From my interview with Ike Willis (at
http://idiotbastard.com/Interviews/IkeWillis.htm)
IB: I’d like to ask you about Jeff Hollie.
IW: Jeff Hollie!
IB: A couple of years ago, we met him in Holland.
IW: You met him?
IB: Yeah, he played with Cuccurullo Brillo Brullo, and they introduced him as this guy who played tenor sax with Frank.
IW: He’s the ‘Jeff’ on Joe’s Garage.
IB: He plays on your album, as well.
IW: He’s my best friend from college. Me and my wife and him, we met on my first day in college in 1974. He’s my daughter’s Godfather. He and I, we started our first band together in our freshman year in college. We met the very first day of college. If it wasn’t for Jeff Hollie, I would have never been prepared for Frank Zappa. Jeff was the biggest Zappa fan in our circle. Jeff had all the albums, up to that point. He brought me up...I was at private school, from 71 to 74. After graduation, I was in college. Jeff, I met him on the basketball court. We go to our first orientation meeting; my wife to be is sitting across the room. So I met her, and then we’re hanging out in the dormitories, and Jeff said “Hey, man - are you into Zappa?” I said “Yeah”. We were into like, Yes, Zappa, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Return To Forever. And Jeff had all the Zappa albums. My roommate was a Yes freak. And I was listening to the Mahavishnu Orchestra, Genesis, Return To Forever, the Beatles. You name it. So we’d all just sit up there smoking doobies, and listen to our favourite stuff. And Jeff brought me up to speed on all the latest Zappa stuff. So by the time Frank came to our school - Washington University - and did a concert a few years later, I was on the local crew, and we made eye contact. And after a while, Frank takes me to his dressing room, hands me his guitar and says “Do you know any of my shit?” And I said “Yeah,”, and he said “Well, play me something.” And I could because of Jeff Hollie. So how do you repay your best friend...I mean, if it wasn’t for him, there would be no Ike WiIlis, okay? Because he’d always wanted to play with Frank, the only thing I could think of...all through the Joe’s Garage sessions, Jeff was there anyway. I don’t know if you’ve seen pictures, but there’s me and Frank and Jeff in the studio. So I said “Frank, please, please. He knows all your stuff. At least give me this. You’ve got to give me this. At least put Jeff on one song.” And it was on the title track: “Even if you play it on the saxophone”; that’s Jeff. I mean, how do you repay your best friend for doing something like that? It was the only thing I could come up with to really, really repay him for what he’d done.
IB: Have you spoken to him lately?
IW: Last week in Eindhoven! He lives in Amsterdam. That’s the great thing. We always stay in touch. He’s been in Amsterdam for 14 years - he escaped from Washington. I told him we were coming to Eindhoven, because I hadn’t seen him for a couple of years.