Warren Cuccurullo

Warren Bruce Cuccurullo (born December 8, 1956) is an American musician, songwriter, restaurant owner and former bodybuilder who first worked with Frank Zappa during the 1970s.

During the mid-1970s, he befriended several members of Zappa's band, including Terry Bozzio and Patrick O'Hearn.

He graduated from Canarsie High School in 1974.

In December 1978, at the age of 22, Cuccurullo was invited to audition as a guitarist for Zappa's new road band, in which many members were replaced (including Bozzio and O'Hearn).

Over the next three years, he appeared with the band on stage at a couple of shows as well as in the 1979 Zappa film Baby Snakes (filmed October 1977).

He impressed Frank Zappa by knowing the guitar parts to every Zappa song in the catalog, including the strangest sounds and most bizarre time signatures.

Several shows on the early 1979 "Human Jukebox" European/Asian tour were recorded for Zappa's live albums.

After the tour, Cuccurullo returned to the studio with Zappa to work on the Joe's Garage albums, for which he provided rhythm guitar and several vocal parts.

Terry Bozzio's wife Dale Bozzio also contributed vocal parts to the album.

Cuccurullo and Dale Bozzio began writing songs together, and eventually they convinced Terry Bozzio that the three of them should launch their own band.

He was also a founding member of Missing Persons in the 1980s.

In 1980, Cuccurullo and the two Bozzios formed Missing Persons, recording a 4-song EP called Missing Persons with session musicians, including future keyboardist Chuck Wild.

They then toured to promote the EP and appeared in the movie Lunch Wagon.

By 1981, the group had added fellow Zappa alumnus Patrick O'Hearn, and Chuck Wild had become an official bandmember.

Two years of hard work led to a signing with Capitol Records in 1982, the release of the album Spring Session M, and the subsequent success of Missing Persons on radio and MTV.

The singles "Mental Hopscotch", "Destination Unknown", "Walking in L.A.", "Words", and "Windows" all met with success.

Cuccurullo has one adopted child, Mayko Cuccurullo (born 1983) who lives in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, who is actually the son of Claudia Bueno (Warren's former longtime girlfriend).

They appeared at the three-day Southern California concert, the US Festival in May 1983.

In 1984, Cuccurullo invented a new type of guitar he called the "Missing Link", and used it on the experimental album Rhyme & Reason (1984).

In 1986 Cuccurullo joined Duran Duran, becoming a long-term member of the band until 2001.

In 2022, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Duran Duran.

Warren Bruce Cuccurullo is the son of Jerry and Ellen Cuccurullo, the oldest child of four.

He has two brothers, Jerry and Robert and a sister, Stephanie.

His Italian-American heritage has its roots in Nocera Inferiore in Campania, Italy, and he also has some Greek ancestry.

He grew up in the Canarsie neighborhood of Brooklyn, and began playing drums and guitar as a young child.

The band followed up with the more conventional Color in Your Life in June 1986, but during the short-lived promotional tour, increasing tensions between then-husband and wife Terry and Dale Bozzio led to the end of the tour and the band.

On his own again, Cuccurullo began recording some music in his bedroom that was eventually released on his solo album Machine Language.

Missing Persons shared their label Capitol Records with British band Duran Duran.

As Missing Persons fell apart, Bozzio and O'Hearn were approached by Duran Duran guitarist Andy Taylor in Los Angeles for work on a solo album.

In this way, Cuccurullo learned that Taylor did not intend to rejoin Duran Duran in England to work on their next album, even before the rest of Duran Duran knew.

Cuccurullo sent a tape and a request for an audition, but was turned down, with some puzzlement.

As it became clear that neither enticements nor lawsuits would get Taylor back in the studio, Duran Duran hired Cuccurullo as a session guitarist to complete the album Notorious.

He went on to tour with the band, and returned to contribute his increasingly experimental guitar work to the album Big Thing.

Zappa asked Cuccurullo to play on his 1988 tour, but the latter's involvement with Duran Duran had begun by then and so he declined.

Cuccurullo is name-checked four times on Zappa's Joe's Garage, first by (Dale Bozzio's character) Mary in "Catholic Girls", by Zappa (in character here as Larry) in "Crew Slut", when reassuring Mary, "of course I'll introduce you to Warren!", in the track "Sy Borg" when Ike Willis sings "little leather cap and trousers – they look so gay... Warren just bought some," and once again by Zappa during "A Little Green Rosetta" 'Then everybody moves to New York and goes to a party with Warren.

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Mayko is featured in the Duran Duran video "Breath After Breath", filmed in Argentina in 1993 and contributed some minor vocal work on the N'Liten Up project.

Cuccurullo returned to the United States in 2001 and lives in Venice, California.

His current focus is on film score compositions.

In his teen years, Cuccurullo became a devoted fan of Frank Zappa and began traveling to every show within 500 miles of his Brooklyn home.