Dweezil Zappa Bio - Biography

Name Dweezil Zappa
Height
Naionality American
Date of Birth 5 September 1969
Place of Birth Hollywood, California, USA
Famous for
In the 1980s, Zappa worked as a MTV VJ. He also recorded some solo rock albums, as well as playing guitar for other artists. Dweezil can be seen in the music video for Don Johnson's top 40 song, "Heartbeat." He also played co-lead guitar (along with Reb Beach) on Winger's cover of Jimi Hendrix's "Purple Haze." Dweezil has said that Eddie Van Halen was his favorite guitar player, and he began copying Van Halen's distinctive guitar style. He also had a part in the futuristic Arnold Schwarzenegger movie The Running Man as Stevie ("Don't touch that dial!"), and gave his most famous cameo role in Molly Ringwald's brat-pack movie Pretty in Pink as Andi's friend, Simon.

Since the early 1990s, Zappa has been working on a piece of music named 'What The Hell Was I Thinking?', a 75-minute piece featuring guitar solos by dozens of famous guitar players. The project has suffered from numerous difficulties and has been reworked several times since the '90s. Dweezil said in September 2004:[5] "I started recording it on analog tape almost 13 years ago... There are probably about 35 guest guitar players on it, everybody from Brian May to Edward van Halen, Eric Johnson, Angus and Malcolm Young — it's quite a crazy project. I'm still waiting and hoping to record Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page as some of my final guests on there."

In the mid 1990s, Zappa voiced the character Ajax Duckman on the animated series Duckman. He also briefly appeared in the television sitcom Normal Life with sister Moon Unit Zappa and former Laverne and Shirley star Cindy Williams. He composed and performed the theme music for The Ben Stiller Show (the solo from Spinal Tap's "Break Like the Wind"). In the late 1990's Dweezil, alongside with his brother, Ahmet, started a short-lived TV show called Happy Hour which was later canceled due to copyright infringement with the name).

In "Weird Al" Yankovic's 2003 eleventh studio album Poodle Hat, Dweezil performs the opening guitar solo and lends his vocal talents to the track, Genius in France.

In 2006, Zappa organized the "Zappa Plays Zappa" tour. He assembled a band of young musicians with a view to bring the music of Frank Zappa to a younger audience. The tour also features guest appearances by Steve Vai, Napoleon Murphy Brock and Terry Bozzio. The tour began in Europe in May with dates in the U.S. from June. After a break it continued in the U.S. on October 18, 2006. The 2007 version of the tour ran from July, finishing in Australia in early December, and featured Ray White as special guest. The shows ended with the promise: "There are so many songs we want to learn to play ... see you next year ..."

Dweezil Zappa Photos