Dweezil Zappa Discusses Steep Financial Costs Of Launching 1st Tour In 4 Years

Dweezil Zappa will embark on the Rox(Postrophy) Tour this summer in celebration of his father Frank Zappa‘s iconic Roxy & Elsewhere and Apostrophe (‘) albums. However the guitarist’s return to the road for the first time since March 2020 will come at a steep price as he disclosed in an interview with Guitar World.

“When you finish a tour, you usually have some money left over for the startup costs for the next tour. But I had not worked for four years, so there was no money left over. This is not the biggest tour in the world, but it has roughly $200,000 startup costs,” Dweezil Zappa told Guitar World.

“People think, ‘Oh, you rehearse and then you go out there and you start making money.’ They don’t realize you don’t make money until the tour is almost finished. It’s over $10,000 a day that you’ve got to be dealing with. It’s quite an undertaking; rather than having to do everything out of pocket, I have to raise some money,” Dweezil added.

One of the ways he’s funding the tour is by selling a vast array of gear online through an auction hosted by ANALOGr. Items include custom guitars, tons of effects, monitors, DI boxes and a mixer. While many of the lots have already been sold, over 24 items are still up for grabs.

“I’m trying to create an opportunity of goodwill for people to enjoy cool, fun gear,” Dweezil stated, “but it’ll help me do what I need to do to play music and play the tour.” Dweezil Zappa also previewed the tour, telling Guitar World:

“I’ve played my dad’s music for many years and there is always challenges and surprises in it. But we have a new band, a couple of new members; we’re going to mix it up just by virtue of having new energy in the group.

“We’re going to be playing some music that we’ve played before, but not the way we’ve played it before – different arrangements – and there are going to be several new things that we’ve never played before at all. That’s the excitement of doing this.”

Dweezil Zappa’s Rox(Postrophy) Tour begins on August 1 in Phoenix. The guitarist and his band will hit markets across the U.S. through September 11. Scroll below for a complete list of dates and ticketing information.