After Frank Zappa disbanded The Mothers of Invention, Black made doughnuts, ran a painting company, and formed various bands, including The Grandmothers with ex-Mothers band-mates Bunk Gardner and Don Preston.
Original drummer in Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention.
He was of Cheyenne ancestry through both his parents.
He started playing trumpet at age 12, and later took up drums because "there weren't any trumpets in rock 'n' roll". He cut his first single record in 1962 with a band called the Keys in Wichita, Kansas.