World Records that have larger drum sets. I’m not really interested in the circus act part of it at all.

So you can say that you will use every piece on this kit at some point?   Some nights, I might not hit certain things or do certain things, but within a week, I will have used everything [ laughs ].

You can see the footage of you 40 years ago with Zappa, and the kits are big, but they’re not enormous. When did you fall in love with the idea of building this giant sculpture? When I started to develop that electronic kit that I got the patents for in the Eighties and played on the second Missing Persons tour, I had 36 or 32 sounds in this one little three-foot bar in front of me. I got used to having all those things. And when I went back to playing acoustic, I started to add bells and some hi-hats and different things, but I was missing from the electronic kit. 

Then someone called me and said, “Do you want to do clinics?” Ashamedly, I said yeah, OK ’cause I need the money and I kind of failed as a singer/pop artist and trying to be like Phil Collins. And during the time, I was depressed and started practicing. It was like a meditation, like a therapy for me. I kept thinking, “Why am I practicing? I’m already a good enough drummer that I’m almost alienating others in the music business by it. If I start practicing and getting better,  nobody’s  going to hire me.” So I began this thing of doing the clinics and working with the different companies, you find that, “Oh, Remo’s rototom castings, if you take them apart, you can use them as this really weird-sounding hi-hat” and I still use those. I had DW build me a take-off on the double pedal and I had them reverse the machinery so that the pedals was near me and the beater would be hitting a remote bass drum. And that stretched into using some big China hi-hats to kind of get a  grancassa e piatti  marching sound, you know? So I had remote hi-hats. Then when I went to the rack, you get rid of all these tripods and you put the drums on a rack and you go, “Man, I’ve got room for this and this and this under here.” And so before you know it, you just start adding whatever you can when you hear a sound in your head that you think would be a cool addition to some music that you’re trying to play. So it was really an evolution… There’s a great drummer by the name of Jojo Mayer and he’s from Switzerland and he’s got this thick kind of Swiss/German accent, and he goes,  “Bozzio, every time I see you, your drum set, it’s growing like a fungus, man.”  [ laughs ]

Billie Eilish Would Like to Reintroduce Herself

Kanye west announces 'yeezy porn' amid reports of adult film company, neil young stuns at 2024 tour launch, unveils lost 'cortez the killer' verse, billie eilish says 'self-pleasure' helps her feel 'empowered and comfortable' in her body.

You’re getting away from the clinic ideas and expressing yourself musically, but when most people explain who you are, they mostly point to the technical aspect of “The Black Page,” the highly complex piece Zappa wrote specifically for you. Is that weird? I mean, people say shit all the time, man; I don’t pay much attention to it. I’ve played now with some of the best drummers in the world… And Miles [Davis] and Joe [Zawinul] are dead, so I don’t choke much due to someone I want to impress being in the audience. Well, OK, I don’t know anything about brain surgery. So if you imagine the greatest brain surgeons talking about this one brain surgeon and how cool he is, what the hell would I know about that? So “The Black Page” is kind of the same thing to musicians or drummers – they don’t know about things like that. I always say, “Hell, Chad Wackerman and Vinnie Colaiuta had played way more difficult stuff than “The Black Page” right after I left Zappa.

I don’t want to not use it as a promotional device and as a feather in my cap; I’m not belittling it at all. And the compliments Zappa gave me around it, were, you know, really wonderful. Him saying, “You’re a fuckin’ genius,” when I played it for him really correctly one night with feeling and everything he needed. That kind of stuff, I carry with me. That’s meaningful. Yeah, so that’s how I feel about “The Black Page.” Really glad I got to do it and honored and all, but music is the most important thing — not technique.

Christine and the Queens Unveils Evocative Single 'Rentrer Chez Moi'

• By Emily Zemler

Zendaya Says She Would Consider Releasing New Music: 'Maybe One Day'

• Coming Soon?

Eminem Announces New LP 'The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grace)'

• Murder He Wrote
• By Charisma Madarang

Elle King Cuts Loose on Her 'Baby Daddy's Weekend' in New Song

• 'Raise a Cup'
• By Kory Grow

Most Popular

Anne hathaway says 'gross' chemistry test in the 2000s required her to make out with 10 guys: that's the 'worst way to do it' and 'now we know better', 'the lord of the rings' trilogy returning to theaters, remastered and extended, first queen elizabeth ii memorial statue unveiled, with a smile and three corgis, in england, sources claim hugh jackman’s worrying behavior may have something to do with his breakup, you might also like, annecy selection ‘the glassworker’ unveils first trailer, sets cannes market, pakistan release dates (exclusive), l catterton acquires majority stake in kiko milano, the best yoga mats for any practice, according to instructors, andrew ahn to direct ‘reimagining’ of ‘the wedding banquet’ starring lily gladstone and bowen yang, dumb luck: nba dodges bullet as jontay porter fouls out.

Rolling Stone is a part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2024 Rolling Stone, LLC. All rights reserved.

Verify it's you

Please log in.

Browse DC Shop Products

Terry Bozzio Reality Tour

UPGRADE YOUR PLAYING

Terry Bozzio is one of the modern-day masters of the drum set. In this concert he demonstrates why, with his original compositions on his full kit. Terry shows the world why he has been at the forefront of solo melodic drumming for decades, and this performance takes it to another level.

• Icons and idols get together for one-on-one interviews, panel discussions and concert performances with featured artists including Chad Smith , Terry Bozzio , Charlie Watts , Thomas Lang , Gregg Bissonette , Sheila E. , Mick Fleetwood , Stewart Copeland , Luke Holland , Aaron Spears and many more.

Renowned Legends

Learn From The Best

Step-By-Step

Learn At Your Own Pace

3 Levels of Learning

Beginner, Intermediate & Advanced

Explore DC Originals

Three drummers walk into a studio…

The Chad Smith Show

23 episodes.

Concerts & Live Performances

33 episodes.

The Art of Drumming with Terry Bozzio

31 episodes.

27 Episodes

Drum Jams & Solos

19 episodes.

Roundtables & Interviews

38 episodes.

Historical Legends

Documentaries

32 episodes, the legendary red hot chili peppers drummer makes a transition into the interviewer spot, hosting different guests drummers for discussions about music, drums and life in general. a drum channel exclusive., our drum channel family agrees that one of the most important ways to get better is to watch the best in the world play. many of our shows feature band and live performances with world-class musicians. whether you’re here to study with your favorite drummer or just sit back and watch an amazing concert, we’ve got you covered., regarded as one of today’s most influential and musical drummers, terry bozzio invites a variety of guest artists to share and play. each show contains interviews and performances featuring both percussion and drum set. together they talk about life, drumming concepts and define what the art of drumming truly is..

Full-length, unbelievable shows with amazing interviews and performances all wrapped up into one. DC Live is a place where guest hosts and artists come together to share their amazing stories and talents with you.

This is what happens when you get some of the world’s best drummers and put them in a room full of drums. incredible jams and a variety of solo performances to enjoy and learn from., there is a wealth of information that can be learned by just simply listening to what the best in the world have to say about their journey. roundtables and interviews present a series of incredible stories packed with years of knowledge and experience. they truly are a great way to learn., we are fortunate to have had many of the world’s most influential and iconic drummers in our drum channel studios. learning from those who came before you is a huge key to your success., historic legends, exclusive in-depth documentaries exploring the lives and work of some of the greatest all-time drumming legends. we’ve taken many of our popular drum channel dvd’s, which contain hours of amazing content, and made them available for you..

• Moscow concerts Moscow concerts Moscow concerts See all Moscow concerts ( Change location ) Today · Next 7 days · Next 30 days
• Most popular artists worldwide
• Trending artists worldwide

• Tourbox for artists

Search for events or artists

• Sign up Log in

• Get the app
• Moscow concerts
• Change location
• Popular Artists
• Live streams
• Deutsch Português
• Popular artists

Terry Bozzio

• On tour: no
• Upcoming 2024 concerts: none

2,904 fans get concert alerts for this artist.

Join Songkick to track Terry Bozzio and get concert alerts when they play near you.

Find your next concert

Join 2,904 fans getting concert alerts for this artist

Past concerts

Yoshi's

Harlow's

View all past concerts

Live reviews

I saw Terry Bozzio twice with Frank Zappa and once with UK and once with Missing Persons. He is no doubt one of the most exciting and accomplished drummers I've ever seen (and I've seen quite a few) I personally have been playing drums since 1967 and I hope that I get as good as Terry when I grow up (like that will ever happen) He's an inspiration to those of us who love the drums and a reminder of how much there still is to learn...

Report as inappropriate

The show was cancelled at the last minute. Extremely dissatisfied and disappointed. There is no plan for a reschedule nor was there a reason given for the cancellation. He is one of the greatest drummers of all time- and I have been excited for this show for months. Disappointed does not begin to describe it.

Posters (3)

Find out more about Terry Bozzio tour dates & tickets 2024-2025

Want to see Terry Bozzio in concert? Find information on all of Terry Bozzio’s upcoming concerts, tour dates and ticket information for 2024-2025.

Unfortunately there are no concert dates for Terry Bozzio scheduled in 2024.

Songkick is the first to know of new tour announcements and concert information, so if your favorite artists are not currently on tour, join Songkick to track Terry Bozzio and get concert alerts when they play near you, like 2904 other Terry Bozzio fans.

Similar artists

• Most popular charts
• API information
• Brand guidelines
• Community guidelines
• Terms of use
• Privacy policy
• Cookies settings
• Cookies policy

Get your tour dates seen everywhere.

• But we really hope you love us.

Terry Bozzio: An Interview From The Vault Part I

There’s a small group of names that command a certain reverence among drummers. One word is usually enough for any stick-wielder with a pulse to acknowledge the significance. Buddy. Krupa. Elvin. Max. Bellson. Bonham. Bruford. Tony. If it’s not at that stage already, certainly in twenty years the name Bozzio will be uttered in the same hushed, hallowed tones.

The history of Terry Bozzio’s professional career is well-documented. Every time there was some so-called plateau to reach, it was met. Brecker Brothers. U.K. Frank Zappa’s “Black Page.” When commercial success beckoned, faster than you could say “hairspray,” he was they key instigator of one of the ’80s more significant bands, Missing Persons.

But somewhere along the line Terry seemed to discover that maybe making music wasn’t about reaching the plateaus, or selling a large amount of records– perhaps the journey was the best part. It was at this point Terry seemed to joyously break out in different directions.

On one hand, he went inward, taking his Stravinsky-inspired ostinato drum solo compositions to unprecedented heights, single-handedly creating a cottage industry of study materials, videos, books and drum equipment. On the other hand, Terry never lost touch with his love for removing the safety net and just letting things rip with other inspired musicians. Whether a chops-showcase or an honest to goodness band, at times it was tough to keep up with all the different projects. But damn if it wasn’t fun to try– Steve Vai, Patrick O’Hearn, Polytown, Jeff Beck, The Knack, The Lonely Bears, bpm, and the projects with bassist Tony Levin and guitarist Steve Stevens (“Situation Dangerous”).

We caught up with Terry at home in Austin after a clinic tour with fellow Zappa-cohort Chad Wackerman to talk about the albums, the projects, the medieval ostinato-torture devices, and Frank’s legacy.

DRUM!  I have to ask about the clinics with Chad Wackerman– how did they come together?

Bozzio  Based on all the touring I’ve done in the past and looking at it kind of from both sides of the fence, from the dealers and from the drum and cymbal companies, and then from myself as an artist, with the whole point of what going out on tour and doing a drum clinic performance is– I just saw so many problems with it. Drum companies don’t really have a person who is a booking-agent type. No matter how many times you tell them, they’re being pulled in several different directions, and sometimes they don’t ultimately get it together where it benefits everyone involved.

So I figured, okay, at this point I’ve done this so many times and I’ve gotten more and more involved in routing the tours and trying to make everything make sense financially– why don’t I just do the whole thing myself and get backing from DW to help get it up and running? So that’s what I did. I came up with the concept of myself and Chad, two ex-Zappa drummers who both play DW and we did the southeast tour and it was a lot of fun. People loved it.

DRUM!  Did you rehearse much for the clinics? How did you guys structure the program?

Bozzio  We knew we wanted to do something together, and my whole feeling about doing things with other people is just to let it happen in the moment. So you use every bit of musicality and knowledge in that kind of situation. And I find that in the focus of the moment, the hyper-focus of doing a performance, you come up with great ideas that aren’t the same as when you’ve got the luxury of sort of sitting around and thinking about it. It’s not really something you think about, it’s something that’s internalized.

So we knew we were just going to play like that, it could go anywhere. And it did. God, sometimes we jammed for many, many minutes, not just 15. So there was some great stuff that happened. Then we were able to work on “The Black Page” separately, and just got together here in Austin a day before the gig.

DRUM!  What did you think of Chad’s performances?

Bozzio  Chad’s big leap this time was that he prepared a bunch of solo drum music, so he was able to do his show without the use of a DAT or playing along with recorded material. I was really proud of the statements he was making. He did one solo in seven, with a half-time melody over it, one of those confusing aural illusions that happens the first few times you hear it, until you can count it out. He had a few really exceptional pieces.

DRUM!  What do you think of him in general as a player?

Bozzio  Oh man, the guy is really deep. The guy played much more difficult music with Zappa than I ever did. Things like “Mo N’Herb’s Vacation,” stuff that made “The Black Page” look like a primer.

The other thing is, his technique is really excellent. Amazing chops, and he’s incredibly clean and controlled. A lot of times, guys who have amazing chops are kind of mechanical. But Chad is so sensitive, he’s so musical. It’s a great combination of the depth of musicality and sensitivity, and then on the other hand the depth of his knowledge of technique.

He’s done incredible stuff with everybody he’s played with, from Zappa to Holdsworth and his own stuff too. And now his writing is really blossoming. I was able to hear his CD [“Scream”], and you can hear the melodic and harmonic depth. A lot of times, when drummers try to write, they have motifs that may not be the best for the ultimate musical outcome. I think Chad’s musical sensibilities are so great that he was able to make a real beautiful album, not just something to set him up to play the drums or just to prove, “Look at me, I can write, and I can write fancy stuff!” It’s really more from the heart.

DRUM!  You released your second album with Tony Levin and Steve Stevens, “Situation Dangerous,” and it definitely sounds like you took more time on that one.

Bozzio  Yeah, we had about a week of rehearsals and about ten days in the studio. So there was a lot more structure, and the record is more cohesive. And it’s also kind of a nice compliment to the other record, which had its strengths in the “off-the cuff-ness” of it and the magic that happens without preconceived ideas. Whereas this one, it was a little more difficult for me in that we approached it more like a session. There were pieces where we’d go for takes and sections of tunes. So it was a little bit more pedantic in its approach, for me.

But on the other hand, the cohesiveness of the results is really nice. And it’s sort of an equalizer too, because I put Steve in a tough position trying to do the first record, because he’d never really worked that way. So this is my way of coming back, I think, and trying to work in a way where he was more comfortable, because most of the ideas musically were coming from his direction, and therefore I was kind of forced into playing to accompany those ideas as opposed to what I would play from the heart in the spur of the moment.

DRUM!  Did everybody come in with ideas beforehand, or were the tunes put together pretty much in those ten days?

Bozzio  Pretty much in those ten days. I’m sure some of Steve’s ideas, he had and brought in, and on the other hand things would come up based on what we were doing. So it was a little bit of both.

DRUM!  Let’s talk about a couple of the pieces. “Crash” is reminiscent of something like “Sling Shot” off of Jeff Beck’s “Guitar Shop. “

Bozzio  Steve came up with that line, a high energy kind of punk thing. The bridge goes into five, and that was coming from me and Tony. We experimented some different B-sections and then it ended up in that half-time thing. To me a lot of the feel of the album has to do with tragedy and that dark film-noir kind of thing, a little bit science fiction detective, black and white, shady things.

DRUM!  Which leads me to guitarist Steve Stevens, who is the X-factor in this, to me. I mean, this was the “Billy Idol” guy, and now he’s doing this and “Flamenco A Go Go. “

Bozzio  Yeah, he just has a lot of musical depth, which you could even hear in the pop format. His arrangements and parts were great in the ’80s style of music, but I had no idea that the guy could play that well. He’s a highly accomplished guitarist, and I don’t think that many people know that. So I was happy to be the instigator to set him up in this kind of situation to get him known as a player, rather than just as “The Rock God” or something like that. And he’s a very fluent flamenco player.

For me, I come from a musical background where I’ve heard a lot of stuff over the years, and I have an appreciation for ethnic styles of all kinds, as long as it’s really high quality. But flamenco, I’d probably heard it around the house, and watching Jose Greco on the Ed Sullivan Show, and other sort-of public television specials that you’d see over the last 30-40 years. I knew there was something going on that really moved me. The connection with drumming is obvious, of course.

And I had the opportunity to play with this flamenco dancer, Andreas Murim, who comes from Seville, Spain. It was in Holland, a percussion festival with Trilok Gurtu, myself, Vinx, Zakir Hussain and Manashio Embande, from Africa. So we all played together and everybody was moved by this young kid who could just go out there with a guy behind him and play flamenco guitar and dance damn near better than any drummer that had played. Had so much passion and drama and pathos going on, it really moved me. He didn’t speak any English, but his girlfriend did. So she got us together and told me, “Andreas was really moved by your playing.” And I thought, “Well wow, tell him I feel the same.” I hope to work with him more in the future.

So when Steve and I brought the influences together on the first Black Light Syndrome album, we did a tune called “Duente,” which was completely off-the-cuff and totally amazing. We definitely have that in common.

DRUM!  How did you and Steve meet?

Bozzio  He saw me play at the House of Blues for a DW Drum Day event. He saw my solo drum music and really liked it. And to me, that’s important. If somebody doesn’t get that or appreciate it, then I don’t see what the point is in going on, because that’s just so much a part of my heart. No matter what project I approach, if they don’t know that I’m coming from that space, it may be a little confusing and controlling, etc. So his liking what I was doing made me feel really safe.

And then we got together over at his house, and he played me a couple of these tracks that I don’t know if they ended up on “Flamenco A Go Go” or not, but man– the bottom line was, I thought if we play nothing more than the music for his solo record, I’d be happy to do that.

DRUM!  “Tziganne” features some wonderful flamenco guitar playing. But soloing-wise, it’s almost a departure for you because you’re known for the ostinato work, and here you go with melodic motifs on the piccolo toms.

Bozzio  Yeah, I’ve got a set of four piccolo toms and four short-stack toms. Together with my snare and my highest normal-shell tom, I’ve got and octave and a third of the white notes of the piano. So this gives me a lot of different melodic, harmonic and modal variations. And I can use other drums that are deeper, that relate to those top tonalities, as tonal centers.

For instance, if I go to an E shell tom and kind of pedal on that, I can use the same white notes but be in an E Phrygian mode. And then if I go down to a D I’m in the Locrian mode, or if I’m on A I’m in A minor. My development over the last year or two had been not so much in the ostinato area as opposed to getting deeper melodically and harmonically with what I’ve got on these piccolo toms. So “Tziganne” was the one tune that allowed me to use what my latest developments on the drum set have been. I actually tuned the F to an F#, so it was in the key of what we were doing. But basically I was able to do a flamenco-esque guitar solo over a little ostinato.

That type of thing is really what I’m into now. I’ve got harmonic etudes now that use all of the chords and a whole lot of different progressions and relationships within that. And it’s really amazing to think, I’ve got all these white notes, so what can you do with these white notes? And you don’t just want to go like a perfect cadence, so how do you use these things in a way where you can make progressions that are hip to you and are interesting musically and delineate these harmonies? I’ve really been able to use every dang chord that’s available and put them together into a little piece. So that’s the area I’ve been working on more lately.

DRUM!  Where are those types of ideas coming from?

Bozzio  I think it’s taking more of a keyboard approach to the drum set. It’s like many, many little things that have just stuck in my head, that I’ve read or been influenced by, over the course of a long period of time. And then you move more in that direction, and it was about five years ago I went to the full-blown set of piccolo toms. The first thing you do is you’re playing typical paradiddles and other things that you did on the small drums.

But then after a while you start to go, okay what is the logic and what is the expression according to the traditional laws of melody, and what are my options here? So I began by thinking, okay I’ve got these modal options. And by starting or ending around certain tonal centers, it puts you in different modes. So that was step one.

Then I got into finding all the different pentatonic scales that were available. Finding the chords that I liked, the things I had learned from the jazz I had listened to. And just figuring out what the options are, you know. There are certain chords that sound good going into other chords, and other chords that sound very typical or “Happy Birthday,” and you want to stay away from those. So I started writing out all the little combinations that were available to me and the different voicings and inversions.

I remember reading a book by Stravinsky, where he said that the contrapuntal aspects of the vibraphone really excited him, and he felt that that had yet to be fully exploited. This was years before Gary Burton came along with four mallets. So I figured, okay I haven’t got four notes I can play at once, but I can have two. And I thought, let’s use the melodic and harmonic and contrapuntal types of motion, either in single-note melodies with two hands doing independent melody lines, or else by rolling in between the two toms and moving the hands independently and creating a sustained harmonic event that changed independently. Very much like fugue. You can use canon, contrary motion, parallel motion, oblique motion, similar motion. So I break these things down and study it, just like I did with permutations.

I always use this comparison. You could drink a 44-ouncer from 7-11 of American-filtered coffee, or you could drink one little Italian espresso and get the same amount of caffeine. So you could study for twenty years every drum book that’s ever written, and they’re not worth the trees that they cut down to make these books, you know? Whereas if you boil down the essence of what a few of the great drum writers have said, then you can take that information and reapply it in an infinite amount of ways. And you’ll have the essence of the whole in the sum of its smallest parts and variations.

DRUM!  Where did your theory knowledge come from?

Bozzio  I’m pretty well schooled in theory from my two and a half years at the College of Marin, which has a really good music department. I stepped away from that with an AA degree. And the composition and the other things, I studied on my own after the fact, literally after say 15 years or so. Just taking a book on a plane when you’re on tour, and relating theoretical concepts to the drums. And once you boil the concept down to its basic element, you can reapply it in an infinite amount of ways, and you’re using the language of the European tradition that’s been with us for 400 years, to describe it in infinite ways.

DRUM!  You’ve also got some albums out, reissues actually, with The Lonely Bears. This came out of the tours with Jeff Beck and keyboardist Tony Hymas.

Bozzio  What happened was, I had a different type of relationship with Tony than I did with Jeff. Jeff was a rock star with a great sense of humor, a cut-up, and there were certain aspects of his personality that I really fit with. Other aspects were diametrically opposed, like all of my classical roots and training.

So I had all this tremendous respect for Tony as a pianist and composer, and we would talk about a lot of stuff. I noticed every morning he’d wake up and be playing Debussy preludes and what have you, before we’d start recording. I thought to myself, man I’ve pretty much made a career out of a little bag of drum tricks. And that I really haven’t got this full-blown, all-encompassing approach that one would have towards a keyboard instrument or a violin, for the drums. It’s genre based. So really, that’s when I began practicing again, and fooling around with the ostinatos and all the things I’m doing now.

So this relationship we had was special. And one day in the early ’90s, after “Guitar Shop,” he called me up and had this particular gig in Europe where his drummer couldn’t make the show and he asked me to sit in with him. So I did, and it was with Tony and other people who became members of the Lonely Bears, with strings and winds and a guitarist and all these American Indian musicians. And that’s when we started talking about doing a project.

So we did four albums over there in the course of about two years. I lived in Paris. We lived pretty cheaply and didn’t make much dough but it was art for art’s sake. One album was completely improvised, it pretty much runs the gamut of some esoteric material. Mainly written by Tony. I helped arrange and produce it. I’m proud of that stuff. Pete Morticelli from Magna Carta bought the license and now they’re going to be available in the states for the first time, so that’s great.

DRUM!  I actually remember seeing you in San Francisco with The Knack. After all the ostinato clinics, that seemed like quite a departure. How did that come together?

Bozzio  It was a session at first. I had talked to Doug Fieger on the phone, and he’s a really sweet guy. They had a very small budget, and there was a question of was it worth it for me to do. But it turned out that I had the time, and I figured what the heck, I’ll just go in and slam this out. And in the course of making the album, we laughed a lot and had a really good time. And I was impressed with the professionalism of the group. We pretty much did that record after rehearsals in one take, each song. I figured, it’s not the most complex music. It doesn’t really relate to my history as a drummer, but on this level as a performer, like the Beatles– I dig these guys. Because they’re not phony.

Then they started talking about a tour, so I considered it, it looked okay, and I decided to do it. Then when I got to LA I realized that none of the things that were supposed to be set up for the tour had been done, and what we were embarking on was a really badly-routed and badly-thought-out tour. In a van, 10-hour drives on a show day, staying at Motel 6s. I just said, “Doug, I do this in a truck all the time. I know what you can do and what you can’t do, and you can’t do this. Somebody’s going to get sick or burnt out. It’s really impossible.”

And he told me that we couldn’t pull out because guarantees had been gotten and blah, blah, blah. And I said, “We should pull out and consider putting the onus on the record company to work a single, get some airplay, get some TV shows that we thought we were going to get, so we can go out and do this on a level that’s not just…stupid.” So, he wouldn’t listen to me, and became a little bit obsessed with it.

So we went out. Two weeks in, he lost his voice. I got sick as well, and I had a European tour coming up on the tail end of that. We were in la-la land from day one.

And it was really sad because, I hate to say I told you so, but after going to the same places and theaters and doing 400 people on my own in a drum clinic months before– we go back to these same places and there would be like 75 people. 25 people. It just was not promoted. Rhino is a reissue label, not a record company that knows how to work a band that’s alive and kicking. I think they sold them a bill of goods and didn’t really follow through with the promotional things that they said they were going to do. They take records and compilations of bands that have a history, and so their fans will find these, stumble on them and buy them and they’ll make money.

So it turned out to be a drag. There were some bad feelings between me and Doug, which I don’t know if they’ve ever been resolved, but I had to just let go of it. And I feel bad about it, but on the other hand I had my health and my sanity to think about. So that was that. Doug and I have spoken and there’s no hard feelings, but the way it happened was unfortunate. It had the potential to be a fun and money-making opportunity for me, and it’s important for me to have fun and be with people who are nice, if I’m going to make money.

Drummer Terry Bozzio talks Zappa, Beefheart, and that massive drumkit

He’s best known for working alongside Frank Zappa, but self-confessed workaholic Terry Bozzio has had a multitude of side projects. Here, he shares some of the best stories from his career

Terry Bozzio isn’t someone known for sitting back and taking things easy. The Grammy Award-winning drummer who came to prominence with Frank Zappa albums such as Zoot Allures and Sheik Yerbouti in the 1970s is a self-confessed workaholic, never happier than when he’s embarking on one project or another.

Aside from Zappa, Bozzio’s turbo-charged drumming helped propel UK’s Danger Money and Night After Night after Bill Bruford and Allan Holdsworth left the ranks. Boasting stints with Jeff Beck, Quincy Jones and Mick Jagger, Bozzio has also fronted his own bands, including his post-punk synth-tinged pop outfit, Missing Persons, and the eclectic improv-supergroup HoBoLeMa, with Holdsworth and King Crimson’s Tony Levin and Pat Mastelotto.

Encouraged by Zappa and famed musicologist Nicolas Slonimsky, he developed a taste for composing settings that took him beyond rock and jazz, resulting in his contemporary classical chamber works performed by the Metropole Orchestra in 2003

Even when he’s not up to his neck in some aspect of music production, he’s an avid painter. Inspired by Don Van Vliet’s habit of carrying marker pens and paper, it was Captain Beefheart himself who suggested Bozzio develop his artistic side when the pair toured together in Zappa’s band. Bozzio’s abstract canvases have become collectible in recent years. All of his interests in music and art are combined with the release of Composer Series , a four CD and Blu-ray box set containing 59 individual compositions with a painting for each title, along with Terry’s detailed commentary in the accompanying notes. “I just try and do what I do. I sit down and chip away at it,” he says of his above average work ethic.

Dividing his time between his homes in the USA and Japan, at any one time his hectic schedule might include presenting drum clinics, performing solo concerts behind his vast, sculptural-looking 111-piece drum kit, working on numerous tuition videos, recording albums and, of course, doing interviews. When Prog speaks to Terry at his home in Southern California, we enquire, only half-jokingly, how he manages to stay alert and on-track with it all? “Coffee, Ritalin, nicotine!” he quips as he settles down to talk about his life and work.

Given the complexity of The Big Kit, with its hundreds of individual drums, cymbals, mallet instruments and so on, it seems safe to assume you’re a details kind of guy?

I spend more time under the hood with that thing, building and tweaking it, than I do actually playing and practising it, because if these little things aren’t right then I’m distracted from this creative flow. You have to get all those little things right.

Prog Newsletter

Sign up below to get the latest from Prog, plus exclusive special offers, direct to your inbox!

How long does it take to set up ?

Now it’s got a MIDI set-up, micing and my own sound system on stage, so it’s gone up to about four hours comfortably. We could get it up in two at a push. The best it’s ever been put up in with soundcheck and everything was 45 minutes, a real record with a bunch of people who knew my kit helping out.

There’s definitely a sculptural aesthetic going on with it. Where did the idea for it come from?

The first rack I made was like a cage and I was looking at it and thinking, “Why am I putting these beautiful round drums and cymbals in this square cage?” So I made the rack curved and more sculptural and followed the form of the instruments, how they graduated from high to low, large to small. Now, I sometimes build these racks and I don’t even want to put drums on them, they’re so beautiful as a sculpture [laughs]. There’s a quote by Neil Peart about when he sat down at my drumset at Drumchannel at the DW factory. He looked around and he said, “Wow, this is his mind. This is his mind in drums !”

In your solo work there’s something almost ceremonial about what you do. Is the look of the thing as important as the sound?

Yes. Every detail is important. In a live performance you see with eyes as well as your ears. You listen on many levels: intellectual, physical, emotional and intuition. I think I’m more balanced sitting behind the drums in those four areas than anywhere else. The fifth element is the divine, that Big Bang that animates this whole thing.

Some artists prefer to let their music speak for itself but with your latest release, Composer Series, you’ve written very precise notes on each track.

I can think back to things that inspired me, like The Rite Of Spring by Stravinsky. I loved that music and then I happened to read some liner notes that were on an album of it and I realised then it was a ballet, and there was choreography and a whole mythological storyline to it as well. There was all this depth there that I didn’t know about and reading all that enhanced the listening experience. Initially I was just happy listening but then there’s all these other levels going on which made a difference to how I heard it and helped me appreciate it even more.

There are 59 tracks across four CDs which represent a large body of work. How far does this go back in terms of your writing?

I’ve composed for myself for the last 25 years and then before that, dabbled in it. It was always just there. So, some of the things on Composers Series go way back to the 70s or 80s.

What’s your approach when composing?

It’s like working a crossword puzzle: this has to work this way and that way, horizontally and vertically on a line of time. You follow where these things take you. I work intervallically with music so if there’s one note, I can hear where the next note should be and I go there. After a while of chipping away at it, day after day, you have this body of work. When I played with the Metropole Orchestra I remember talking to the bass clarinet player and talking to him about something and he says, ‘Did you really write all this stuff?’ And I told him: ‘One note at a time!’

To what extent are these kind of big projects about getting your life’s work in order?

I can die now! [Laughs] That’s happened to me almost every time I’ve done anything I’m happy with.

I meant is it important to pull together all these pieces into one place, a grand statement of sorts?

People know me as I played with this guy or that guy and they know my solo drum music but they don’t really know about this other side of me, the art and the compositions. So I wanted to share what my experiences are and approach is to each tune. I enjoy writing about the music and sharing my feelings and the technical aspects with others so they can learn or grow from it if they’re interested. Somehow this is the essence of us and what we need to do to find our own bliss, and having that wonderful feeling of knowing that I’ve created something that satisfies me. And if I can like it, as critical and as cynical as I am, then maybe others will like it too. And maybe not in my lifetime but it’s there. It really is that kind of feeling when you do something that you love and you finally got it out. Whether it sells or not doesn’t matter. You did it.

You’d had quite a lot of experience before auditioning for Frank Zappa. But was it still daunting?

It was amazing. I auditioned and he said he wanted to hear me after he’d heard the rest of the guys and nobody wanted to audition after me. So Frank turned to me and said, “It looks like you’ve got the gig if you want it.” My words were, “Are you sure I can do this?” [Laughs] He said “Do you want to do it?” and I said, “Yeah!” I wasn’t sure if I was heavy enough to work with his guys and he told me that if I was willing to work hard I could do it. So like a good father, he took me in.

What do you think is the most common misconception that people have about Frank Zappa?

I don’t know anything about brain surgery, right? I know about music, and when neurosurgeons start talking shop I’m lost. And I don’t really care. I care that they’re helping people and the result, but you know to really understand a musician or another human being, you’ve got to live it, be it and have something in common. I don’t think rock journalists have much in common with a guy like Frank. To me, he was a guy who probably had at least seven talents and he could’ve made a successful career out of any one of them but he had all seven. He was 10 years older than me and a real genius on all those levels. I came to him so naive. Every negative thing he said about the music business or politics I almost refused to believe because I couldn’t go there – I couldn’t lose hope, you know what I mean? But everything he said has come to pass. Everything he ever said, as cynical as it was, was true. He was really one of these guys who was like an arrow. He could cut through anything, get right to the heart of it and sum it up in the most succinct way.

How did you come to leave Zappa’s band?

I’d been playing with Patrick O’Hearn, Mark Isham and Pete Maunu as Group 87 and we’d been to audition for a deal at CBS. I was late for rehearsals with Frank because of it. Frank sensed what had happened that day. We get up and we started playing something and Frank felt that I didn’t have the heart for it anymore. He said, “Bozzio, step into my office”, and we went behind the little riser in the rehearsal studio and he said, “I think it’s time you go out and do your own thing.” And once again I said, “Are you sure I can do this?” [Laughs] Like a good father he kicked me out of the nest.

What’s the thing you regret the most about that period with Zappa?

That I didn’t ask questions. I didn’t want to show my ignorance. Many times he used words I didn’t understand and I’d just laugh because I didn’t want to appear stupid. I wish I’d asked what the words meant. Stuff like that. But I was young and just happy to be there, going through all the rock’n’roll, groupie bullshit. Nobody can tell you how to handle success. When it comes you’re on your own, man and you just get swept along with whatever’s happening. Later, you learn through experience, that this may not have been the best way to do this or that.

How would you describe the difference between Don Van Vliet in private and public, or where they both the same?

He was just out there, man. He was his own person. When I first met him I thought he was like an acid casualty from Frank’s past that I knew nothing about. And then I got to know him a little better and realised how deep he was. He loved some rough and dirty blues that not a lot of people know about, or rather, didn’t know about then.

The big revelation came when we were in Austin, Texas recording Bongo Fury . Frank asked me to come over to his room. He’d sent someone out to buy a portable record player and he put on Trout Mask Replica . I listened to this stuff and it was just out . I mean completely random noises happening that was unbelievably… out there. It didn’t seem organised in any way. Frank said, “You know they played this exactly the same way every time.” And then I went, “ Oh my fucking god !” [Laughs] and then I began to realise that on a whole other level, Beefheart was just as deep as Frank, y’know? I think Frank told Don how shocked I was at his music – I’d never heard it and didn’t know anything about it – and Don and I became more friendly. I got into the drawing thing and he encouraged me and that was really sweet. He’d say, “I really like the freedom of what you’ve got going on here”, and it helped me move into more abstract areas.

He’s still regarded as something of an enigmatic figure, isn’t he?

As a person, you need a thesaurus of mythological and symbolic and maybe even jazz bebop terminology to even understand what he was saying. He spoke in symbols. And they were very idiosyncratic symbols. It was really a journey and adventure to be around the guy. One time, in my second year with Frank, Beefheart had finished his stint and was forming his own thing. Frank rented a suite at the Beverly Hilton hotel where there was a record company convention going on. He was trying to sell and do his deals. We got into the elevator. There was Patrick O’Hearn, who’s got an amazing sense of humour; myself; Frank, who is just on another level of being able to say something that’s really funny; Gail, his wife, who’s really smart and capable; and there’s Beefheart. We’re in this elevator and out comes Herb Alpert’s muzak version of A Taste Of Honey . The space in there was electric, everybody’s eyes were darting around, wondering who was going to say something first, whose gonna rip this music. Beefheart jumps in and says, “Y’know there’s only one kind of thing you can do with this music.” He snaps his fingers and shouts, “Dig it!” [Laughs].

You’ve revisited Frank’s music guesting with Zappa Plays Zappa, haven’t you?

Yeah. Dweezil is a saint. He’s playing stuff that Frank never dreamed would be played on the guitar. Mallets can pretty much play anything but guitar has restrictions and he plays the fast stuff like in Inca Roads . I mean Frank never played that stuff. He’d turn around and conduct, y’know? Dweezil is somebody I truly respect.

What was the transition from Frank Zappa to UK like?

It was painful. It was depressing. I did the Group 87 record but as a sideman. Looking at the record contract was really shocking and depressing. So, I decided not to sign the deal. A year later I think I had an audition for Thin Lizzy and that didn’t come together. I’m not a drink, fight and fuck kind of guy, you know? Gary Moore wanted me and we got on great, but the band was just a different thing and I was not in that same headspace as the rest of those guys. So it was the right thing.

Eddie Jobson talked to me about Bill [Bruford] and Allan [Holdsworth] wanting to be more jazz whereas John [Wetton] and he wanted to go more rock. So I started in UK in ’78. That was a tough transition. I was still just a sideman in UK. I didn’t want to sign another contract where the company owns everything into perpetuity. Eddie and John made all the decisions and there’s always that Upstairs, Downstairs thing when you deal with the English [laughs]. John is a dear friend – I text him almost every other day or so – but Eddie and I just cannot see eye to eye. He looks at it like a corporation and he’s the CEO and I don’t feel I’m respected as somebody who contributed to what they are, and even what they can be today. So that’s really the issue with Eddie. I have much respect for him as a composer and a musician but as people, we have two different ideas about how things should be.

Out of all your varied bands and projects over the years, what stands out for you?

I did a stint with Allan Holdsworth, Tony Levin and Pat Mastelotto in 2010 under the name HoBoLeMa. This was one of the best experiences I ever had. I regard that band as incredibly important. Allan was playing his ass off! He is a complete master of that instrument and has taken it places that nobody else has.

There were rumours of a live album. Why has that never materialised?

You know, Allan has issues with releasing recordings that aren’t perfect, so I don’t know if it’ll ever come out. But it’s some of the best stuff I ever got to do and one of the most wonderful feeling band experiments I’ve ever done!

How important is connecting with an audience in those circumstances?

There’s something about recorded music, whether video or audio, that is nowhere near the magic that happens when real humans play music for other real humans in a room. Something is transcendent there. It just can’t be duplicated.

What’s the best advice you’ve received?

One time I met drummer Louis Bellson and he sat down and said, ‘Don’t forget about notes and chords; study music; learn how to play the piano - it’s not just about drums.’ That stuck with me to this day.

It’s a tough environment for musicians to make a living. How do you stay optimistic?

With my work. I just released my music and my art on my website so now I can sell directly to the public. I’ve been very, very lucky and grateful to have had the life experience I’ve had. I’m 66 and I’ve never had to have a day job. I’ve been lucky to just survive and learn and try and grow from all the experiences I’ve had. I’m very blessed to have had many brushes with greatness.

The Terry Bozzio Composer Series box set is available now on Ward Records. See www.terrybozzio.com for more information.

Terry Bozzio - Composer Series album review

Drumming icon Terry Bozzio announces US solo tour

Sid's feature articles and reviews have appeared in numerous publications including Prog, Classic Rock, Record Collector, Q, Mojo and Uncut. A full-time freelance writer with hundreds of sleevenotes and essays for both indie and major record labels to his credit, his book, In The Court Of King Crimson, an acclaimed biography of King Crimson, was substantially revised and expanded in 2019 to coincide with the band’s 50th Anniversary. Alongside appearances on radio and TV, he has lectured on jazz and progressive music in the UK and Europe.  

A resident of Whitley Bay in north-east England, he spends far too much time posting photographs of LPs he's listening to on Twitter and Facebook.

Swedish prog legends Kaipa return with tongue-twister of an album title. Sommargryningsljus will be released in June

“An expansive, widescreen sound… and when Ian Crichton gets the wind in his sails, the results are spectacular”: Six By Six’s Beyond Shadowland

"This year is 1999 right here!" Watch Slipknot break out new masks, classic songs and their brand new drummer at last night's super-intimate, 300-capacity show in Pioneertown, California

Most Popular

PHAWKER.COM – Curated News, Gossip, Concert Reviews, Fearless Political Commentary, Interviews….Plus, the Usual Sex, Drugs and Rock n' Roll

Curated News, Culture And Commentary. Plus, the Usual Sex, Drugs and Rock n' Roll

A Q&A With Terry Bozzio, Drummer’s Drummer

Terry Bozzio circa early ’80s

  BY JAMIE KNERR Terry Bozzio has seemingly done it all in the world of drums and percussion over the last 40-odd years, in the rarified air at the very highest peaks of rock, pop, jazz, fusion, world music and, well, you name it. Or so you might think. Fortunately for him, and for all of us, he hasn’t yet reached his pinnacle and is still climbing. Now more than ever he’s inspired to find new directions, other musical worlds to explore and map, in 2016 and beyond.

Already held in the highest esteem by both his musical contemporaries and worldwide audiences alike, Bozzio is currently undertaking a tour of solo appearances across the U.S. Challenging his own limitations, expanding old forms while forging new ones, mining deeper, subtler layers of his musical expression, these performances–partly improvised, partly composed, ever-changing–invariably produce some truly breathtaking results, with plenteous rewards for the listener.

A lifelong fan–but not generally star-struck–I confess to swallowing down hard on a lump in my throat when I spoke to Terry last week, in advance of his upcoming show at World Cafe Live on September 22nd . Thankfully he immediately put me at ease by being a sincere, personable, self-effacing, gregarious guy. We talked for nearly an hour.

PHAWKER: Hey Terry, how are the shows going?

TERRY BOZZIO: Well I’ve only done one so far, and that was perfect. It was sold out, at the Musical Instrument Museum Theater in Phoenix. It’s really a great place, you should check it out. You could spend hours there looking at instruments from around the world.

PHAWKER: On your current tour of solo performances in the U.S.: Is the music based on preconceived musical motifs and themes, or are you more or less shooting from the hip in terms of improvisation?

TERRY BOZZIO: Well, it’s both. There’s through-composed compositions, and improvisations. There’s form and structure and composition, but it’s always open when I solo. I never do the same thing twice, or know exactly what I’m going to do.

TERRY BOZZIO: I think I started to develop my own style after Zappa. I started to compose more melodic drum parts, I threw my ride cymbal away, starting stacking cymbals, using other instruments on my set. Even more so around the time I got with Jeff Beck. Also when I began doing drum clinics I was starting to play simple ostinatos. To my amazement everybody seemed to like that, so it encouraged me to do some more. I started using a gong as ride cymbal, using multiple hi hats…it sort of went in that direction. Now I’m just trying to go deeper and deeper. I look to people like Joe Zawinul, Miles Davis, to sort of inspire me in that direction. On my current kit I started with eight DW piccolo toms, set up in a diatonic scale…eventually I expanded the kit to include five more toms, tuned chromatically, so the drum set really became almost like a European-style button accordion.

PHAWKER: The kit you’re playing these days is just enormous, it must take forever to set up for performance…

TERRY BOZZIO: Yes. We can do it, in a relaxed way, in about four hours. I think the record was about 45 minutes in Chicago when I had a lot of really good help!

PHAWKER: Tell us something that would surprise us, either musically or personally, about Frank Zappa.

TERRY BOZZIO: I think the greatest misconception was that he was a crazed drug-addict hippie or something. He was a total tea-totaler. I’d seen him take a sip or two of alcohol in my life, never seen him anything like drunk or anything. He was always anti-drugs and would fire or fine anyone in the band that was messing around in that direction. He was a genius on at least seven different levels. He could have been really successful in any of those areas…he really enjoyed being an observer though. He never participated in anything that could be considered foolish or stupid at any time. He was an arrow, absolutely straight-ahead. “Get up every day and kick it to death” was kinda his thing. That was what his dedication was like.

PHAWKER: So here it comes, the obligatory “ Black Page ” question: What was the key to conquering that solo?

PHAWKER: I was surprised to learn recently not only that you auditioned for Thin Lizzy back in ‘78, but that you weren’t selected…what was that all about?

TERRY BOZZIO: (laughs) That was a really strange period. I’d left Frank, decided not to join Group ‘87 after I’d made the album, I’d done the Brecker Brothers tour, and was just kind of waiting around. I heard about the Thin Lizzy audition, and (guitarist) Gary Moore wanted to play with me. So we did the audition, that went well, Gary loved me, we all got along well musically but…I wasn’t a “Get drunk, fight and fuck” kind of guy, so I ended up not doing it.

PHAWKER: You were inducted into Guitar Center’s RockWalk in Hollywood in ‘07, along with rock legends Ronnie James Dio and Slash. I’m curious–what did the three of you talk about at the after-party?

TERRY BOZZIO: Oh, not much! Ronnie was a great guy, one of the nicest guys who ever lived. I had first met him at a Duran Duran show, I suppose in the late 80’s. I was telling him I wasn’t having much success with my solo career, and that I had sort of begrudgingly taken the gig with Jeff Beck. I remember him saying [sarcastic tone]: “Oh, I’m so sorry for you, you have to play with Jeff Beck!” Little did I know how wonderful Jeff was and how fantastic that experience would be for me. But Ronnie was a beautiful soul. As for Slash–I think I probably just said “Hi, how are you, nice to meet you”.

PHAWKER: Tell us about your painting and visual artwork?

TERRY BOZZIO: I started sketching with Beefheart in the 70’s, when I first got with Frank. On tour he always was drawing, he encouraged me to get into it. I’ve been doing it ever since. I’ve done most of the artwork on my solo CDs, it’s nice to have the combination of putting a painting with a piece of music. The art is all abstract, so it really doesn’t have to “match” with the music.

PHAWKER: Aside from these solo shows and particularly your upcoming performance in Philly, what else are you doing now that the world should know about?

TERRY BOZZIO: Let’s see…There’s the Terry Bozzio Composer Series . It’s six CDs, plus Blu Rays, with 60 compositions and 60 of my paintings to go with them. There’s also the Heavy Metal Be-Bop Brecker Brothers reunion CD with the original members, done in Japan last year. And if you want to check out my artwork you can visit terrybozzio.com .

TERRY BOZZIO PERFORMS AT WORLD CAFE LIVE ON THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 22ND

• Statistics Stats
• You are here:
• Bozzio, Terry

Terry Bozzio Concert Setlists & Tour Dates

Terry bozzio at kuumbwa jazz center, santa cruz, ca, usa.

• Edit setlist songs
• Edit venue & date
• Edit set times
• Add to festival
• Report setlist

Terry Bozzio at Yoshi's Oakland, Oakland, CA, USA

• 5 Flute Loops
• Pat's Changes
• Klangfarbenmelodie

Terry Bozzio at Harlow's Restaurant & Nightclub, Sacramento, CA, USA

Terry bozzio at wow hall, eugene, or, usa, terry bozzio at rickshaw theatre, vancouver, bc, canada, terry bozzio at west end cultural centre, winnipeg, mb, canada, terry bozzio at dakota jazz club & restaurant, minneapolis, mn, usa, terry bozzio at shank hall, milwaukee, wi, usa, terry bozzio at reggies' rock club, chicago, il, usa, terry bozzio at the token lounge, westland, mi, usa.

Terry Bozzio

More from this artist.

• Artist Statistics
• Add setlist

Most played songs

• Debussy ( 22 )
• 5 Equals 7 ( 21 )
• 5 Flute Loops ( 21 )
• Africa ( 20 )
• Pat's Changes ( 20 )

More Terry Bozzio statistics

Nobody has covered a song of Terry Bozzio yet. Have you seen someone covering Terry Bozzio? Add or edit the setlist and help improving our statistics!

Artists covered

Jeff Beck Bozzio Levin Stevens Terry Bozzio & Billy Sheehan The Brecker Brothers Missing Persons Buddy Rich U.K. Frank Zappa

View artists covered statistics

Gigs seen live by

116 people have seen Terry Bozzio live.

UncleSal n2tool dankim dustytrails5150 Beanchowder sonicbaker TopHatTapes lofus99 DarwinK-S ndtraveller donbuckleyjr MuzzyMuzik pgmusicman HowieD93 beau_champ chfriedman Marcb63 mab2112 tschingsch bobbyfosterii zappafrank stubob wowspring billprit A-SNOTEX ceez Bogoslav TAKRL MartinJansen666 iCenl Patrickelmy jay_cobs jkrugly originalgaucho Rune2000 Kecke HelloHooray konkelo cstom quosis fonzo DrIncluding earfdae fb:1073673768 LustKiller loopkever budah THEMORP tardy491 toefootie

Showing only 50 most recent

Terry Bozzio on the web

Music links.

• Terry Bozzio Lyrics (de)
• Official Homepage

Tour Update

Marquee memories: alien ant farm.

• Alien Ant Farm
• Apr 24, 2024
• Apr 23, 2024
• Apr 22, 2024
• Apr 21, 2024
• Apr 20, 2024
• Apr 19, 2024
• FAQ | Help | About
• Terms of Service
• Ad Choices | Privacy Policy
• Feature requests
• Songtexte.com

Drumhead Authority

Buy Terry Bozzio’s Tour Kit… If You Can Afford It

How big is your drum kit?

I’m sure it’s no match for this one:

• 4 bass drums
• 15 toms (5 piccolo toms and 10 rack/floor toms)
• 9 hi-hat and bass drum pedals
• 50 (yes 50!) Sabian Radia cymbals
• Enough DW hardware to sink a ship

Terry Bozzio’s 2012 DW Reunion Tour kit is for sale, and it’ll cost you $36,995.

It’s an all-maple DW Collector’s Series kit, covered in a custom chrome wrap. Apparently this kit cost $65,000 to build, which makes the current $36,995 price tag seem (slightly) less crazy.

Donn Bennett is handling the sale of the kit, and it’s currently in Miami, Florida. Get in touch with Donn on his website , or via the Facebook post here .

• Bahasa Indonesia
• Slovenščina
• Science & Tech
• Russian Kitchen

Puzzling out Moscow for visitors under 30

Navigation games on the streets and conversation clubs in hostels are all part of the fun of figuring out Moscow when you’re young at heart. Source: Press Photo.

Hugging strangers, reciting poetry and looking for bird-shaped graffiti is not usually part of a city tour—but Moscow Game Tour is no ordinary company.

Nikita Bogdanov, 25, founder of the company, says: “It’s not a regular tour, it’s a quest. You interact with Russian people, and you gain more experience.”

Moscow Game Tour is one of a new breed of innovative tours run by and for young people. They are either low-cost or free, and prioritise interacting with locals over traditional sightseeing.

Mr Bogdanov started Moscow Game Tour in 2009 to encourage visitors to explore areas outside the city centre. In the tour, which costs 700 roubles (about $22), participants are “players” and complete challenges that lead them to clues in the shape of a matryoshka doll.

Discovering fairy-tale Moscow

Strolling around the Kremlin

Discovering a glorious corner of paradise

Many tasks involve asking passers-by for directions or trying a Russian phrase. Along the way, players discover interesting features such as a monastery canteen, or a Socialist Realist statue.

Some clues are easier to locate than others. “There was one spot that we absolutely could not find,” says Vera Baranova, 25, who took part in a quest at Tsaritsyno Park in south-east Moscow. “When we asked someone, it turned out that we were actually right on top of it.”

Mr Bogdanov also operates the Moscow Free Tour, which provides an overview of major sites between Kitai Gorod and the Kremlin free of charge. In peak season, this more traditional outing attracts between a dozen and 40 people every day; the Game Tour runs only once or twice a week and usually attracts between five and 10 participants. Convincing visitors to sign up for an unconventional tour can be a challenge. “The Free Tour is more popular because it’s more easily understandable,” Mr Bogdanov says. “For the Game Tour, you need to explain to people what it is.”

Business has picked up as Mr Bogdanov has formed relationships with hotels, major tour agencies including TUI and companies such as Google. This year, he also began receiving support from Moscow’s Committee for Tourism and the Hotel Industry, which has launched a programme called “Moscow Fresh” to support creative tourism.

Moscow Game Tour is one of a new breed of innovative tours run by and for young people. Source: Press Photo.

In addition to the Free Tour and Game Tour, Mr Bogdanov’s company offers daily paid-for tours with a variety of themes. The retro Communist Tour visits central Soviet landmarks, including the Lubyanka (former headquarters of the KGB); the Gulag Museum; a Soviet-style canteen and Eliseevsky, a regal shop on Tverskaya Street considered the grandest store in the Soviet Union (which these days sells imported French yoghurt and other modern luxuries).

Visitors can also venture below ground on the Metro Tour.  The latter stops at some of the most ornate stations in Moscow’s beloved Stalinist metro system, such as the mosaic-adorned Komsomolskaya. In an attempt to supply visitors with information beyond the average pocket guide, the tour recounts little-known facts about the metro, such as how many babies have been born on it.

Alexei Sotskov, 30, was inspired to start Moscow Greeter , a local franchise of the international Greeter network, after giving informal tours to friends. “I have a lot of friends in foreign countries, and when they come to Moscow I show them interesting places. So I thought it would be a great idea to start running a tourist service,” he says.

The greeters are mostly students learning English who take visitors to lesser-known sights, such as the former royal estate Kolomenskoye, as well as exhibitions and sporting events. The greeters not only show the tourists around but they also chat to them. “Greeters talk about their lives, their parents, where they’re from in Moscow, and where they study,” says Mr Sotskov. 

“Traditional guides just give people information they read in a book.”

Valentina Lebedeva, a second-year linguistics student, has been a greeter for two months. “When most people come to Moscow, they visit the Kremlin and everything, but they go back and they still don’t really get how people really live here,” she says.

“Greeters offers tourists a good way to get a real impression of Russia, so that you don’t just visit the usual tourist sights.”

Another unconventional tour company, Lovely Russia , also strives to provide a more engaging experience for tourists. “A lot of the tours I saw being run by tour providers were really boring, just buses with large crowds of 60 year-olds,” says the company’s co-founder Anna Shegurova, 25. “There was not a lot for a younger crowd, a more off-the-beaten-path kind of thing.” Lovely Russia offers a variety of $22 tours in English. Locations include metro stations, Constructivist landmarks and a “Moscow as it is” outing that winds through the city’s side streets. At the end of the tour, guides suggest places where participants can enjoy a beer.

Ms Shegurova says the guides try to show visitors “a different side of Russia”.

“It’s a great city with a really long and interesting history… but you wouldn’t really know unless you have someone with you who’s able to share this history and make it interesting,” she says.

For visitors without a guide, getting around Moscow can still be a challenge. Over the past year,  some English-language signs indicating the locations of historical sights have been put up, but metro and street signs remain in Cyrillic.

Mila, volunteer for 'wow local'

“Coming here, it’s very hard to get orientated,” says Irina Tripapina, 25, the organiser of WowLocal . “We decided to compensate for the lack of information in English by establishing a community of volunteers who are willing to help visitors find their way.” After passing language and navigation tests, WowLocal volunteers are given T-shirts and badges emblazoned with the phrase “Ask Me, I’m Local.” 

“Tourists can meet WowLocal at any part of the city and at any time – even at night in Butovo,” says Ms Tripapina, referring to the suburb south of Moscow.

Since the project started in July, Ms Tripapina says it has recruited about 400 volunteers. She wears her badge every day on her way to work, and says she’s frequently stopped by foreigners asking for directions (as well as Russians looking for the metro).

Occasionally, she fields some more unusual requests: “Once, a guy from Britain asked me where to get a bowl of pelmeni,” she says.

WowLocal also brings together local people and tourists through city navigation games and conversation clubs at hostels. “We bring volunteers together with the travellers, so that they can share with each other,” explains Ms Tripapina.

All rights reserved by Rossiyskaya Gazeta.

to our newsletter!

Get the week's best stories straight to your inbox

This website uses cookies. Click here to find out more.

Moscow’s best free city tour

I love Moscow – this charming metropolis, its people, its history and its unique cityscape. I would like to share my passion for this city with you. It is my job to show you the most exciting corners of this fascinating metropolis. That’s why, as a travel specialist and your private tour guide Moscow in Russia, I organize a guided free city tour Moscow – so that everyone, regardless of their budget, would be able to enjoy the insider’s view of Moscow.

You get to see what only Moscow residents know and what other tourist guides keep from you. I am a licensed travel specialist in Russia and would like you to enjoy all facets of the capital of the largest country in the world, without demanding any money from you. I’ll show you the city on my free Moscow walking tour for 1.5-hours on foot.

Everything you need to know:

• My tours take place daily by arrangement, I am the only English-speaking licensed tourist guide Moscow, who offers a free city tour.
• My 1.5-hour free tours Moscow do not cost you a cent, I also offer other great paid tours as well.
• I am an experienced local, I make the tours informative, but at the same time relaxed and not off the plane.

Free Tours Moscow – Daily

My free tours Moscow city starts on Slavonic Square (Kitay-Gorod Metro Station), passes the world-famous St. Basil’s Cathedral, which was built by Ivan the Terrible on the south side of Red Square in the 16th century and where the tsars were once crowned. Then it goes across the Red Square at the Lenin Mausoleum, the luxury department store GUM and with a view of the Kremlin towards the historical museum. Of course, you will also learn more about the stories that once happened behind the thick walls of the Kremlin – from the Tsars and Napoleon to Stalin. Then we continue through the idyllic Alexander Garden.

An advance booking is required!

Practical information:

Time: by arrangement, daily Duration: 1.5 hours Price: Free Language: English

«First acquaintance with Moscow» – a 2.5-hour city tour in the center of Moscow

This Moscow city tour starts on the Theater Square, past Lubyanka Square and the KGB-building, then through Kitay Gorod district and Varvarka Street, past the world-famous St. Basil’s Cathedral. Then it goes across Zarjadje Park, over Red Square at the Lenin Mausoleum, the GUM-department store and towards the Historical Museum. We walk through the Alexander Garden.

Time: by arrangement, daily Duration: 2.5 hours Price: 17 $ Students and children: 6 $ Language: English

A 3.5-hour car/bus tour of Moscow.

This is the best tour of Moscow city as all the important sights are visited. I am your Moscow city guide who will walk you through the city explaining the charming history of the city. This tour begins with picking you up from the hotel. 3 breaks are offered for photographing.

First, we will visit the most famous riverside streets and bridges in the center of the city with the most beautiful views of the Kremlin and the Moskva River (e.g. the Kremlin embankment and the Great Stone Bridge).

The first photo break is made at the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. We then pass by the district with numerous museums, Prechistinka Street and the district with numerous medical areas.

We again stop at the Novodevichy Convent, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site on the other bank of the Moskva River to click pictures.

Then we visit “Sparrow Hills” where you can enjoy a bird’s eye view of the city of Moscow from the observation deck. Then there are the skyscrapers of Moscow-City, the Kutuzov avenue, the New Arbat, Tverskaya Street, the world-famous Bolshoi Theater, the KGB building and Varvarka Street. Here there are ample spots to click pictures.

We then drive past the Kremlin again and finally reach Red Square. We take a short tour of Red Square and say goodbye in the Alexander Garden.

Time: by arrangement, daily Duration: 3.5 hours Price for a group: 170-200 $ (depending on the number of travelers) Language: English

Metro tour – daily

Palaces for ordinary people – that was what Stalin promised to the people when the construction of the Moscow Metro began between the World Wars. The communist dictator hadn’t promised too much. No other underground system in the world can boast such spectacular architecture – chandeliers, decorations, stucco, paintings on the walls – each station is individually designed. No wonder that Moscow residents love their metro. I will guide you through the bustle of one of the busiest subways in the world and show you the most beautiful stations Moscow city has.

Time: by arrangement, daily Duration: 2 hours Price: 21 $ Students and children: 17 $ Language: English Included in the price: Metro tickets / the guided tour

Tour of Communist Moscow – every day

After the Communist October Revolution in 1918, Moscow became the capital of the Soviet Empire and was the center of socialist orbit for more than 70 years. This left its mark on Moscow, even if the USSR disintegrated more than a quarter of a century ago. The city streets are full of remnants of the communist regime and the Cold War. This is a walking tour where I will show you the most exciting places in Soviet Moscow: from the notorious KGB headquarters, also known as Lubyanka to the Karl Marx Monument to small hidden remains from the time of hammer and sickle. You will also learn about Stalin’s Great Terror political campaign and the system of the GULAG and how the USSR, the communist Russian republic, became modern Russia.

Time: by arrangement, daily Duration: 2 hours Price: 21 $ Students and children: 17 $ Language: English Included in the price: the guided tour

Alternative Moscow Tour – daily

Explore the unseen Moscow with your Moscow private guide and discover a range of sights during this alternative walking tour.  Away from the main tourist spots (in the central district of Kitay-Gorod), just a short walk from Red Square and St. Basil’s Cathedral, you suddenly find yourself in one of the trendiest districts of Moscow. This place not only has trendy cafes and green squares, but here you can see the most beautiful spray works (according to Albrecht Dürer), hangout-places of the youth and hipsters, as well as learn what Moscow looked like in the 19th century. Here you will also learn exciting and even bloody stories about famous gangsters, eccentric business people and legends like the wandering preacher Rasputin, who is known in Russia either as the “holy devil” or the mad monk. To learn a little more about Moscow’s culture, this is the tour for you. On my alternative tour, you will get to know Moscow away from the tourist hotspots. This tour is of 2 hours duration and you will experience the following on the tour:

• St. John’s Hill, a quiet oasis right in the center, where time has stopped as it did in pre-Communist times
• Khokhlovka Art Center, where Russian hipsters and street artists hang out
• Samoskvorechye District where you can see beautiful streets and hear stories from old Moscow

Time: by arrangement, daily Duration: 2 hours Price: 21 $ Students and children: 17 $ Language: English Included in the price: the guided tour / tram ticket

Kremlin tour – daily (closed on Thursday)

With its 20 towers and high walls, the Kremlin rises imposingly over Red Square. This world-famous fortress with its area of ​​28 hectares is home to over 800 years of Russian history. Described as the eighth wonder of the world, this historic fortress complex is the principal symbol of Russia that sits on the banks of the Moscow River. Today the Kremlin still harbors numerous secrets and has palaces and cathedrals, surrounded by Kremlin Wall. The current wall was constructed between the 15 th  and 16 th  centuries, but the original wall was made of wood around the year 1147. The Kremlin Wall became an important symbol of Moscow’s importance in the Russian Empire. This top tourist destination attracts millions of people every year and there are various sights to see. With my Kremlin tour, you will see the oldest square in the city in the heart of the Kremlin, the once largest cannon in the world and the scene of numerous dramas – from Ivan the Terrible and Napoleon to Stalin. You cannot miss this unique experience.

An advance booking and prepayment for tickets are required.

Time: by arrangement, daily (closed on Thursday) Duration: 2 hours Price on request Students and children: on request Language: English Included in the price: Kremlin tickets / the guided tour

Moscow pub crawl – Friday / Saturday

Experience the real nightlife of Moscow with my Moscow Pub Crawl and enjoy 4 pubs/bars plus 4 welcome shot drinks. Move from one bar to another and get to know travelers from around the world as well as the locals. Play fun adventure games and contests in addition to getting perks in the bars. Between the bars, move from one place to another on foot. The routes are organized as such that you will walk no more than 10 minutes between the bars. Visit the most exciting events, parties, concerts, and dance in the bars. Moscow Pub Crawl is a tour that you will never forget.

This tour runs every Friday and Saturday evening at 8 PM and you need to bring along your passport or an ID card, comfortable shoes, and wear smart casual clothes.

An advance booking and a small prepayment are required!

Time: by arrangement, daily Duration: 4 hours Price on request Language: English Included in the price: the guided tour, 4 shot drinks

1.5-hour boat trip on the Moskva River.

Taking a boat tour in Moscow on the Moskva River is a very pleasant experience. It allows you to know the city from a totally different perspective and admire the beautiful bridges. In this 1.5-hour river trip, you will sail past many beautiful sites in Moscow, so you can take the best photos to commemorate this day. The ship makes several stops on the way. The trip starts from the Ustinskiy Bridge near Sarjadje Park and ends at the Kiev train station.

On this Boat Trip, you can see sights such as: the former Imperial Education House, Sarjadje Park, the “flowing”, “floating” bridge, the most beautiful view of the Kremlin, the Great Stone Bridge, the legendary House on the Quay, the Christ the Savior Cathedral , the monument to Peter the Great on the ship, the central sports arena Luzhniki, the Sparrow Hills, 240 meters high Lomonosov University, the numerous architecturally spectacular skyscrapers of Moscow-City, the Novodevichy Convent, the building of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs etc.

Time: by arrangement, daily Duration: 1.5 hours Price on request Language: English

A military tour – riding on tanks in Stupino (Moscow region)

Russian Military is one of the largest military forces in the world formed in 1992. With my Military Tour experience what it likes to be in the Russian military, shooting guns, ride the Tank T-34 and various models of German tanks from the Second World War, as well as armored personnel carriers and vehicles. You will also shoot from the AK-47 and another combat weapon.

The tour will begin with your private tour guide Moscow in a Soviet army van accompanied with some tasty snacks and tea for a tasty start. Upon arriving, you will have to put on the army safety clothing and climb the Russian armored vehicles. The tour will take you on the noisy, smoky tank, driving through mud roads. All participants will get the chance to drive the tank which is coordinated by the Russian military.

Time: by arrangement, daily Price on request Language: English

Alexander Popov

Welcome to Russia! My name is Alexander, I was born in Moscow and I'm a passionate tour guide. I want to share my passion for Russia and my hometown with you. On my website you will find useful information to make your individual trip to Russia as interesting as possible.

Gorky Park and Sparrow Hills: Green Lungs, place to relax and meet

The travel voucher for the russia visa, you will also like, everything you need to know about russia: included..., traveling‌ ‌in‌ ‌russia‌ ‌–‌ ‌how‌ ‌safe‌ ‌it‌ ‌is‌..., choosing the best guide for a free and..., how do i exchange money in moscow, eating out in moscow, the best time to travel to russia, how do i get from moscow airports to..., the best taxi services in moscow, moscow’s top 13 – the main attractions of..., with sim card purchase in russia: use whatsapp,..., leave a comment cancel reply.

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

@2019-2020 - Moscow Voyager. Alexander Popov

We use cookies to provide you with a better experience. By continuing to use our site you accept our cookie policy. Accept Read More

2018 Primetime Emmy & James Beard Award Winner

R&K Insider

Join our newsletter to get exclusives on where our correspondents travel, what they eat, where they stay. Free to sign up.

A History of Moscow in 13 Dishes

Featured city guides.