Frank Zappa In Australia
By Ian McFarlane
This article was originally published in Rhythms magazine Issue #313 (September-October 2022)
SOUNDS OF THE CITY
Australia has a long-term connection with the music of Frank Zappa. Ian McFarlane investigates from ‘Trouble Every Day’ and Zappa Plays Zappa to ‘Inca Roads’ and AC/DC
FRANK ZAPPA IN AUSTRALIA
“And I’m watchin’ and I’m waitin’ / Hopin’ for the best / Even think I’ll go to prayin’ / Every time I hear ’em sayin’ / That there’s no way to delay that trouble comin’ every day” (‘Trouble Every Day’ by Frank Zappa)
Over recent years I’ve become increasingly obsessed with Frank Zappa and his music. He is one of rock’s more fascinating characters and his music presents boundless possibilities. The legendary moustachioed one has been cited as one of the most influential and challenging musicians of the rock era. He’s been called everything from “iconoclast” (which could either mean he’s a genius or just a very naughty boy) to “visionary” (which suggests that regular mortals such as us are yet to catch up with his achievements).
His music has encompassed everything from garage R&B, doo wop and jazz fusion to classical, avant garde and Musique concrète, and several points beyond. Words such as “non-conformity”, “improvisation”, “experimental”, “virtuosity” and “satire” have been used to characterise him and his work. And while improvisation was an important element of his live work, all of his compositions were just that: strictly composed and charted but allowing appropriate space for those all-important improvisational segments. For the 35 years of his career, his music had the capacity to captivate / bewilder, inspire / repel, amaze / outrage, intrigue / confound listeners; as it continues to do long after his death in 1993.
It’s not my purpose here to explain or evaluate his contribution to the annals of rock music, merely to delve into one aspect of his career: his connection with Australia or, more to the point, our connection with him. For further analysis of Zappa and his music I’d suggest that you explore some of the multiple articles and books written on the subject. I’ve read half a dozen books on the subject, which is only scratching the surface.
For starters, if you’re interested, try No Commercial Potential The Saga of Frank Zappa & The Mothers Of Invention (1972) by David Walley, Mother! Is The Story Of Frank Zappa (1985) by Michael Gray or The Real Frank Zappa Book (1989) by Frank Zappa with Peter Occhiogrosso. Then if you’re further inspired, go for Frank Zappa The Negative Dialectics Of Poodle Play (1993) by Ben Watson, which is 600 densely packed pages of dissertation on not only his music, but also philosophy, theology, classical music, politics, economics, censorship etcetera. I only made it to the end by sheer force of will.
So what do all those rambling introductory remarks mean? It’s Zappa’s music that endures.
Frank Vincent Zappa
Frank Vincent Zappa was born in 1940. As one of America’s pre-eminent musicians, composers, guitarists, singers, songwriters and bandleaders he produced something in the vicinity of 62 albums in his lifetime, with many more released following his death.
The first Zappa albums I can recall hearing were Just Another Band From L.A. (1972) and Apostrophe (’) (1974). In the pre-punk days of the mid-70s, when I was 15-16 years old seriously getting into music, a friend’s older brother had them and we’d play ’em when he wasn’t home. Said older brother also had records by Hawkwind, Nazareth, King Crimson and The Kinks, so unwittingly he had a hand in my musical education. I liked ‘Dog Breath’ from Just Another Band... and ‘Don’t Eat The Yellow Snow’ and ‘Cosmik Debris’ from Apostrophe (’).
After that, while I investigated all sorts of musical avenues, I lost my way a bit with Zappa. I just didn’t know which way to head when it came to buying his records. Tracks such as ‘Fifty-Fifty’ and ‘I’m The Slime’ from Over-Nite Sensation, ‘Inca Roads’ and ‘Po-Jama People’ from One Size Fits All and ‘Muffin Man’ from Bongo Fury were outstanding, but then there was his 1960s albums to contend with. Nevertheless, while Zappa’s music was full of complex twists and turns, his songs were always memorable and never short of melodic inventiveness. ‘Inca Roads’ remains my favourite Zappa track.
Next, Joe’s Garage I, II and III and Sheik Yerbouti were popular around my block. ‘Wet T-Shirt Nite’, ‘Joe’s Garage’, ‘Catholic Girls’, ‘A Token Of My Extreme’ and ‘Dancing Fool’ combined Zappa’s commercial acumen with some of his more controversial lyrical statements.
He scored the closest thing to a hit single here with the hilarious 1982 song ‘Valley Girl’, which featured his teenage daughter Moon Unit’s spot on parodic take on the “Valley Girl Speak” of her San Fernando Valley contemporaries. The 1984 album Them Or Us connected with me. Reviewing the album for Juke magazine at the time I wrote, “This album serves up a bevy of surreal anarchy, a diverse selection of styles and moods guaranteed to have fans lapping it up while others run a mile”.
Tracks such as ‘Stevie’s Spanking’, ‘Truck Driver Divorce’ and a version of the Allman Brothers’ classic ‘Whipping Post’ are very powerful. It was certainly one of his more straight forward rock albums with blistering guitar work from a young Steve Vai. Not that Zappa was a chump in the guitar stakes... he was a phenomenal player and many of his 70s and early 80s albums are chock full of his licks. I also mentioned the live ‘Dog Breath’ earlier which features one of the mightiest examples of his wah wah explorations in the rock mode.
In fact, the three volume Shut Up ’n Play Yer Guitar series (1981) and the multi-volume You Can’t Do That On Stage Anymore (from 1988 onwards) are strictly celebrations of his guitar prowess in the live arena.
When it came to accessing Zappa’s records in Australia, it was inevitably a bit of a mine field. He’d started out on Verve/MGM, switched to Warner Reprise, had his own Bizarre, Straight, DiscReet, Barking Pumpkin and Zappa imprints, been distributed by Phonogram, Warners, CBS, Festival, EMI ad nauseum, so one was hard pushed to follow the trail.
The very first Mothers Of Invention record released here was the 1966 single ‘How Could I Be Such A Fool’ on Verve. How anyone in the Astor organisation (which held the Verve distribution license in Australia at the time) thought it might have some commercial potential is staggering to imagine now. It’s reckoned that only 100 copies were pressed. (By the way, even more bizarre is the fact that Astor also issued the Velvet Underground’s ‘Sunday Morning’ as a Verve 45 here in 1967. Both singles are highly sought after collectors’ items these days.)
The debut Mothers Of Invention album Freak Out! (1966) was not issued here at the time. It eventually got an official release here on CD in 1995 when the Rykodisc label took over Zappa’s catalogue and commenced an extensive reissue programme. At least Freak Out! must have made its way to Australia on import because singer Ross ‘The Boss’ Wilson has cited it as one of his earliest musical influences. He would also have heard Absolutely Free (1967), We’re Only In It For The Money (1967) and Cruising With Ruben & The Jets (1968) which did get released locally. The Zappa influence was evident on Wilson’s live craft with The Sons Of The Vegetal Mother and the likes of Daddy Cool’s ‘Teen Love’ extravaganza and ‘Make Your Stash’ from Sex, Dope, Rock & Roll: Teenage Heaven (1972).
When it came to other local musicians influenced, or at least inspired by, Zappa I can mention Gulliver Smith, Russell Smith and Jeremy Noone (real name Jeremy Kellock), lead singer, guitarist and electric saxophonist respectfully with progressive psych band Company Caine. Gulliver was known for his be-bop monologues and freaky lyrics which had a Zappaesque slant to them. Also the band was known to play a version of ‘King Kong’ at various festivals and concert events, which is one of Zappa’s more challenging 60s compositions. Furthermore, if Company Caine’s astonishing ‘The Day Superman Got Busted’ (from the 1971 album A Product Of A Broken Reality) isn’t an unhinged exploration of Zappa proportions then I don’t know what is. (Note: Kellock also played on Sex, Dope, Rock & Roll: Teenage Heaven.)
Sydney band Duck, featuring guitarist John Robinson (ex-Blackfeather) and singers Bobbi Marcini and Jon English, covered ‘Dog Breath’ on their 1972 album Laid. I’d like to think that the master himself would have approved of Robinson’s exciting, spot on wah wah solo.
Heavy rock band Bakery were known to cover ‘Road Ladies’ (from Chunga’s Revenge, 1970) in concert. (More on this below...). Then there was Sydney pub band Big Swifty who derived their name from a track title on Waka/Jawaka (1972). It’s doubtful, however, the band ever actually covered said song, because it’s an epic, multi-part, 18 minute jazz fusion behemoth, among Zappa’s more eclectic compositions. By the way, Big Swifty morphed into pub rock faves The Radiators.
One thing to note here is that while Zappa was one of the original 60s freaks, he was never a hippie. In fact he abhorred the hippie lifestyle and all it stood for. So while Zappa was overlooked by the fashionable flower children of the era, the more progressive leaning musicians did have a thing for him. He was also prescient when it came to concocting genres having included the song ‘Flower Punk’ on We’re Only In It For The Money. Years later Melbourne psych band Sand Pebbles described their music as, you guessed it... “flower punk”.
Sydney jazz ensemble Petulant Frenzy were known for getting together on special occasions during the late 2000s to perform the music of Frank Zappa. Writing for the Sydney Herald Sun, Pat Sheil reviewed a concert at the Basement (December 2009): “Describing Petulant Frenzy as a ‘Frank Zappa covers band’ is akin to describing the Australian Chamber Orchestra as ‘a group that rehashes old Mozart hits’. But the back-handed compliment of being a ‘hot covers band’ was shrugged off by the Frenzy many moons ago, as a devoted audience of jazz musicians and rabid nostalgics realised they were not simply a note-for-note re-enactment.”
Wollongong stoner rockers Tumbleweed included a psychedelicised version of ‘Trouble Every Day’ (from the Freak Out! album) as a B-side on their 1993 single ‘Daddy Long Legs’. Most recently, Beasts Of Bourbon included ‘The Torture Never Stops’ on their 2019 album Still Here.
Then there was Australian pianist, composer and conductor Allan Zavod OAM whose career played out mostly in America. He toured as part of Zappa’s 1984 live band, appearing on the archival live albums Does Humour Belong In Music? (1986, recorded September-December 1984) and You Can’t Do That On Stage Anymore Vol 1 (1988).
Zappa’s first solo album, following the dissolution of the original Mothers band, Hot Rats (1969) was a seminal instalment in the evolution of jazz fusion and progressive rock. Zappa described it as “a movie for your ears”, and it remains his most revered album. It would have been likewise popular here at the time, as were 200 Motels (1971), Fillmore East June 1971 (1971) and The Grand Wazoo (1972). These are the kinds of countercultural touchstones that got an airing in the right places.
During that era, musician (and future Rhythms contributor) Keith Glass ran Archie ’n’ Jughead’s import record store, along with writer David ‘Dr. Pepper’ Pepperell. Glass recalls, “Frank’s albums were more popular in Melbourne than they seemed to be in the US. I love the first couple – Ross Wilson introduced them to me – but the biggest seller was the white cover Fillmore East album as Warners did not release it locally at the time. We sold the heck out of it for years – so I never need to hear it again!”
Photographer Brecon Walsh told me about some of his experiences attending the Much More Ballroom concerts at Cathedral Hall, Fitzroy, circa 1972. He said, “I remember one time talking with Rob Mackenzie, Jen Jewel Brown and Renée Geyer. We were standing in the hall and Peter Lillie was over to the left hanging there looking like a hippie aristocrat / early Roxy Music Eno. Renée was there with her first band, Sun, and she would have been 19, if that then. I recall that The Mothers’ Live at The Fillmore East was playing over the PA with Zappa’s ‘Latex Solar Beef’ or ‘The Mud Shark’ blasting out.”
Frank Zappa On Stage
Frank Zappa and the Mothers toured Australia twice: June-July 1973 (John Gunnell on behalf of Robert Stigwood with Tour Consultants Evans, Gudinski Associates P/L present Frank Zappa The Mothers of Invention) and January 1976. The 1973 tour took in 11 concerts, including four at Sydney’s Hordern Pavilion and three at Melbourne’s Festival Hall (a proposed fourth there was cancelled). Folkie Glenn Cardier and country rock band Albatross (featuring guitarist Lindsay Bjerre, ex-Tamam Shud) were supports in Sydney.
Jazz fusion masters MacKenzie Theory were due to provide support in Melbourne but, as guitarist Rob Mackenzie told me, Zappa cancelled their appearance. Mackenzie was unsure as to why Zappa did so but suggested that “our style of jazz rock fusion might have been too similar to his, or maybe he felt we might upstage him”.
That is possible but supposition only, because the 1973 tour featured one of Zappa’s best live bands: George Duke (keyboards, synthesizer, vocals), Tom Fowler (bass), Bruce Fowler (trombone), Ruth Underwood (marimba, vibraphone, percussion), Ian Underwood (woodwinds), Ralph Humphrey (drums), Sal Marquez (trumpet, vocals) and Jean Luc Ponty (violin). He often introduced them as “our rockin’ teenage combo”.
The repertoire encompassed the likes of ‘Dupree’s Paradise’, ‘Cosmik Debris’, ‘Montana’, ‘Big Swifty’ / ‘Eat That Question’, ‘Inca Roads’ and the ‘Yellow Snow Suite’. Many of the concerts were two hours long and recorded evidence (i.e. audience bootlegs) attests to the brilliance of this particular Mothers line-up. Anecdotal reports also indicate that the pungent smoke haze wafting above the audience was a show in itself.
Ben Watson wrote in The Negative Dialectics Of Poodle Play of a ruction at one of the Hordern shows. An overenthusiastic (or perhaps belligerent) audience member lit a firework. “Zappa very expertly paused mid-song, called on security to remove the culprit, no doubt not wishing to relive his memories of the fire at Geneva in 1971 (Ed note: when “some stupid with a flare gun” burnt down the Montreux Casino, an event immortalised by Deep Purple in the song ‘Smoke On The Water’), and then used the routine to vent his wrath with a verbal improvisation.”
On this tour, Zappa dropped into Chequers club in Sydney and caught a set by Bakery fronted by singer Barry Leef. He was suitably impressed by Leef’s vocals and invited him to sing with the band at one of their Festival Hall concerts. Leef sang guest vocals on a performance of a blues jam which incorporated ‘Road Ladies’. Zappa then asked Leef to move to Los Angeles and join the Mothers, but visa and work permit problems arose when it came time for Leef to head off and he reluctantly had to decline the offer. The prospects could have been interesting but Zappa always moved like a tiger on Vaseline and he had a new vocalist, Napoleon Murphy Brock, lined up in short order.
John Robinson interviewed Zappa for Soundblast magazine (August 1973). Robinson was a noted Zappa fan and based on the masters’ answers, the extensive interview was a great success. A couple of excerpts include:
JR: “One thing that amazed me on ‘It Must Be A Camel’ was the tremendous depth you got right at the end like a reflection of the theme restatement.”
FZ: “Amazing – you’re the first person to pick that out! Ian Underwood got that effect by playing a bass clarinet walking around the studio. He was being recorded with two mics, in different parts of the room.”
JR: “Do you see yourself as educating your audience as you go along?”
FZ: “We’re trying to correct the missing link between pop music and so-called serious music, and also record company executives who need to find out what they are selling. This is because they don’t really know just how important rock music is today.”
Zappa made appearances on TV shows while in Australia, including The Ernie Sigley Show in Adelaide and the ABC-TV arts/discussion programme Monday Conference, hosted by Robert Moore. The full Monday Conference appearance is available to view on YouTube. Zappa fielded questions posed by Moore, a number of specialist panel members (including future Double Jay presenter Chris Winter and a young journalist called J.J. Adams) and people in the audience about politics, sex, drugs, rock’n’roll, consumerism, advertising, media manipulation, censorship, groupies and radio. He proved to be very articulate, listening closely and answering every question with intelligence and wit.
Returning for the 1976 tour, the version of the Mothers was a smaller (but no less impressive) group: Zappa, Brock (vocals, sax), André Lewis (keyboards), Roy Estrada (bass, and who had been an original Mother in the 60s) and Terry Bozzio (drums). They were promoting the DiscReet LPs Bongo Fury, One Size Fits All, Apostrophe (’) and Roxy & Elsewhere. The seven-date itinerary took in concerts in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth. Wendy Saddington supported in Melbourne and Split Enz in Perth. Graphic designer Chris Grosz created one of the iconic Zappa posters for this tour.
The repertoire incorporated ‘Filthy Habits’, ‘Black Napkins’, ‘The Illinois Enema Bandit’, ‘The Torture Never Stops’, ‘Muffin Man’, ‘Zoot Allures’ etc. This time, however, while the playing was again splendid Zappa tended to allow the jamming tendencies of this group to get out of hand so the end effect now sounds a bit overwrought.
A bootleg called Back On The Straight And Narrow (recorded in Adelaide, 24 January) had made its way on to the market at the time. Then in 2002 an official archival recording of one of the Hordern Pavilion shows (20 January) came out, FZ:OZ (pronounced “Eff Zee:Oh Zee”) which was a 27-track double CD. It’s a very good representation of the concert.
What is remarkable for us to hear is the guest appearance of Norman Gunston (aka actor Garry McDonald) playing harmonica on ‘The Torture Never Stops’. The Gunston-Zappa connection came about when – with the Zappa tour imminent – McDonald and his crew flew to Los Angeles and secured an interview for The Norman Gunston Show. The hilarious interview excerpt is viewable on YouTube.
Award winning crime novelist Shane Maloney later wrote a piece for The Monthly (August 2009), saying “Frank Zappa was no stranger to Australia and its wildlife. Inspired by a monotreme encountered during his 1973 tour, the avant-rock polymath composed a complex jazz-fusion instrumental entitled ‘Echidna’s Arf (Of You)’. Three years later, he came face-to-face with that even rarer antipodean creature, the little Aussie bleeder, Norman Gunston.”
Zappa was initially bemused by Gunston’s manic persona but caught on to his humour quickly. When Norman produced a harmonica and suggested they jam together, Frank played a blues shuffle on his acoustic guitar and the multimedia star blew up a brief storm, deftly incorporating the ABC-TV News theme into his outro. “The boy has got a promising career,” Gunston concluded, “and when he comes to Australia, give him a break. Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Frank Zappa, Mother Superior of The Mothers of Invention.”
Zappa reciprocated by inviting Gunston to join him on stage in Sydney. Kicking into ‘The Torture Never Stops’, Zappa introduced his new friend as “Ladies and gentlemen, Norman ‘Blind Lemon’ Gunston The Little Aussie Bleeder”. Zappa and his band were later spotted at the much loved Bondi Lifesaver, partaking in après concert activities (possibly catching a set by AC/DC).
In fact, the seemingly enigmatic Zappa was omnipresent while in Australia. He went into the studios of the recently launched FM radio station Double Jay (2JJ) for an interview and to play tracks. Arnold Frolows was a music programmer at the time and remembers the event.
Frank Zappa poster 1976 by Chris Grosz
“Yes, Frank came in and I was there ‘producing’,” Frolows explained to me. “He was interviewed by the very nervous late Mac Cocker on what was the 2-6 pm drive time show but could have been 4-6 pm. Mac and I were the ultimate Zappa fans so you can imagine how overwhelmed and excited we felt. Frank couldn’t have been more affable in his usual Frank ‘I don’t suffer fools gladly’ way. I also got to meet my other all time hero the great Roy Estrada at a later gig... big times for a fan like me!”
And did you know that our illustrious editor of Rhythms, and long-time presenter of Off The Record on Triple R, Brian Wise is also a Zappa fan. He got his community radio start at PBS-FM and in the book 40 Years Of PBS Radio there’s a grainy black and white photo of Brian in the cramped studio circa 1980; you can only see his back but one of the albums just visible on the console is Frank Zappa’s Shut Up ’n Play Yer Guitar. He has interviewed George Duke for Off The Record.
Likewise, renowned radio presenter and regular Rhythms / Triple R contributor Billy Pinnell is also a major Zappa fanatic. He has been collecting his albums for many years, attended several of Zappa’s concerts and interviewed him in 1983. At the start of the interview, the ever fastidious Zappa gave Billy a polite lesson in R&B history:
BP: “Thanks for your time Frank. The title track of your new album, The Man From Utopia, is a medley with an old Ronnie Hawkins song ‘Mary Lou’. Is the song ‘The Man From Utopia’ from that era as well?”
FZ: “Yes, but you’re incorrect that it’s a Ronnie Hawkins song. So here’s some rock’n’roll history; ‘Mary Lou’ was originally written by Obie Jessie who recorded under the name of Young Jessie circa 1955. ‘The Man From Utopia’ was released around that time too, it was the B-side of a hit called ‘Death Of An Angel’ by Donald Woods and The Bel-Aires. When Ronnie Hawkins decided to record ‘Mary Lou’ he claimed the writing and publishing credit for himself and wound up getting sued by Obie Jessie and Obie won the case.”
With recent events in the US, Zappa would be turning in his grave now. Pinnell asked: “Were you surprised when ‘Valley Girl’ became such a big hit in America?” His pithy reply was, “Well it’s pretty hard to be surprised because as with anything in America, stupidity knows no bounds.” (Note: the full interview is available on Pinnell’s iTunes podcast Billy Pinnell The Music Show).
Zappa Plays Zappa
Frank Zappa died on 4 December 1993, a victim of prostate cancer. The aforementioned Allan Zavod (who passed away in 2016) wrote a tribute piece to Zappa in the February 1994 issue of Rolling Stone magazine. They had been neighbours in LA by the time he joined Zappa’s band in 1984.
He wrote: “Playing with Zappa was the greatest gig that any musician could wish for. He always challenged you, stretching your musical abilities beyond your wildest imagination. As a musician, he was never boring. Each night was a new experience. We did 250 shows in one year - each show unique in some way. The vast amount of musical material in itself was an enormous challenge to learn. Frank would pull out songs we hadn’t done for six months. On the first day of a three week rehearsal, Frank presented me with 200 tunes and asked if I could learn them in that space of time. I began to realise you could never learn all of Frank’s music - it was a continuous ongoing adventure. Sorry to kill the myth that he was weird and wild; his lyrics may have been, but the man was not. Zappa was a serious composer and one of the most professional musicians I’ve ever been associated with.”
By 1993, Frank’s son Dweezil was entrenched in his own career. Growing up, his guitar heroes had been Eddie Van Halen, Randy Rhoads and Jimi Hendrix. In fact, it was Van Halen who produced his debut single, ‘My Mother Is A Space Cadet’, when he was 12 years old (1982).
In the late 1980s, when Dweezil was working as a VJ for the MTV network, he befriended INXS while Jenny Morris was singing backing vocals with them. She then invited him to tour Australia as her guitarist. Still, he was never far from his father’s influence and in 2006 he elected to honour his music and legacy by touring as Zappa Plays Zappa. Since then he has toured Australia three times (2007, 2011, 2018) with his fourth, proposed tour curtailed by the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020.
Dweezil has managed to translate his father’s work from record to the live stage by balancing his father’s original intentions with his own approach to how he interprets the music. In some instances, such as with ‘Son Of Mr. Green Genes’ (from Hot Rats), he learned his father’s seven-minute guitar solo, note-for-note, because what he played originally was so pivotal and specific in that instance. For a glimpse of the music of Zappa Plays Zappa there’s YouTube footage of Australian trumpet player Kendal Cuneo delivering a gorgeous, Miles Davis styled solo on the otherwise salacious ‘The Illinois Enema Bandit’ (from the Forum, 1 April 2018).
In August 2017, Greg Phillips interviewed Dweezil for Musician magazine.
“The goal of this particular show is to present the audience with more of a chronological experience of my dad’s music,” Dweezil told him. “We go from Freak Out! to a bunch of Mothers Of Invention stuff. Then it gets into the early 70s and 200 Motels and jumps around within the 70s. There will be a host of things from different records and there are a few songs from the 80s. It’s usually almost a three hour show, two hours and 45 minutes on average but it can be longer. The real goal is to give the audience the chance to hear a variety of musical styles within my dad’s whole catalogue but from song to song there is a ton of variety too. We have added in a few things that we haven’t played before. The thing is … the music is hard. There is no way you can get around that. You can’t fake playing the music.”
Frank Zappa & AC/DC
To conclude, Dweezil Zappa once revealed that his father was an AC/DC fan. In a 2017 interview with Classic Rock magazine, he said that Frank even tried to sign them following his 1976 tour. They ended up signing to Atlantic Records for the US.
“He wanted them for his own label because he thought they were great. I think he saw what everybody saw. They could play, they had a ton of energy and they were authentic. It was blues-based and it had an attitude. The thing about AC/DC is they’ve carved a massive career out of playing one style that’s changed very, very little. That’s what people love, that consistency. They’re rock solid and they have a great sound. He (Frank) loved rhythm and blues. AC/DC is essentially a very heavy-duty, electrified rhythm and blues band. He actually had one of their records. When I was getting into music he played it for me. It was either Back In Black or Highway To Hell. He just thought they were great because they were really just a high volume version of the Blues.”
Dweezil also revealed that AC/DC guitarists Malcolm and Angus Young played on one of his tracks, recorded as a tribute to his father. Around 1994 they played on ‘What The Hell I Was Thinking’, a continuous, 65-minute piece of music that is yet to be completed. Eddie Van Halen, Brian May, Eric Johnson, Steve Morse, Joe Walsh and Yngwie Malmsteen also contributed parts. He said Angus played six or seven different takes for his solo and every single one was very well crafted.
