Michael Joseph Keneally (born December 20, 1961) is an American session guitarist, keyboardist, vocalist and composer. Early years and musical influences Keneally started playing music at the age of 7 when he received an electric organ for his birthday. He also received a guitar on his eleventh birthday, and plays bass and drums as well. His early childhood musical influences included the Beatles and theme music from cartoon and television shows such as The Wallace and Ladmo Show and 2001: A Space Odyssey. Career Born on Long Island, New York, he moved to San Diego, California at an early age and has been a fixture on the local music scene there since 1985 when he formed the local cult band Drop Control. Although a well established musician in his own right, Keneally is probably most well known as former Frank Zappa "stunt guitarist" and a Zappa 1988 tour band member on both guitar and keyboards. His ascendency to that position is legendary in certain musician circles, based on Keneally's command of Zappa's vast and difficult-to-play repertoire. Keneally had called Zappa and said that he was "extremely familiar with all of his material and that he would be ready to play any of it for him given a short amount of preparation time", as he had already "been listening to Zappa's music for 16 years". "On the phone the day before the audition Frank had told me to have 'What's New in Baltimore?' and 'Sinister Footwear' ready for the next day's audition". On the way to the audition Keneally practiced the aforementioned songs, as well as "Little House I Used to Live in", and "every single Zappa melody I could think of, kind of as an exercise for my memory" as his brother Marty was driving the car. Keneally's stint in the Zappa touring band was short-lived with the early cancellation of the 1988 tour and Zappa's death in 1993. Keneally moved on from the elder Zappa's band to work with the eldest Zappa son, Dweezil, on his solo albums and work released as the band Z. Keneally has also released 11 albums of solo material since 1992 and has guested or acted as sideman on a wide variety of projects, most notably as part of Steve Vai's touring bands. He has played guitar and keyboards with Yo Miles!, Wadada Leo Smith, Norwegian legends Ulver and Henry Kaiser's Miles Davis tribute