Terry Bozzio
- Actor
- Composer
- Music Department
Virtuoso drummer Terry John Bozzio was born on December 27, 1950 to
Italian-American parents in San Francisco, California. Terry started
playing the drums on makeshift sets at age six. Inspired by the
Beatles' famous appearance on "The Ed Sullivan Show," Bozzio begged his
father for drum lessons at age thirteen. He played in the 60s garage
rock bands Blue Glass Radio, The Yarde, and Tamalpaias Mountain Boys.
Terry majored in music at both Sir Francis Drake High School and
College of Marin. Following graduation from college, Bozzio played
drums for productions of the rock musicals "Godspell" and "Walking in
My Time" as well as performed with various local jazz groups. He joined
Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention in 1975. Terry played drums on
ten albums for Zappa which include "Bongo Fury," "Joe's Garage," and
"Baby Snakes" (he also appears in the latter rock concert documentary
of the same name). Bozzio left Zappa in 1978. In 1980 he co-founded the
excellent New Wave band Missing Persons. Missing Persons recorded three
albums and almost cracked the Top 40 with the songs "Words" and
"Destination Unknown" prior to breaking up in 1986. Terry was married
to Missing Persons lead singer Dale Bozzio from 1979 to 1986. After the
disbanding of Missing Persons Bozzio went on to work with a huge array
of musical artists who include Robbie Robertson, Gary Wright, Frank
Zappa's son Dweezil, Paul Hyde, Herbie Hancock, Richard Marx, Jeff
Beck, Duran Duran, Billy Sheehan, Steve Vai, and Stevie Ray Vaughan. In
the summer of 2005 Terry filled in for drummer Dave Lombardo in
Fantamos for the group's European tour. More recently he worked with
the nu metal band Korn on their eighth album. Bozzio's major
innovations as a rock drummer are creating the melodic ostinato for the
drum set and creating orchestral compositions on the drum set by
playing polyrhythms and metric modulations. Moreover, Bozzio performs
clinics for fellow drummers on a regular basis all across the country.
He was inducted into Guitar Center's RockWalk in Hollywood on January
17, 2007. Terry Bozzio lives in Austin, Texas with his second wife Ev
Kvamme and son Raanen.
