Prog chops, pop music: When Terry Bozzio powered Missing Persons to 80s classics

By 1980, still in his late 20s, drummer Terry Bozzio had racked up some impressive credits with virtuoso musicians in Frank Zappa’s band and UK (replacing Bill Bruford and playing with John Wetton and Eddie Jobson).

Naturally, he decided to form a pop band with his wife, who was best known for wearing outrageous revealing clothes and adding a few yelps and squeaks to her vocals.

He wasn’t the only adept musician in the band. Guitarist Warren Cuccurullo and bassist Patrick O’Hearn also had Zappa ties. Cuccurullo went on to join Duran Duran, while O’Hearn has done film scores along with New Age and more traditional jazz music.

In Missing Persons, Bozzio, Cuccurullo and company couldn’t just unleash extended solos in 13/8 time or anything like that, and at times, you can almost hear them restraining themselves. But they managed to sneak in quite a few killer riffs that make you want to rewind a bit to see what you just heard.

Their best song, naturally, isn’t their biggest hit. They had a few charting songs, and they’re all solid tracks, but the one that has aged the best is Mental Hopscotch, which has taut interplay between Cuccurullo and keyboardist Chuck Wild over a basic pulsating beat — until Bozzio comes in with an offbeat collection of cymbal sounds to shake things up. Then we get to the chorus, where Bozzio tosses in a few toms and somehow hits the ride bell in the middle.

The video hides all that in the best effects the 80s had to offer.

Check out the band live from that era, and you see Dale Bozzio’s most notable outfit (is that … duct tape?) and Bozzio adding tom fills that would be overkill in most hands but actually fit the song quite well.

He’s also kind of animated.

Dale Bozzio is still touring with various iterations of Missing Persons. Dale and Terry are no longer married, and full-fledged reunions are problematic. But Terry is busy playing solo music on a drum set the size of Manhattan, with several bass drums and banks of toms that are theoretically tuned — drums don’t really have an absolute pitch, but you can make them sound a half-step or whole step apart. He managed to squeeze that kit into a band setting with Korn, but he mostly accompanies himself in what you might call modern classical music for drum set.

You’re probably not going to find this level of mental and physical dexterity in your typical 2010s musical act.