INTERVIEW: DALE BOZZIO – February 2022

According to a recent press release: “Dale Bozzio is the co-founder and lead singer of Missing Persons, one of the 80s most distinctive bands…musically, stylistically, and, primarily because of Dale, fashion-wise. She has released her scintillating autobiography entitled Life is So Strange – Missing Persons, Frank Zappa, Prince & Beyond, through Los Angeles-based label Cleopatra Entertainment. The book is a riotous, humorous, sexy, intimate, no-holds barred story of Bozzio’s life in and out of music.   She has absolutely no qualms about sharing stories of all aspects of her life that will amaze, titillate, impress, and endear her to those who read her fascinating life journey.  This book is the ultimate kiss and tell story and a comprehensive overview of her life…from her childhood to her tales of life in the fast lane.” We got Dale herself on the phone to discuss the book, her relationship with Frank Zappa, a little bit of advice 40 years in the making, and much more…

Toddstar: Dale, thank you so much for taking time out. I know you’re super busy right now.

Dale: It’s all good.

Toddstar: Let’s talk about Life is So Strange – Missing Persons, Frank Zappa, Prince & Beyond.  What can you tell us about the book? What made now a great time to put this out there?

Dale: Well, I don’t know. It wasn’t really the time. I’ve been waiting a long time anyway, it got stalled, because of COVID and such. But, I don’t know. I just realized, the year that Prince died, I sat down, and decided to write it, so it’s really been in the making for quite a while. It just got stalled by COVID and other things. I just wanted a few points to be made, and people to know what I’ve gone through, and not to think stupidly of me, and that I really do expect people to pay attention, because my story is so intense, and people think I just became this rockstar overnight by accident. I had to work very hard to do what I have done, and claim the things that I claim, and things that don’t come to you, you have to work very hard in this lifetime. To accomplish anything, it takes a lifetime to get things done. That’s why families leave their businesses to their children because it takes so long to accomplish anything, that you really need to carry on the legacy if there is one. Take all your time to make things better in life, and not really use up everything, and leave nothing for the rest of us. I’m very concerned with the well-being of the world, now since writing this story. It gives me a moment to speak to the people, and my friends, and my listeners, and tell them to turn the light on, and to be aware. To make things easier for the next person, or the one next to you, and to care for your family and friends, because the world is in a very sad, severe greedy state, and you need to help it, and help it out of this predicament, so that we can all feel better.

Toddstar: You kind of hit on it. You don’t want anyone to think that you just rolled into this, became a rockstar based on image, or a look, or a relationship. Now, you’ve got the different TV shows and things like that – I’m not knocking it or endorsing one way or the other – it’s just a different day and age. When you were coming up and were putting in your time, did you think that come 2022 you’d have enough to be able to put a story out there for people to understand who you were?

Dale: No. I didn’t really think ahead like that. I wasn’t planning on all of this. It came to me through Frank Zappa, and so I just continued the legend. I wouldn’t let go of anything now because of Frank, and he embedded in me so much. I was a lucky girl, and I believe it to be true. Frank gave me a lot of opportunities, and I did not have a relationship with Frank. He was just my friend, and I made him laugh. It’s an amazing state now for me to be able to tell you, 40 years later, that he was my friend until his death. To me, that’s overwhelming. I have to live and be true to his friendship. That’s why I wrote about him so incredibly in my book. He’s the thread of my life, and he has been since 1972. I’ve known Frank a long time. I knew Frank a long time.

Toddstar: You had two amazing mentors. Your involvement on many levels with Prince, as well. You had two, we’ll call them musical legends, that helped mold and focus you. I mean, lightning hardly strikes…

Dale: Absolutely.

Toddstar: …once, let alone twice. How do you think it came to be that you worked with two legends?

Dale: I know. I’m so grateful, and I’m so sad that they’re not here anymore. They were so kind to me. I don’t know how it happened. I made Frank laugh, and Frank made me a recording star. Then, Frank let a lot of people grace his stage, which is pretty amazing. Musicians usually don’t give their stage up to anyone. It’s all theirs. Frank took the chance to share everything with so many musicians and gave us all the light. That’s really rare for a man like that to be so altruistic with his music. He made my way. He just made me into a different person, since the day I met him, and he instilled in me to do what I believe in for myself. When a person like that tells you to believe in yourself, he really makes you think twice. Many people say that “Oh, believe in yourself,” and you think to yourself, ‘What the hell you talking about, believe in yourself? What does that really mean? I’m trying. I’m in struggle here. What am I going to believe in myself? I’m trying to get out of a hole.’ That’s always an awkward line to me, but when Frank said it, it hit me like an arrow in the forehead. I haven’t given up on that. He used to call it icepick in the forehead. When I did something wrong, he’d go, “Ah, ice pick the forehead.” He’d go, “You got to come back tomorrow,” because I don’t know how to read or write music, and Frank taught me everything I know.

Toddstar: That’s a hell of a teacher to have. Not everybody gets to put that one on their resume. Speaking of your resume, you can’t talk about Dale without bringing up Missing Persons. That machine has been around over 40 years now with different lineups, different incarnations, and breaks here and there, but you’re still out doing it. Does it feel as good as it did emotionally and mentally? Maybe not physically, because again we’re all 40 years older now, but does it feel as good inside as it did back in 1980 when you were kicking this thing off?

Dale: It’s different now. It’s different. I was seeking fortune in fame when I was a little kid. Now, I’m looking for peace of mind in knowing what I did was right. Now, I reach more people really than I knew, and they talk to me, and tell me stories, and new people, older people. It’s a different feeling. It’s an overwhelming feeling now. I know that I can do this now. I know the platform is there for me. I used to strive to get to be to who I was, and I am that person now. Yeah. It’s a big relief, and more of a pleasure.

Toddstar: what different spin do you put on it when you’re on stage and you’re doing songs, like “Words,” or “Walking In LA?” Do they mean the same thing now that they did when you wrote and performed those songs years ago?

Dale: No. It’s all the same. We play them exactly the same. We play the songs exactly the same, and they sound better. I sing better than ever. I’ve had a lot of rehearsals now, at least 10,000. There’s no way that this music can die, because until I open my mouth, and the words don’t come out, then I will stop. But, I sing them perfectly, and there’s no reason not to. They’re timeless, that’s it. To me, the songs are timeless. That’s why they last so long, and they will be there forever.

Toddstar: I’d agree with you. As a child of music when you were hitting it – I was in high school in the ’80s – I understand the draw and the need for us to keep that alive, because it is a soundtrack of our lives.

Dale: Right. Me, too. That’s my life.

Toddstar: Exactly. More directly than mine.

Dale: You know, I lived it through every bit of those songs, and right along with all of us, and have grown just as well. It’s not really different than me. I mean, the songs are just as important to me as they are to you.

Toddstar: With that said Dale, what’s the one piece of advice you’d have given yourself 40 years ago?

Dale: Not to drink alcohol.

Toddstar: Really? That’s the one?

Dale: Yes. I’m now 13 years sober. I’m a Roman, so I grew up with a wine bottle on the table, and my father drank whiskey for breakfast, and my grandmother died of alcohol. I’m not really a fan, at all. I think it’s a real waste of time, that any of this consumption should be done in a private manner, and not get crazy, go out, and drive, and kill people.

Toddstar: Normally when I ask that type of question, I get something about, be careful of band members, or managers, or things like that, so to get a personal response, I appreciate you sharing that with me.

Dale: I’m really an advocate to try to be in the right state of mind. I mean, I love weed. That’s all fantastic, but once you take your brain to another level, then you’re dealing with the level of that thinking, and it’s altered. It’s absolutely altered. I don’t think drinking liquor makes you a better person.

Toddstar: Circling back to the book, it’s quite the package. It’s a big book and comes with pressed vinyl. How important was the packaging itself visually, sonically to help you bring your story across?

Dale: Not hard. I mean, I knew what I wanted to do. I knew what the picture would be. That’s a Glen Wexler picture. He’s the one that took the cover album of Spring Session M, and he gave me that photograph for the cover of the book. He’s my great dear friend. I wanted people to recognize me. I wanted them to know that was Dale. That’s the point of the matter. The picture on the book is Dale at 16 years old. Those are my eyes 40 years later. I mean, the world has to open their eyes. That’s what I think is the problem here. I’m not trying to convince anybody to do anything. I just wanted to put a beautiful picture on the cover of the book that I think is flattering to me. I wanted a book full of pictures that were eclectic and maybe not that they make me the beauty queen, but they show that I’m a real person, from a little kid up until now, and that I wear jeans just like you. I love a good cup of tea, and a pizza. I wrote this part that says, “Dale is,” and I think that’s the best part of the book, and it says that, “I’m pathetic when I cry.” It says that, “I’m afraid of the Doc,” and that, “I love pasta.” It’s simple. I’m really not that complicated. I like arts and crafts. That’s how the clothes got all that way. I love to write. I write things. I just walk in this sun, and I’m just reciting things, and words come to me all day long. I’m always putting a line here, a line there. I’m writing another book even as we speak. I love writing. I just love it. I love getting into all those words, and messing them all up, and then straightening them out and squeezing them. That’s what I do.

Toddstar: You gave me a great segue, what’s the one part of the book that you think will surprise the most? What’s the one part of your life, or small snippet of story that you think most people will be shocked by?

Dale: There’s a page, and it’s the black page, that the beginning of the page is black. Should I read it to you?

Toddstar: Please.

Dale: Well, three points that I wanted to get across by writing this book. One was the friendship with Frank Zappa. The other was my affair with Prince, whatever, under the sheets, and over the sheets, and in the studio. Then, the third point was when I was 21 years old, after I made Joe’s Garage with Frank, I fell 40 feet out of a window of the Holiday Inn, Downtown LA. I landed on my head, and I broke my ribs, and I broke my knee cap, and I split my head open. I slipped into a coma, and then I went on life support, and I was very incapacitated for quite a long time. I woke up and I was 22. A year went by. Let me read you this page of the book that’s the most important page to me. It says this:

“I’m looking at myself face down on the concrete bleeding out. I just fell out a window 40 feet up, from room 421 of the Holiday Inn in Downtown Los Angeles. My tiny body is in a pool of blood, my blood, pouring from the gash on my head, a gash that would require 52 stitches to sew up. In about 30 seconds they are going to take me across the street to the hospital to sew up my head. I hope they hurry up.”

That’s it.

Toddstar: I can’t even follow that up, Dale.

Dale: I know. That’s what happened. I fell. This is one of the pages in the book. It’s all black. It’s the only page like this. It’s the points of the matter, to take your breath away, because it took my breath away, and I recovered. I recovered. I have great courage, and I want my friends, and my fans, and my family, and everyone to know the courage that I have. That I had to go through this incredible experience, to wake up and put my mind to it. That I was going to be, never again would you un-notice me, and I was going to be a noticeable one, no matter what. Now, you got to understand I’m 22 years old, and I just had this incredibly bad accident, and I woke up all by myself, and my eyes are black, and now I’m in a concussion, so I can’t see for months, and I’m blind, and I’m writing while I’m blind on paper, and I’m trying to write in the darkness of my head, and I do. I do. I make notes, and I recover, and I get better. Then, Zappa comes and takes me to Europe, and I go on tour with Frank, and Terry and go all over Europe and go to Rome. Frank takes me into the Vatican to see my great uncle of the seventh generation, who died acting Pope, and he’s frozen in the Vatican. Frank gets me passes to go in there with Terry Bozzio to see the cryogenically frozen Pope’s at the Vatican in Rome. He makes my world very special, because he was sad that I fell out the window. It was right after I made Joe’s Garage, and it shocked everyone, and they were all upset, but I lived, so it was a good thing. A lot of people don’t live falling 40 feet out of a window on their head. As it goes, everything got repaired. I didn’t even crack a tooth. And, all the things that got repaired are unseen to the modern world. There’re no scars on my face. They’re all deep in my head. There’s a big gash at the top of my head, but you can’t see it, because you know I put all this hair on, and get all dressed up, and then people don’t even notice that there’s flaws. That’s how the world goes on, every day. We walk to through our flaws, and then we jump through rings of fire, and no one really knows all the things we have to do just to get to pass by you walking on the street and say, “Hi, how are you doing?” To be at that time, in that moment where that some other person may be, that’s a miracle right there. If you only cherish every step you take to see who you pass, and who you meet, and who you might come across in your life, you open your eyes so big, and things happen, if you let them. I had that opportunity in my life, because I got so close to losing it. You don’t always feel like this just because it’s Sunday, something has to jar you, and make you care, and whatever that is in your life that’s your lucky charm, that’s not your bad apple. That’s the lucky charm you got. That’s what taught you to be a better person. That’s what taught you to take a chance, and do the right thing, and give yourself the opportunity to make a mistake, because mistakes make better days ahead. I believe that, so intently. That’s how I got here. That’s how I lived through all the things I lived through, my patience and my courage. Since even then, I’m a little girl, the things that have come across in my life, they’ve been severe, but I am so good at saying, “It’s all right, Dale. You didn’t do it.” That’s it. When it’s not you, and it’s not your fault, you can step up, you can be the one. You can. You can walk through all of these people’s problems. I usually say, “Why do all these people’s phobias spill to my lemon tree? Please leave me alone. I got enough problems.”

Toddstar: Don’t we all.

Dale: You don’t think that. When you see somebody dancing, and singing, and yada, yada, yada, and everything’s fantastic, but little do you know what they had to go through to get there, and they’re doing that because they want to get out of their own selves, anyway. They want to break those endorphins, and have a good time, and forget all the severity. Who doesn’t? I’m with you all the way, and anybody that says, “You don’t understand, Dale. They’re wrong.” I understand. That’s why I am as wholehearted as I am, and as kind as I am, and that’s why I cry, so pathetically.

Toddstar: Listen Dale, I appreciate the time. The title’s perfect. Life is So Strange – Missing Persons, Frank Zappa, Prince & Beyond, especially for a young girl out of Medford, Massachusetts, who…

Dale: Thank you. Medford means so much to me. Thank you for mentioning Medford, Massachusetts. It just means so much to my friends that are there. My family was all there. Everything that I became was because of Medford Square and Medford. It just molded me, and righteously so. I honor that town. You know what? On their list, on the Wikipedia, they have me listed in Medford, as a notable one.

Toddstar: You’re definitely notable Dale. You, and as you put it, all your beautiful flaws.

Dale: You’re a sweetheart. Last thing to say to you. Of course, thank you so much for having me. I love you. You can go to FaceBook, and I can autograph my books to you, you can order vinyl records there, too. I have eight by tens, so all that good stuff that rock stars do. You can go get my book from me there [ed. see the links below for Dale and her book].

Toddstar: Well, on that note, I personally can’t wait until either here in Florida, or when I’m back in Michigan for the summer that a Missing Persons show will make its way across, so that I can thank you in person for all the memories and for sharing your life with us.

Dale: Thank you. God bless you all. I love you.

Toddstar: Bless you, Dale. We’ll talk to you soon.

Dale: Okay. Bye.

DALE BOZZIO LINKS:

OFFICIAL SITE

FACEBOOK

TWITTER

Life is So Strange – Missing Persons, Frank Zappa, Prince & Beyond

Tags: featured

Category: Interviews