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Warren Cuccurullo was the guitar player in Duran Duran for 13 years with original members singer Simon LeBon and keyboard player Nick Rhodes, when last April LeBon came to him and said the trio had taken the band as far as it could go. "He felt really badly," remembers Cuccurullo, "but he said that the only thing that could be done at this point in time is a reunion with the original lineup, otherwise everyone would be too old and it wouldn't make any sense. And I said, 'Well f**k, where does that leave me?'" Where that has left the guitarist, is that at 45 years old, he is now putting together a band he had when he was 23. He is teaming up with former Missing Persons bandmates, dayglo-haired lead singer Dale Bozzio, who always performed with pieces of duct tape over her breasts and drummer Terry Bozzio, who he hasn't played with in 15 years. Missing Persons of course scored major chart success back in the early '80s with “Walking in LA,” “Words,” “Mental Hopscotch” and “Destination Unknown” and then broke up in 1986.

"I feel there's a window of opportunity to do some interesting things and bring back a lot of really good feelings for us and for people who want to hear the music," says Cuccurullo of the reunion. "I'm not going to go out and start another band," he continues frankly, "I'm a great songwriter, but I don't want to go out and hustle the street."

He does have new music for the reunion. Some of this is older songs written with Nick Rhodes and originally intended for Blondie and then for a solo project with Dale Bozzio. Cuccurullo is now going to use them for Missing Persons. Plus he's writing new material with Bozzio. "We've also got probably between ten and 15 songs that we never ever recorded," continues Cuccurullo, "and one of them is going to be in the set. It was one of my favorite ones and it's going to be in the show."

Considering the Bozzio's marriage broke up very unpleasantly a decade and a half ago, what was Dale and Terry's first reaction when Cuccurullo mentioned a possible reunion? "Dale was ecstatic because we have been talking about it for a few years," grins Cuccurullo, "Terry said, 'Well if you can get it together, Warren, I'll do it.' He had a problem with it; he didn't want to play with his ex-wife in a band. And in a lot of ways I don't blame him."

Cuccurullo knows that emotions will be riding high in this reunion – even within him. "Some of our songs were really, really high energy and sort of complex and sort of like punk-meets-Zappa. Other ones are very emotional, like 'Destination Unknown.' I haven't played that song in 15 years. I think that is going to be pretty emotional."

"I believe that what we're doing now [reforming and playing live] will show people that we're serious. And then if our agent can get the offers in, we'll be able to go out and do some dates over the next couple of years. I think the interest in early ‘80s music is eventually going to wane and people will want Nirvana reunions, but they'll have a hard time getting one of those."

Missing Persons play the House of Blues in Anaheim, CA on Jul 20.

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