Frank Zappa wasn't just a singer, songwriter, musician, activist, and filmmaker, his artistry was also characterized by nonconformity, free-form improvisation, experiments with sound, and satire of American culture. Throughout his decades-long career, he took a lot of risks as a musician -- and even today, music aficionados have had trouble categorizing his output. Zappa has also remained a major influence on musicians and composers, but for all of his musical talents, genius, and accomplishments, this pop cultural legend sadly lived a life filled with tragedy that he had to overcome.
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00:00Frank Zappa took creative risks that few musicians would even consider.
00:04He also wrote experimental classical music and gallivanted around the world.
00:08But Frank Zappa's life wasn't always rosy.
00:11His upbringing was rocky, and his family life was also tough.
00:14Here's the tragic story of Frank Zappa.
00:17A biohazardous upbringing
00:19Frank Zappa probably should have spent his childhood in a hazmat suit.
00:23As Zappa revealed in his autobiography, his father Francis worked at a military factory
00:27that manufactured poisonous gas during World War II, and would regularly give Frank things
00:32like mercury, gas masks, and used lab equipment to play with.
00:36Perhaps not coincidentally, Zappa grappled with asthma, frequent earaches, and sinus
00:41troubles as a child, and the cures were almost worse than the ailments.
00:46Following Sicilian tradition, his parents poured hot olive oil in his ears to remedy
00:50earaches, while a doctor tried to fix the sinus issues by inserting radium pellets into
00:56Frank's sinus cavity with a long wire.
00:59Yikes!
01:00Nomad, arsonist, dropout
01:03As a kid, Zappa's family moved frequently due to his dad's job with the military.
01:07According to the New York Times, Zappa attended six different high schools by the time he
01:11was 15.
01:13Zappa became a bit of a loner, turning to experimental music and even more experimental
01:17chemistry as his hobbies.
01:19After he almost burned his high school down, though, Zappa was threatened with expulsion
01:23and gave up the hobby.
01:24Not long after, he also gave up on higher learning entirely.
01:28After enrolling in two different junior colleges and briefly studying classical music, Zappa
01:33got married and embarked on a series of odd jobs in musical gigs, including writing music
01:37for low-budget films and making appearances on variety shows.
01:41After an affair derailed his marriage, however, Zappa seemed to be going nowhere fast… except
01:45to jail.
01:46After he was arrested on indecency charges in a sting operation that led to a lifelong
01:51distrust of authority and a passion for free speech and artists' rights.
01:55"'Dirty words' don't exist.
01:57This is a fantasy that is manufactured by religious fanatics and government organizations
02:02to keep people stupid."
02:03Mothers of Invention
02:05In 1965, Zappa joined an up-and-coming band called the Soul Giants.
02:10They soon changed their name to The Mothers, and then The Mothers of Invention.
02:13They quickly gained a worldwide cult following for Zappa's genre-defying songs, which lampooned
02:19every segment of society as hypocritical and shallow, including people who were self-described
02:24freaks like Zappa.
02:26This wasn't all a put-on.
02:28Zappa clearly didn't suffer fools gladly.
02:30The Telegraph claimed that Zappa viewed humanity with contempt and deemed social interactions,
02:35quote, a waste of time, and his actions sometimes backed up that idea.
02:39When touring with his bands, Zappa stayed in separate, nicer hotels from the other members,
02:44and he allegedly looked down on his fans because he didn't think they understood his music.
02:49He told Rolling Stone,
02:50"'People are stupid.
02:51They never stop to question things.'"
02:53Needless to say, this didn't always go over well with fans.
02:56In 1971, The Mothers of Invention went on a legendarily disastrous tour of Europe.
03:02During a show in Switzerland, someone in the crowd fired a flare gun, sparking a fire that
03:06burned the venue to the ground and inspired the Deep Purple song, Smoke on the Water.
03:12And just a week later, a concertgoer named Trevor Howell jumped on stage and attacked
03:16Zappa.
03:17Apparently jealous because his girlfriend was a big fan, Howell threw Zappa off the
03:21stage and to a concrete orchestra pit 15 feet below.
03:25Zappa suffered multiple broken bones and head injuries, a temporarily paralyzed arm, and
03:30a crushed larynx.
03:31The incident permanently lowered his voice, and for the rest of his life he would limp
03:36and suffer back pain.
03:38Daddy despot
03:39If being a fan of Zappa was hard, being a family member wasn't always a treat, either.
03:44His second wife, Gail, said that the key to keeping their marriage together was talking
03:48to each other as little as possible.
03:51Everything had to be done according to his demands, even to the point of letting one
03:54of his groupies move into the house with them.
03:57Zappa also had his own views about parenting, saying,
04:00"...the more boring a child is, the more the parents, when showing off the child, receive
04:04adulation for being good parents."
04:07And he didn't want boring kids, one reason why he famously gave all four of them such
04:11unusual names Moon Unit, Dweezil, Ahmet, and Diva.
04:16He allowed his kids almost complete freedom to do whatever they wanted, except one thing
04:20— spend time with their dad, who reportedly always put his music first.
04:25His daughter Moon Unit grew so desperate to see him that she wrote him a note proposing
04:29that they get together professionally.
04:31That ended up being the only top 40 hit of Zappa's career, Valley Girl, but Moon told
04:36People,
04:37"...I had no idea it was going to be such a big hit.
04:39I wanted to spend some time with my father."
04:42Making enemies
04:43Despite his human flaws, Zappa had plenty of admirers.
04:47In 1985, Zappa earned accolades when he famously testified before Congress in favor of free
04:52speech and artists' rights in an effort to fight off music censorship.
04:56"...the PMRC demands are the equivalent of treating dandruff by decapitation."
05:01And he had legions of fans in Eastern Europe, where his music was a focal point for political
05:05and intellectual freedom for counterculture dissidents fighting against communist dictators.
05:10In fact, he was so beloved in the Czech Republic that in 1990, after the country gained its
05:15independence, Czech President Václav Havel hosted Zappa in Prague and appointed him as
05:21the Special Ambassador to the West on Trade, Culture, and Tourism.
05:25Unfortunately, Zappa had his share of enemies, and the appointment led to an international
05:30incident after U.S. Secretary of State James Baker successfully demanded Zappa be stripped
05:35of his title.
05:36Baker warned the Czech Republic,
05:37"...you can do business with the United States, or you can do business with Frank Zappa."
05:41Why the animosity?
05:43Petty revenge.
05:45Baker's wife, Susan, had been one of the co-founders of the music censorship movement before Zappa
05:50ripped her and her movement in front of Congress.
05:52"...if it looks like censorship and it smells like censorship, it is censorship no matter
05:56whose wife is talking about it, it's censorship."
06:00Family drama
06:01In 1990, Zappa was diagnosed with inoperable prostate cancer.
06:05Treatments initially shrunk the tumor, but it rebounded, leading to his death in 1993
06:10just weeks after he released his acclaimed final album, a compilation of classical compositions
06:15called The Yellow Shark.
06:17He was only 52.
06:19Before dying, he instructed his wife Gail to sell everything and get out of the music
06:23business, which he found corrupt.
06:25Instead, she did the opposite, becoming what Rolling Stone called
06:28the exacting, often litigious gatekeeper of the Zappa family business.
06:33She demanded royalties from anyone who played Frank's music publicly and sent cease-and-desist
06:38letters to cover bands, accusing them of identity theft.
06:42Before her own death in 2015, Gail arranged to have Frank's estate unequally divided among
06:47their four children based on who she thought was most capable of managing it.
06:51Ahmet and Diva each received 30 percent of the Zappa family trust, while Dweezil and
06:57Moon each received only 20 percent.
06:59As a result, Dweezil and Moon need permission from their two younger siblings to use or
07:04profit from their father's music or likeness.
07:07At one point, Dweezil, a professional musician who frequently covers his father's songs,
07:12actually received a cease-and-desist letter from his own family for using the name Zappa
07:17Plays Zappa.
07:18To avoid a lawsuit, Dweezil ditched the merchandise and renamed his show 50 Years of Frank.
07:24Dweezil Zappa Plays Whatever the F**k He Wants, the Cease and Desist Tour.
07:29We think his father would've approved.