The Ike Willis Book, an upcoming literary release from The Project Scrutinizer, will be published later this year. The Ike Willis Book will chronicle the life and times of Ike Willis, who played guitar and sang with Frank Zappa for fifteen years.
Ike Willis is featured on a number of classic albums including Joe's Garage, Tinseltown Rebellion, You Are What You Is, Them or Us and Shut Up & Play Yer Guitar. Mr. Willis has lived a long, star-studded, rock-and roll version of "the American dream" before, during and after his time with Frank Zappa. Since Zappa's death in in 1993, Willis has continued paying tribute to the incredibly detailed and academic arrangements of Zappa's original music while performing in Europe and South America with a variety of tribute bands including Project/Object at the Zappanale festival in Germany for the last three years.
The book is derived from highlights of weeks of interviews with Ike, his family and friends, plus key contributions from prominent Frank Zappa alumni such as Bobby Martin Don Preston, Denny Walley, Ray White, Ed Mann and many others. This is the story of Ike Willis, the son, the father, the musician, the singer, the intellectual and kid from St. Louis, MO who made it big. Many of these exclusive, personal stories about Mr. Willis' life and his career with Frank Zappa have never been told before. Ike's story includes people from all walks of life and is a truly fantastic piece of rock and roll history.
Mr. Willis commented on the book; “Now that I am so far into the process of telling my story, all I can say is that I never expected to do something quite like this. The experience has been so powerful and I really feel fortunate to get this unique opportunity. This book will have something interesting for every type of fan - even the ones who have known me forever. I have a large number of Frank Zappa alumni who have contributed to the interviews and we spend plenty of time talking about how many of the most famous songs originated, as well as what life inside the Zappa Universe was really like. We were all so lucky to have had the opportunity to perform the music he wrote and get to spend countless hours with him in the studio, on the road and basically in his world. This book is as important to any piece of music I played with Frank because it really explains how we did it!”
The book is slated to be available in late December to coincide with the holidays and Frank Zappa's birthday. Mr. Willis is booked for an extensive touring schedule with a number of his tribute projects beginning later this year and has a new solo album heading to the studio with several special guest appearances planned.
