Frank Zappa sideman still playing for his biggest fan
Written by Luke Allen Hackney
Wednesday, 19 December 2007
http://www.lansingcitypulse.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=vie...
It’s been well over a decade since the death of Frank Zappa, but his
impact on rock ‘n’ roll is still felt today. For proof you need look no
further than longtime Zappa sideman Ike Willis.
Willis was instructed in Zappa’s last days to keep his music alive by
the man himself. And since Zappa’s death from prostate cancer in 1993,
Willis has attempted to do just that. “I did as he said,” says Willis,
now 52, the same age Zappa was when he passed away. “He said, and I
quote, ‘Go ye forth and kick ass.’”
Willis met Zappa while in college at Washington University in St. Louis.
His friend was on the concert committee at the college and had gotten
Zappa to play. Willis, who had been playing music for about 12 years by
that point, finagled his way onto the stage crew in hopes of taking some
notes. “I wanted to learn what the hell he was doing,” Willis says. He
was intrigued not only by Zappa’s musical abilities, but also by the
fact that he was a businessman who had started his own label. “I didn’t
want to work for politicians, Mobil Oil or be a lawyer,” says Willis,
who was studying political science at the time.
http://www.lansingcitypulse.com/images/stories/071219/ike.jpg
Ike Willis, who played guitar and sang with rock legend Frank Zappa for
17 years, will perform Saturday at Mac's Bar in Lansing with
Detroit-based Zappa tribute band Ugly Radio Rebellion. (Courtesy photo)
The two got to talking and hit it off. They kept in contact and Ike was
eventually asked to tour with the band. He kept playing with them right
up until the end. In between, he sang and played guitar on a handful of
records, most notably playing the title character in the rock opera
“Joe’s Garage.”
Following what would be their final tour in 1988, Zappa revealed to
Willis he had cancer. At one point things were looking up; Zappa felt
better and the idea of doing another tour was discussed. Shortly after,
however, Willis was asked to visit for final instructions.
Willis made a promise to help keep Zappa’s music alive.
Since then, he has worked to fulfill his promise. Only a few weeks after
Zappa’s death, he began playing with an existing tribute band called The
Muffinmen. He has played with several Zappa tribute acts since then
(including Project/Object, which includes other former Zappa bandmates).
But in the past few years, one has caught his ear: Detroit’s Ugly Radio
Rebellion.
Originally formed in the summer of 2002 as Uncle Meat, Ugly Radio
Rebellion came together through an ad placed by guitarist/vocalist Scott
Schroen. Groups of musicians played selected pieces during rehearsals
with votes made to see who would go on. Those left standing after others
quit showing up or were driven out by what the band calls “musical
intimidation” made the cut. A little over a year later, the band shifted
their line-up and changed their name after some legal issues (“Uncle
Meat” being the name of a Zappa album). The new moniker comes from a mix
of “Tinsel Town Rebellion,” a double-album and the first Zappa released
under his own Barking Pumpkin label in 1981, and “Kill Ugly Radio,” a
compilation album interspersed with brief interview excerpts from Zappa
sent to radio stations in 1995.
Ugly Radio Rebellion consists of Schroen, John Garland on bass,
keyboards and vocals, and drummer Layla Hall. Hall says the band is one
of only a few Zappa tributes on the market, and one of the only ones
doing it full time. The trio has met with a fair share of enthusiasm so
far. “It’s almost like a cult following,” Hall says. “You get a lot of
old hippies, college kids and people that look like your grandfather
coming to the shows.”
They have certainly caught Willis’ fancy. Starting Friday in Ohio,
Willis will play guitar with the band to celebrate Zappa’s birthday. On
Saturday, they’ll stop in Lansing for a show at Mac’s bar. Sunday they
will perform at a pancake breakfast (playing the Zappa tune “St.
Alphonso’s Pancake Breakfast”) in Pontiac, capping the evening off at
the Cadiuex Cafe on Detroit’s east side.
When the shows are finished, Willis plans to do something he hasn’t been
doing enough of: working on his own material. Having only made two
albums in his career, both in the late-‘80s, he says its time to do “the
rest of the 18 albums I have to record.”
Although his music differs greatly from Zappa’s, he says working on
preserving the man’s legacy has helped him find the musicians with the
chops he needs. For his band, The Ike Willis Project, he is enlisting
Ugly Radio Rebellion.
And although it’s not Zappa’s music, he feels like the fans will still
like it. After all, he says, Zappa did. “He was my biggest fan,” Willis
says.
Ugly Radio Rebellion featuring Ike Willis
With Sexual Pantalones, Funk of Forty Thousand Years
9 p.m., Saturday, Dec. 22
Mac’s Bar, 2700 E. Michigan Ave., Lansing
$7, 18+
(517) 484-6795
www.macsbar.com
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