Bozzy Boz – Xperience Monthly – an Interview, by Rob Smittix

Bozzy Boz (Terry Nut) Interview.

RRX: We met by accident at The Run Rabbit Run (Pink Floyd Tribute) show at The Linda, which was pretty impressive. I was outside prior to meeting you and I met Summer, who I found out later was with you.

BB: We’re basically husband and wife, we’ve been together 26 years.

RRX: Oh, no kidding. Well, she was the coolest person I met there and then when the show was over, I ran into her again and you were there, and somehow we got talking about stuff and I realized that we should talk more.

BB: For sure.

RRX: Bozzy Boz, so that was the name that you used when you were tagging or was it called bombing back then?

BB: We were bombing.

RRX: Was the tagging terminology more from the West Coast?

BB: No, it all started on the East Coast really. Tagging in the 80’s and the 70’s. The 70’s was all peace and everybody was doing big illustrations. In the 80’s it changed up where my generation basically came up and everybody was a style fanatic for writing their name. We were doing big pieces, window downs at that time instead of the full cars, top to bottoms. The era was very important as far as that goes.

RRX: How did you get started with graffiti art?

BB: My cousin used to go out with a famous graffiti writer. I don’t really want to drop names but he’s a big guy and I just loved the way that he expressed himself. I took to it. He knew a whole bunch of other people. I was just a little kid in elementary school writing on the walls.

(Both Laugh)

RRX: You’ve got to start somewhere.

BB: Yeah basically. I had no idea what I was doing, but I tried. I had so many different names that I was infatuated with the Z’s. My cousin used to write Boz and he gave me the name because I kept changing my name like 30 times a year.

RRX: (Laughs) That’s understandable.

BB: I started picking up on the drawing and it stuck!

RRX: Yeah it did. I found a few of your pieces online and man do I wish that I could’ve done that. I was doing a little spray-painting myself back in the day. Which I told you that one crazy story I have when I got busted by the cops and they thought I had I gun, but all I had were a couple of spray cans. But I never really got good at it. I just kind of had fun with, it but you mastered it!

BB: Well, I didn’t master it but I have expanded myself so much. I still do it. I’m working on canvas and stuff like that now, but all of my friends are still doing it like it was the 80’s still. They’re doing big, big stuff, buildings, everything.

RRX: But nowadays opposed to back then you’d probably get more paid jobs I’d imagine. Where people are like we’d like this on our building rather than having to wear a ski-mask and hide. Or maybe I’m wrong?

BB: I still have that feeling like I did back then when I pick up a spray can. I still miss the old times. This permission stuff is not for me.

RRX: (Laughs) It must’ve been an adrenaline rush. Were you out there painting trains and all of that?

BB: Oh yes. And it was an adrenaline rush that you couldn’t believe. I used to sneak out my window at 11 o’clock at night. My mother would go in the shower, and I’d climb out the window and down the fire escape. She’d be asleep and I’d come back just before 5 o’clock in the morning, just in time to get ready for school. It was fun!

RRX: Back then was the heyday when everything was getting started. I know graffiti played a big role in the whole scene from break dancing, beat boxing and early hip hop music. It all came together.

BB: Correct. It’s the elements.

RRX: I believe that’s what you discover in the Wild Style movie.

BB: Now to give you an idea. The Wild Style movie is dedicated to my mentor Tracy 168. That’s why I didn’t want to name drop but he’s my mentor and I’m actually going to hang out with him tomorrow.

RRX: Hey, no kidding! Nice, that’s dope.

BB: He put me onto it, and he was always against me doing it.

RRX: Oh, really?

BB: He played like the father figure role. He always took kids under his wing to show them art. It went a long way for me because he was my outlet. Me being at school and writing all over my books, that didn’t go well with Mom. I got my butt kicked a lot!

RRX: (Laughs) Yeah, I’m sure. What borough of NYC did you grow up in?

BB: The Bronx, right where it all started.

RRX: That is where it began for sure.

BB: With Tracy being in the next building I used to cut school and sneak out to the trains. My mother was always up in the window, so I had to try to get around her, that was fun. But I did it. Just kept writing and drawing, he showed me a lot and it stuck with me.

RRX: That’s what’s up. I’m totally envious because I was very much into street art, I just never really did anything too dope. Although from that story I mentioned I did get into trouble and my Mom was very mad. She suggested instead of spray painting on city property, why don’t you just spray paint your room? So I did.

BB: Oh, you had a good Mom then. My mother beat my butt every single time I picked up a pen because I wrote on everything, it didn’t matter what it was. I made my own inks out of carbon paper and alcohol.

RRX: Oh wow. That was something I never knew was possible. I always wondered about the trains because in NYC in the 80s on the subway system, you had the possibility of seeing your work riding past you. But I was thinking about with freight trains it’s kind of like one and done. Once you paint it, you’re not ever going to see it again.

BB: Right. That’s the fun though because you never know. Back in the days on the regular trains you would see a name and think wow what does this guy got? He’s got a nice style, let’s see if he does any pieces. And then usually you’ll see a couple of pieces within a few months and you see the style progress. But the freight trains are cool if everybody knows you in some sort of way they’ll send a picture and post it. Back then you couldn’t but now it’s easy, you just reach out on the computer and it’s all good. It’s the whole thing of being all over the place, like if you get a call from Virginia; like wow somebody saw your piece down there. Geez all the way down there! It’s a fever once you pick up that can and you get a phone call like that. That’s it, you’re planning the next move!