Hologram Company Behind Dio and Zappa Tours Signs With APA: Exclusive

Eyellusion will be represented by music icon Steve Martin.

Eyellusion, the hologram company behind touring shows for Ronnie James Dio, Frank Zappa and pianist Glenn Gould has signed with the Agency for the Performing Arts, represented by agency partner Steve Martin.

Launched in 2015 by Jeff Pezzuti with partners that include Zappa's son Ahmet Zappa and Dio's widow Wendy Dio, Eyellusion first presented the Dio hologram at Wacken music festival in Germany and then made the U.S. premiere at the Pollstar Awards in 2017 in Los Angeles.

"That's actually where I met Steve Martin and we began talking about touring plans for Dio," which is set to hit over a 100 cities in 2019 with an accompanying live five-person band, a first in live music.

"The big question when we first toured Dio through Europe was 'Is anyone actually going to show up?'" Pezzuti tells Billboard. "We sold out the last three shows in Europe and we did really, really well. We're such believers in what we were doing and we're all such massive fans -- in my sixth grade class picture, I'm wearing a Dio shirt, so you can imagine taking this all the way across the finish line has been a dream come true."

Dio Returns hits the road in April and Eyellusion is also planning a tour for Zappa, telling Billboard, "The Zappa show is going to set the bar for everything and totally blow everything else out of the water. It is the most incredible visual show that's ever been assembled and every song has a different look and feel. It's going to be an absolute mind fuck, in a good way."

Finally, Eyellusion is partnering with management firm Primary Wave to launch a tour celebrating the life and career of Glenn Gould, a Canadian pianist who became one of the best-known and celebrated classical pianists of the last century.

APA will represent and book the touring properties -- Martin had previously represented Dio and was introduced to Pezzuti by Wendy Dio.

"We showed him the content and he was so blown away," Pezzuti says, explaining that each hologram plays with a full accompanying band and uses photos and 3D modeling to create the lifelike images.

Learn more about the tours at eyellusionlive.com.