Sunset Sound VH Roundtable - Interview with Dweezil Zappa!

[James in New York]

Published on Dec 19, 2020
Guitar legend, EVH friend, Frank Zappa son and Reward Music Founder Dweezil Zappa sits down in Studio 2 at Sunset Sound where Van Halen tracked and mixed the first 5 albums.

DZ discusses first jamming/meeting with EVH at age 12 at the Zappa compound with Donn Landee tracking. That encounter turned into a 40 year friendship. We discuss Fair Warning being his favorite album as well some unknown writing methods for that album.

Dweezil also discusses Frank Zappa's Hot Rats album (which was tracked in 69' at Sunset Sound), his fathers music and what he was like at home. Lastly DZ educates us on his groundbreaking new platform Reward Music which is the wave of the future for Artists to interact with their fans.

This is a 2 part episode.

[James in New York]

Dweezil mentions something new Eddie did in the live solo in 1981 in North Carolina...

A wild new thing that he added to the Mean Street intro.

It's a weird descending part of the tapping and Dweezil said Eddie hs never heard Eddie do it again...

Check it out! Very very cool ...



Go to 112:30...

[chain]

Thanks for posting this James.....

[James in New York]

Very cool thing he did there!

Here's more on Eddie...

Sounds like Dweezil has some Eddie solos he will release!

[James in New York]

Here's part two :

[ziggysmalls]

Never heard Eddie do that descending lick before. Very cool. Kind of interesting why something like that never really was put back in later? I wonder if he may have forgotten it after a decade or so?

[James in New York]

Could be that maybe he forgot, it just came out magically one day practicing and he did it that night and then meant to record it or keep it in his repertoire but with the wild times and lifestyle and new music pouring out of him he forgot...

Very cool to hear it!

[chain]

I'm with Dweezil on wanting to hear the lost out take of "Hear About it Later" mentioned at the end of part 1.....That song has always been one of my favorite VH tunes from not only Fair Warning but the entire song catalog of Van Halen.

To hear Dweezil say Ed described it as being a bit Alan Holdsworthish is beyond enticing. I do wonder if, as mentioned in another thread, the folks gleaming the Sunset Sound VH related vaults for Warner Brothers may find this little morsel and let the world hear it. I hope so...

[James in New York]

I'm with Dweezil on wanting to hear the lost out take of "Hear About it Later" mentioned at the end of part 1.....That song has always been one of my favorite VH tunes from not only Fair Warning but the entire song catalog of Van Halen.

To hear Dweezil say Ed described it as being a bit Alan Holdsworthish is beyond enticing. I do wonder if, as mentioned in another thread, the folks gleaming the Sunset Sound VH related vaults for Warner Brothers may find this little morsel and let the world hear it. I hope so...

That would be amazing! One of their best songs ever!

[JUNGLE DRUMMER]

Could be that maybe he forgot, it just came out magically one day practicing and he did it that night and then meant to record it or keep it in his repertoire but with the wild times and lifestyle and new music pouring out of him he forgot...

Very cool to hear it!

That Greensboro gig is best quality bootleg we have of that epic tour so far. Hopefully some soundboard recordings will some day see the light of day as they have for the other 5 CVH tours.

[James in New York]

That Greensboro gig is best quality bootleg we have of that epic tour so far. Hopefully some soundboard recordings will some day see the light of day as they have for the other 5 CVH tours.

Hope so! That would be gold!

Here's more on the project Eddie plays on...

[Dutchie5150]

I watched both of these last night. Both were awesome. I love Dweezil. Comes across as a=n awesome dude.

On facebook, Sunset Sounds asked if anyone had any questions for Dweezil. They asked him my question which was When is the "What the hell was I thinking" project going to be finished... That was cool.

[PrideofPasadena]

Passing around a guitar with those legends...still crazy every time I hear it.

[Raldo]

Eddie is just flying on that Mean Street intro in that vid!!

[Dutchie5150]

Passing around a guitar with those legends...still crazy every time I hear it.

This is the guitar Dweezil is talking about... Pretty sure this photo was taken at the Holdsworth gig where Ed meet Steve Vai which lead to EVH meeting Frank and Dweezil