Zappa Children Address Feud And Growing Up As Frank & Gail’s Kids

Over the past few months we’ve followed along as legendary guitarist Frank Zappa’s children have brought their internal issues into public view. The four siblings are paired up as Zappa Family Trust execs Ahmet Zappa and Diva Zappa versus guitarist Dweezil Zappa and the eldest of Frank and Gail’s children, Moon Zappa. Ahmet, Dweezil and Moon recently spoke with Rolling Stone about the feud.

Cracks in the siblings’ relationship first surfaced in regards to filmmaker Alex Winter’s claims he had the full support of the Zappa family to make a documentary about Frank. Then, Dweezil talked to the New York Times about his decision to change the name of his Zappa Plays Zappa tribute band rather than face a threatened lawsuit from the Frank Zappa estate the Zappa Family Trust run by Ahmet and Diva. Both Zappa brothers issued “open letters,” leading us to the publication of Rolling Stone’s report in the most recent issue of the magazine.

Moon Zappa was open about what went down between her and her mother in the article. According to Moon, while she was taking care of Gail during her mother’s final months battling cancer before she died in 2015, Gail would say “weird things” such as “Do you forgive me for what I’ve done?” Moon found out after Gail died that the matriarch left 30% of the estate a piece to Ahmet and Diva and just 20% a piece to her and Dweezil. “We’re like shareholders who have no say in anything,” Dweezil told Rolling Stone. “I was completely blindsided. For a whole year I was taking care of my mother – bringing her green juice and driving her to her doctor appointments. How do you look someone in the eye and say, ‘Thank you for the foot rub’ and be plotting against that human? It’s unconscionable,” Moon added.

Owen Sloane, the attorney for the Zappa Family Trust, weighed in on Gail’s decision, “Moon and Dweezil really never had any interest in the business, whereas Ahmet is a businessperson and was involved in helping Gail make deals.” Gail putting Ahmet and Diva in charge led to a divide between the siblings, which played out most recently with the squabble over Dweezil’s usage of the Zappa Plays Zappa name. Dweezil went ahead with the name change and has stopped selling Frank Zappa merchandise at his shows. “[Dweezil] is saying the estate is trying to stop him, which is 1 million percent false,” Ahmet told Rolling Stone. “My brother’s like, ‘I’m not going to sell his merchandise.’ I’m like, ‘Why?’ It directly helps the business and puts money in his pocket.”

The Rolling Stone article also touches on the Zappa’s children experience growing up in Los Angeles as the kids of a rock star and his over-protective wife. Moon tells of Gail being terrified her children would get kidnapped and how a groupie from Australia moved into the Zappa family home. She also claims Gail told her she needed to chip in to help pay for Frank’s cancer treatments in his final days. “She said it had cost them $250,000 to raise me, so I had to sell my house,” Moon said before adding she thought “Wait a second – ‘it cost $250,000 to raise me?’ What a weird sentence to say to your own child.” Gail often used the legal route to go after anyone she thought had impinged on Frank’s copyrights. “Gail just made things difficult. Maybe she felt powerless for a long time and maybe this was like, ‘All right – my turn,'” Dweezil said. Ahmet feels Moon and Dweezil are doing a smear job on their mother, “She was stubborn and she did things her own way. That doesn’t make her the person that they’re making her out to be. They clearly must be in pain, but I’m not their mother. They have a lot of anger issues they’re projecting onto me. I didn’t raise them! I’m like, ‘Go get some therapy – try that!'”

The children also dispute the value of Frank’s estate. Dweezil told Rolling Stone the estate is “beyond broke,” while Ahmet said “[Dweezil’s claim] is not accurate in the sense that, over time, that will be rectified.” Ahmet is also upset the feud has gone public. “I thought [Moon & Dweezil] were much cooler than that, we’re not the Kardashians.” Head to Rolling Stone for the full report.