Dweezil Zappa is back on the road and GP Presents is thrilled to partner with AEG Entertainment to welcome him in the Bay Area on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. His DZ20: Like Father, Like Son Tour celebrates 20 years scaling the musical mountain of material composed by his father Frank, and playing it authentically onstage with fresh energy.
“It’s an ever-evolving skill to be able to filter my playing through the Frank Zappa vocabulary and lens of influence,” Dweezil told GP’s Gary Graff, “but then at the speed of thought be able to have my own phrases come into the music. I rarely play complete solos note-for-note, but I do try to play specific phrases that give the identity and the flavor of the solo in the way my dad would play it, while using a sound that is evocative of the era.”
That’s a big part of the big fun that happens whenever Dweezil plays his father’s music, the authentic classic rock-era tones he achieves with the historic gear he brings. Here’s what to expect on DZ20:
“I’m bringing a Roxy-era SG with some different pickups, and I’m bringing a Stratocaster with a humbucker in the bridge and two single-coils, so I’m able to get a lot of rhythm sounds I need for this tour. But we’re also playing ‘Wild Love’ and it has a crazy guitar solo section. This is from a live version my dad did around ’78.
“He goes into a totally crazy new landscape, and the tone he has is really cool ’cause it’s kind of three layers; a clean sound in the middle, and two different fuzz sounds on the left and right. It creates this 3D image that is super cool, and he’s just doing it with the Stratocaster.”
Dweezil is playing a few of his own compositions on this tour as well, including one that was a favorite of Frank’s.
“He came to see us play a show that I was doing in the early ’90s and we closed the show with ‘Purple Guitar,’” Dweezil recalls. “He liked that song and said, ‘You guys should open with that,’ so I took it as his request for this tour.”
We’ve done GP Presents promotions for several of Dweezil Zappa’s shows in the past, and they’re always thrilling in totally different ways and with different ensembles. Dweezil’s band for this tour is a “rocking teenage combo five-piece extravaganza” featuring Kurt Morgan on bass, Ryan Brown on drums, Bobby Victor on keys, and Grammy-winning multi-instrumentalist Scheila Gonzalez.
“I wanted it to feel like you walked into the Whisky in the ’60s, but as if he also had the material of the mid-’70s, Dweezil explains. “So it’s kind of the quintessential rocking teenage combo version of everything. A five-piece means the music is more in your face. There’s an immediacy. And when he did a tour with a five-piece he really limited the material to certain things and certain eras. So, we’ve kind of done that, but I’ve also taken it a bit further.”
Come help support our favorite Zappa son celebrate two decades paying tribute to his father Frank on the DZ20 tour!
Our multi-generational Zappa salute happens on the last Sunday night in November, the 29th. If you’re planning to be in San Francisco over Thanksgiving Weekend, be sure to make plans with fellow Zappa zealots and get tickets for great seats in advance.
For more Dweez, read GP‘s October 2026 interview in which he talk in detail about DZ20, plus working with Eddie Van Halen and his ongoing project, “What the Hell Was I Thinking?”
WIN TICKETS!
For a chance to win a pair of tickets to see GP Presents Dweezil Zappa in San Francisco, send an email and put “DZ20” in the subject line. Please include a sentence about yourself and why you want to go.
Phone contact greatly appreciated for confirmation.
Winner must provide his or her own transportation to the Castro Theatre in San Francisco, California, on Sunday, November 29, and have his or her own accommodations in the Bay Area.
Best of luck!
EVENT DETAILS
GP Presents and Another Planet Entertainment welcome Dweezil Zappa
Sunday, November 29
The Castro Theatre
San Francisco, CA
8:00 p.m. show
Free Martin Strings at the GP Presents table in lobby
