Dweezil Zappa Responds To Ahmet Zappa’s Open Letter

The feud between Frank Zappa’s sons Dweezil Zappa and Ahmet Zappa over the former’s use of the name Zappa Plays Zappa continues to play out publicly. Earlier this month Ahmet issued an open letter to Dweezil following the guitarist’s chat with the New York Times and now Dweezil has responded to his brother’s open letter in a post on DweezilZappaWorld.com.

Dweezil still plans on calling the band formerly known as Zappa Plays Zappa “Dweezil Zappa Plays Frank Zappa” moving forward in the aim to avoid needing to pay his father’s estate, the Zappa Family Trust (ZFT), which is run by Ahmet. The guitarist claims his issues with ZFT date back to the formation of Zappa Plays Zappa in 2006 at which point his mother Gail Zappa was running the trust. Dweezil says the ZFT has kept 100% of all Zappa Plays Zappa tour merchandise since the band started and despite a contract which entitles him to some of that money. The guitarist explains he brought the issue to Ahmet’s attention after Gail’s death and that Ahmet has “chosen to disregard all responsibilities to [Dweezil] that the contract delineates.”

Ahmet’s letter mentions a number of times all Dweezil has to do in order to use the Zappa Plays Zappa name is to pay a $1 fee. Dweezil claims that’s not the full deal, “A non negotiable demand that I am soley responsible for all touring and rehearsing expenses, yet receive 0% of the tour merchandise, and no retroactive payments of merch money that I’m owed since 2006 in exchange for paying 1 dollar for the license to use the name Zappa Plays Zappa is not a deal. If this proposition wasn’t so laughable, I’d consider it an insult.”

Dweezil starts his response with an introduction and then addresses his brother’s letter item-by-item. He takes issues with Ahmet’s claims that he hasn’t been available to discuss the issues but does lay out a handful of reasons the lawyers are now battling it out. The guitarist also takes aim at the way his mother handled Frank’s legacy before her death last year, the ZFT’s deal with filmmaker Alex Winter and many other controversial topics. Head here to read Dweezil Zappa’s response to Ahmet Zappa.