Bob Rice
Bob Rice worked as a roadie, engineer and computer assistant for Frank Zappa from 1984 on. He has also been active as a keyboard technician, synthesizer programmer, sound designer, mixing engineer, music editor and digital playback engineer both in the studio and on the road. [1]
Frank Zappa
In Samplin' Fool (Music & Sound Output, March 1987), Rice is revealed to have been a Zappa fan since the age of six (a taste handed down from his older brothers), He studied electronic music at CAL State at Long Beach, California. In 1983, Rice met one of Zappa's roadies, while waiting in line to get their passports. Since the roadie lacked money to pay for his passport, Rice loaned him 30 dollars and promised to pay it back at a rehearsal at Zappa's studio the next night. He was paid back, had a talk with Zappa and was hired to work with the Synclavier computer in Zappa's studio from January 1984 on, succeeding David Ocker. [2] Rice worked on the albums Frank Zappa Meets The Mothers Of Prevention and Jazz From Hell. [3]
In Interview From Hell (Interview by Bill Forman, Bay Area Music Magazine, January 16, 1987), Zappa explained Bob Rice's role: "Basically he trims samples, keeps track of the catalogs, and types in the XBL, the computer language data. For example, recently he typed in from the handwritten music, the clarinet solo from "Mo's Vacation," the original lead sheet of "Inca Roads," things like that that have been sitting around. He knows how to type Script and XBL and I don't." Zappa confirms the same info about Rice in Sample This! (interview by Jim Aikin and Bob Doerschuk, Keyboard, February 1987) and Zappa On Jazz From Hell (Music & Sound Output, March 1987).
Rice was a friend/next door neighbor of photographer Sergio Albonico and introduced him to Zappa.
Rice provided vocals on Dweezil Zappa's album Havin' A Bad Day (1986).
During a concert in Towson Maryland at US Towson Center (23 March 1988), Rice served as roadie. During the show, he used an enema to surprise a girl security guard. Interviewed by Den Simms, Rob Samler and Eric Buxton in They're Doing the Interview of the Century, Part 1 (Society Pages, April 1990), Zappa explained: "(...) There was a female security guard who was hired to be part of the staff at the place and Bob Rice who was basically hired as a roadie decided to use this enema that was dangling on stage as a prop. Actually it was something that I didn't tell them to put on stage, but the alto sax player had it hanging off of his stand. Bob went up there, took this thing and he was trying to impress this girl security guard. And during the encore when the guards were lined up in front of the stage facing the audience, he sneaked down behind the barricade and jammed this nozzle up her ass. While right in the middle of this song, you know, and I think that is inexcusable and so I stopped the show and told him to apologize, and "Don't ever do it again."
On 23 May 1989, Rice was one of several associates of Zappa who attended a panel discussion between Pierre Boulez and Frank Zappa at the UCLA, moderated by David Raksin (see An Evening With Pierre Boulez And Frank Zappa). [4] [5][6]
