Chords for Terry Bozzio Talks About His Career Part 2

_ _ _ _ _ [Ab] You know I got the gig with with Frank Zappa
[D] Just just out of the [Dm] clear blue sky because they were branching out looking for people all over the states
So found out I had to do this cattle call audition fly myself down to LA
And I was on unemployment at the time, and you know it's kind of skittish about the whole thing
I never heard any of Frank's music.
You know I'd heard about
Brown shoes don't make it stuff like that, but I had no idea and I [D] thought well
You know I can play all the McLaughlin Billy Cobham stuff, so I'll smoke it
you know and [Bb] I bought two of his records live [Dm] at the Roxanne elsewhere and
_ Apostrophe three days before the audition and didn't sleep for three days because the records just scared me to death
I'd never heard.
I mean the sheer volume of memorization was frightening
Then there was the you know the level of players was I thought well
What could I do compared to what Ralph Humphries and and Chester Thompson are doing exchanging these furious drum solos and then?
the music was really really difficult at times, and you know I was completely overwhelmed by it all and
So I was weak and nervous
And you know finally fell asleep on the plane as I flew to LA
And I had to take a bus to Hollywood and then a taxi to his
Big rehearsal [D] studio, and I walked in and I was a little green jazz drummer from San Francisco
I'd never seen like anything [Dm] like in that studio
It was you know big huge stage the most difficult music I'd ever seen spread out all over the stage
There was sound and lighting equipment and full [Bb] cases.
I'd never seen an anvil case
There were two huge octoplus drum sets and [D] one drummer would
Would audition while the other drummer set up the other kit
While the other guy auditioned so they were kind of just to save time going back and forth and they were dropping like flies
[Dm] you know and Zappa was there with George Duke and
Tom Fowler, and he was just nope uh-uh next sorry
Forget it.
You know and and I thought you know there's no way I'm gonna get this gig and I thought well, okay
I owe it to [Dm] myself to try and so I got up there and
I just did the best I could
With my audition which consisted of reading a difficult piece of music called approximate that had you know odd times odd
Superimposed rhythms, and it was written up and down the staff melodically
But you were to approximate the melodic curve you didn't have to play specific pitches
And the idea was [D] everybody would play the same curve up and down
But you could make up your own notes and the rhythms were precise so you know when I come to a 13 tuplet
I'd stop and go okay
And I played for him slowly and proved to him that I understood it even though I couldn't sight read it
And so he accepted that and I got my way through that and then he tested my
Memorization he just said okay
This is a string of fives and then there's a nine and an 11 and this and that and then it goes back to the fives
That's the structure go and so we started to play this weird piece
And I did the best I could at that it's something [Bb] in 19
You know like a Billy Cobham 4 4 plus 3 16 thing and that I was somewhat familiar with
So I just you know got got through that and then he heard me wanted to hear me play a blues shuffle
Check [Dm] my feel out and at the end of my audition
He said I like the way you play
And I want to hear you again after I check out the rest of these guys and he turns to his road manager
[D] Who turns to the other drummers they start shaking their heads and the road manager?
Turns back to Frank and says that's it Frank nobody else wants to audition after Terry and so Zappa turns to me
It goes looks like you got the gig wow
So [Ab] I was shocked and I said are you sure I can do this because I really didn't think I was good enough and
He said well.
Do you want to do it, and I said yeah?
I don't know that you know I'm heavy enough, and he said well if you're willing to work hard
You know I think you know you can do it so like a good father
He kind of took me under his wing and and and same thing when I left him
You know like [D] a good father
He said step into my office and said I think it's time for you to go out and do your own thing
And he sensed I guess my you know my feeling for wanting to move on and
I said the same thing to him.
Are you sure I can do this and said yeah
You know I think you're ready to it's like a good father
He kicked me out of the nest and said learn to fly on your own
Nobody [Bb] know who I am or care who I am if it wasn't for for Frank
I pretty much owe everything to him.
You know I I mean I I should take credit for you know basically what I
What I do what I've done what I practice and what I try to accomplish but on the other hand
There's a lot of great drummers that
That don't get a break
Playing with with somebody like Frank when you know
When someone played with [D] Miles Davis they were immediately known all over the world if somebody played with Frank you were [Dm] immediately known all over
the world you were you know you became
Famous and you had you know credibility that that you'd get only from playing with Frank
People knew that you had to be able to read and play all this complicated stuff as well as do rock and roll or jazz
Or variety of styles so a lot of those gigs don't exist anymore
And I was very lucky to have worked with him at the black page
One day I walked into a rehearsal, and I guess this was two years into playing with Frank
so I was fairly comfortable with him at the time and
[D] I had done his orchestral music which was pretty difficult and I considered myself a vet
You know at that point and he walked in and he handed me this piece of music
And I said what do you think about this Bozio?
And I said wow you know I'm impressed and this was a through composed piece of drum music for my
Drum kit at the time and it was written with very difficult rhythms
Melodically up into every note was written every tom every rhythm every fuzz roll every flam
And what instruments [Dm] would it be played where and when so I?
Could sight read parts of it, [D] but it wasn't a pressure something.
He just said you know check it out, and I said you know
[Bb] Yeah, you know this is this is cool
So I I kind of chipped away at it for maybe 15 or 20 minutes a day before
Rehearsals for a week or so and after a week I could play it for him
and so I played it for him and he said great and he took the drum part back and he wrote the rest of the music and
you know the harmony and the melody to it, and then we began playing it as a band and
it's a
One of these pieces I've become famous for just because [D] Frank wrote it
And it's really difficult piece of drum music at any rate.
I you know once again got this huge sort of
Cult you know
Following from from having played this difficult piece of music that