Ahmet Zappa Pens Open Letter To Dweezil Zappa

This past Friday, guitarist Dweezil Zappa went public in discussing issues he’s having with his younger brother Ahmet, who handles the day-to-day operations of their father Frank Zappa’s estate which is better known as the Zappa Family Trust (ZFT). Dweezil told the New York Times his FZ tribute band, Zappa Plays Zappa, will now be known as “Dweezil Zappa Plays Frank Zappa” and said the name change was being made “under duress” and threats of legal action. Today, Ahmet Zappa posted an open letter on Facebook explaining his side of the story.

According to Ahmet, Dweezil was asked to pay a fee of $1 per year to keep using the Zappa Plays Zappa name and wasn’t threatened with having to pay $150,000 in copyright infringement damages per song played as the guitarist told the Times. “I have never asked you to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to use the ZPZ name. You’ve only been told that you can’t keep using the name without agreeing to a fee of $1 per year, which you’re fully aware of, but never mentioned in your interviews,” Ahmet wrote.

Why $1? “It’s because that token payment handles the legal requirement. Even though I thought the original fee was reasonable, I wanted to find a way to get us past this. And again, it’s not just you: it’s all four of us. If I want to perform Frank’s music, I’ll pay $1. So will Diva and Moon. That’s just the deal, and I think it’s a pretty reasonable solution. One dollar, man. It doesn’t seem like The New York Times knew that part.” Ahmet does also mention “any Zappa using the name ‘Zappa Plays Zappa’ would pay a percentage of profits to the ZFT,” so it appears this is about more than the $1 fee.

Ahmet struck a conciliatory tone at points noting about his brother, “You’re a fucking guitar god and in my opinion one of the best guitar players in the world. You do an amazing job playing our father’s music with total integrity. Your tours help keep Frank’s name alive, just like the work Gail and I have done through the ZFT.”

The younger Zappa explained that Frank’s fans have taken him to task over the past week and labeled him as “some greedy dude who’s just in this for the money” and stated “if I read that article without knowing the rest of the facts, I’d think I was a greedy asshole too.”

The 41-year-old Ahmet also defended his mother Gail Zappa as Dweezil told the Times he had paid the ZFT through his mother an “exorbitant fee” to use the Zappa Plays Zappa name. “Personally, I don’t think the fee Gail asked for was exorbitant. If you want, we can share the exact terms with the public, instead of just asking them to take our word for it. But even if the price was too high, it doesn’t matter anymore, because I didn’t want it to be an issue for you. That’s why I suggested a workaround,” Ahmet wrote.

Ahmet said he was forced to issue the letter after attempting to reach out to Dweezil in private for months. We’ll see if Dweezil responds publicly or privately and if he resumes using the Zappa Plays Zappa name. Read Ahmet Zappa’s open letter:

https://www.facebook.com/notes/ahmet-zappa/an-open-letter-to-my-brother/10153667213097309