Speaker 1: Welcome, Welcome, Welcome back to the Bob Left Sets podcast.
Speaker 1: My guest today is Amit Zappa, co trustee of the
Speaker 1: Zappa Trust. I'm it great to happen. I'm so happy
Speaker 1: I led your show. Happy to be here, you know,
Speaker 1: thank you. Okay, what is the Zappa Trust? Uh, it's
Speaker 1: it's the name that I guess. Um, our family business
Speaker 1: fell under the mega Ubert description of all things Frank Zappa. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, my my mother passed away a couple of
Speaker 1: years ago, and you know, my dad passed away, you know,
Speaker 1: uh over twenty some nine years ago, and everything was
Speaker 1: put into a trust. And I didn't know much about
Speaker 1: it until my mother passed away. And and you know,
Speaker 1: I I got a real education pretty fast on on
Speaker 1: what happens when you know, when your parents pat when
Speaker 1: you become an orphan, what happens when your parents pass?
Speaker 1: And you know, I had to figure out how do
Speaker 1: you deal with the I R s? And how do
Speaker 1: you put a price tag on intangibleles? How do you
Speaker 1: um try to take something that wasn't to be totally honest,
Speaker 1: very organized, and um you know, turn it into a
Speaker 1: successful business, uh for everyone in my family. Uh So
Speaker 1: I mean really, so your father died around that time
Speaker 1: or just before he licensed all his music went to
Speaker 1: write go was that a licensing deal? Do you still
Speaker 1: own all his music? No? Uh, my dad instructed my mother. Yeah,
Speaker 1: this is what I want to too. Right. Uh, well,
Speaker 1: I don't know if it's instructed. They just had lots
Speaker 1: of conversations my my my mother and father, you know,
Speaker 1: business partners. My mom was a real pioneer. Um. And
Speaker 1: you know, the Zappa business wouldn't exist if it wasn't
Speaker 1: for h the two of them being real scrappy, you know,
Speaker 1: because Frank financed everything. Um, you know, he got on
Speaker 1: the road. The money that he would make, he would
Speaker 1: put right back into projects. He pay all the musicians
Speaker 1: and uh you know I think, yeah, I don't know
Speaker 1: if if people know this, but prior to the Reiko question,
Speaker 1: and I'll tell you what happened, uh, you know with
Speaker 1: that deal. But you know, my mother was somebody that
Speaker 1: was like, well, she gets these bills and she sees that,
Speaker 1: you know, my out of staying at some hotels. And
Speaker 1: I want to say, he was probably with somebody that
Speaker 1: must have pissed my mother off, right, And um, you
Speaker 1: know my dad apparently was a real coxsmith. You know,
Speaker 1: he's really really laying it down with his man hammer.
Speaker 1: So she finds out that, you know, he's with some
Speaker 1: some chick, and think about this, there's four kids. She's
Speaker 1: at home, you know, running the business, and she gets in,
Speaker 1: Well she's piste off, but she uh says, whatever he
Speaker 1: has spent on this whore, right, um, on this lady,
Speaker 1: on this fan, on this groupie, or you know, I
Speaker 1: don't know this person's name, there's probably bajillions on them. Uh.
Speaker 1: My mother's like, I'm going to start a new business.
Speaker 1: I'm going to invest the same amount of money that
Speaker 1: he's spending on ladies on something called a mail order business. Right.
Speaker 1: And she had collected um uh people that were going
Speaker 1: to the concerts they would they would sign up and
Speaker 1: what year was just you know this is this is
Speaker 1: uh probably late seventies or eighties. And you know that
Speaker 1: it was through her ingenuity, Uh that really the biggest
Speaker 1: financial successes that my father ever had were directly because
Speaker 1: of her. You know, she put something out that no
Speaker 1: one had ever really uh thought of before, something called
Speaker 1: a buck set. Right. So I want to say that
Speaker 1: my my mother and father actually um you know, my
Speaker 1: father gets the credit, but it's really my mother was like, well,
Speaker 1: let's take all this vinyl that we have, old vinyl,
Speaker 1: and bundle it and put it into a box and
Speaker 1: add some other you know, bells and whistles to it,
Speaker 1: and we put something I'll call the old Masters and
Speaker 1: in a hundred dollar price tag. You know, this is
Speaker 1: this is back in the day when they're still record stores.
Speaker 1: You know. She she put together her own distribution deals
Speaker 1: and and that really was probably the first time, uh
Speaker 1: frank the family made millions of dollars. Really, yeah, Okay,
Speaker 1: you brought up a lot of things. You instantly said
Speaker 1: your father was not faithful to your mother. Did that
Speaker 1: cause stress in their relationship? You know, I learned so
Speaker 1: much of this, Um. You know that some of these
Speaker 1: details just way later in life. Um, I remember arguments
Speaker 1: and things. But uh, you know, I just I just
Speaker 1: assumed it was just you know, your parents fighting, right,
Speaker 1: and because they didn't really explain it to me. Um,
Speaker 1: who knows, Maybe it was just them fighting, But I'm
Speaker 1: I'm certain that my mother and father had and understanding.
Speaker 1: I mean, it was it was it was, um, a
Speaker 1: very interesting way to grow up. I I I mean
Speaker 1: I was unaware of any of the other romances. And
Speaker 1: my father would have had UM. I know he loved
Speaker 1: our you know, our mother, UM because you know that.
Speaker 1: I mean they stayed together through through all of it,
Speaker 1: thick and thin. So UM, it's it's really right around
Speaker 1: my when when my mother was probably only had a
Speaker 1: few months left. Uh, I got up the courage to
Speaker 1: just ask questions, yeah, to to you know, things that
Speaker 1: I don't know if I ever needed the answers for.
Speaker 1: But then once you kind of took the lid off,
Speaker 1: and then the way that she answered certain questions, I
Speaker 1: was shocked. I mean it's you know, I don't know, um,
Speaker 1: if you are the kind of person and that if
Speaker 1: your parents ever talked about hooking up with people like I,
Speaker 1: I don't You're like, I don't want to know. Um.
Speaker 1: And but she was pretty forthcoming with like, you know,
Speaker 1: the the their shared experiences there. You know, it's it
Speaker 1: was the seventies and they lived it up. And I
Speaker 1: had no freaking idea if you would have told me, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, I think if someone would have asked me,
Speaker 1: do your parents ever have like three ways or do
Speaker 1: anything like that? I would be like, fuck, no, and
Speaker 1: I would have been dead wrong. Wow, let me just say,
Speaker 1: Let me just say that there's you know, you you
Speaker 1: discover a lot of things when you have to organize, um,
Speaker 1: a household. Because my mother was also someone who who
Speaker 1: never threw anything away, and every single thing under the
Speaker 1: sun and moon was um preserved or uh documented in
Speaker 1: some capacity. So fuck bro Okay, this is a very
Speaker 1: interesting thing because your father was a legendary musician with
Speaker 1: a long career until he was unfortunately cut down with cancer.
Speaker 1: But when you when your mother died, she was still
Speaker 1: living up at the top of Laurel Canyon. Right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's right. So did you throw anything out? No, she
Speaker 1: died and all the stuff was in the house. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean it was when I have you ever seen
Speaker 1: the documentary Grey Gardens? No, you should check it out.
Speaker 1: When I say my mother didn't throw anything away, there
Speaker 1: might be newspapers that are just all stacked in one
Speaker 1: side that was a story my mother kept or thought
Speaker 1: she was going to read later on. And um, so
Speaker 1: she irrelevant to your father the famous she was a hoarder. Yeah,
Speaker 1: she's she was, But I do I kind of think
Speaker 1: that there's a method to her madness because she understood
Speaker 1: what was in all the piles. You know, I'm the
Speaker 1: same way. I'm a hoarder. I just had to move
Speaker 1: and I had to throw stuff out. That's why I'm
Speaker 1: interested in your story. Well, yeah, there was lots. There
Speaker 1: was definitely lots of things to to get rid of. Um.
Speaker 1: But I mean things like stack of newspapers that meant
Speaker 1: nothing too, but anything attached your father. Did you throw
Speaker 1: any of that out? I was in a really uh well,
Speaker 1: my my reality changed the day my mother passed away.
Speaker 1: That's when I learned that I was a co trustee
Speaker 1: of the family business, and that actually comes with really
Speaker 1: huge responsibilities. So she had never discussed that after she
Speaker 1: dies in terms of the business. It never I didn't
Speaker 1: get to have a conversation with her after her death,
Speaker 1: no that before, because you got all these talks about
Speaker 1: her wild and wooly life. She hadn't talked about after
Speaker 1: she passed because she was sick about you're gonna have
Speaker 1: you know, you know, give me a co trustee or
Speaker 1: what now? I mean the I was already working and
Speaker 1: helping her out, um prior to you know, right before
Speaker 1: she even knew she was sick. Um. She was trying
Speaker 1: to well, I have to go back to the recho.
Speaker 1: So when my dad passed, my dad was like, you know,
Speaker 1: why don't we sell the Masters keep publishing? And he
Speaker 1: was like, you just get out of it. You know,
Speaker 1: it's like a fucking horrible business, music business. You know,
Speaker 1: go to Malibu and and you know, I relax, right,
Speaker 1: and that my mother, I think took that to heart.
Speaker 1: UM sold the then Masters to Raycodisc. But you know,
Speaker 1: in the process, you know, many years later, um, there's
Speaker 1: a there's something in the language, uh in the contract.
Speaker 1: And my my father was really particular about um ah,
Speaker 1: the sonic excellence of his music. And you know, he
Speaker 1: was someone who, uh it was a real futurist and
Speaker 1: he wrote papers about how in the future music I
Speaker 1: think he even talks about it in the real Frank's
Speaker 1: Apple book somewhere, um that in the future music was
Speaker 1: going to be delivered telephonically, you know, through through the
Speaker 1: internet essentially YouTube clip to where he goes on about this. So, um,
Speaker 1: he put some language in the in in the the
Speaker 1: sale that it couldn't be below a certain bit rate,
Speaker 1: right because of compression and you know what have you?
Speaker 1: And that that that was still emerging technologies, you know. UM,
Speaker 1: and so Rycodisc winds up selling to Warners. UM, and
Speaker 1: Warners tries to put out the music digitally and we're well,
Speaker 1: you actually don't have those rights. And that became a
Speaker 1: big lawsuit. And wait, wait, wait, if they sold it
Speaker 1: to Warner, why couldn't they put out the music because
Speaker 1: it didn't qualify to the language in the contract. There
Speaker 1: was nothing about digital streaming or you know, so they
Speaker 1: didn't have the right to do that. They didn't have
Speaker 1: their rights. And part of um and this is this
Speaker 1: is this is my understanding of it. I'm sure there
Speaker 1: might be other people that you know, might have you know,
Speaker 1: deeper richer information, meaning attorneys that you know, going through
Speaker 1: the contracts, but I think just generally what I'm talking
Speaker 1: about is pretty accurate. UM. So, long story short, they
Speaker 1: didn't have the rights. Warners didn't have the rights. And
Speaker 1: I think that in the sale um Ryko I think
Speaker 1: presented to Warners that they could. So it was a
Speaker 1: whole kerfuffle and and we were kind of in the
Speaker 1: middle of it. And our whole thing was like, why
Speaker 1: don't we partner and you know, figure this out and
Speaker 1: do it together, and the heads of business affairs would
Speaker 1: change so frequently in the business, UM that we were
Speaker 1: kind of in this limbo land. And um, you know,
Speaker 1: really before my mother's passing at one of her last birthdays, UM,
Speaker 1: the family was able to actually get all the music back. Okay,
Speaker 1: so at this point in time, all of those records
Speaker 1: that were licensed to righto you now, oh uh, we
Speaker 1: made a new UM partnership with Universal UM. And that's
Speaker 1: kind of what I was, what I was brought in
Speaker 1: I supposed to do. Before my mother passed. You know,
Speaker 1: we had a big family sit down and my mother
Speaker 1: explained to you know, the family that um, you know,
Speaker 1: I you know, she first talk to me personally. It
Speaker 1: was like, I can't fight for my life and fight
Speaker 1: for this business and I need help and she needed
Speaker 1: financial help, and UM, you know it's it's it's of
Speaker 1: my opinion. You know. I did things I think differently
Speaker 1: than my brother and sisters, and in that I left
Speaker 1: at an early age the house. I went out on
Speaker 1: my own. I didn't live off of the family business,
Speaker 1: you know. Uh. So you know, I just I was
Speaker 1: starting my own production company and just so I've worked
Speaker 1: in other businesses and made my own money. So when
Speaker 1: my mother needs help, needed help, I could provide financial
Speaker 1: help or business help and um, and I was able
Speaker 1: to really bail her out. Okay, before we get there,
Speaker 1: is your deal with Universal? Is that a licensing deal
Speaker 1: or do they own it? Um? It's uh, it's something
Speaker 1: that I I don't think I can get into the
Speaker 1: details of because it's it's still an ongoing, really great,
Speaker 1: really really great relationship that I have with Okay, so
Speaker 1: let's go back to the very beginning, because you've talked
Speaker 1: about your life. When do you realize your father is
Speaker 1: Frank's appa. I mean, my parents introduced themselves to us
Speaker 1: as Frank and Gale and never called a mom and dad.
Speaker 1: So he was he was Frank. Yeah, but I meant
Speaker 1: really in terms of his fame, notoriety, place in the culture.
Speaker 1: I didn't ever think about it, you know. Um, I
Speaker 1: know that sounds like maybe a cop out answer, but
Speaker 1: you know, if my friends at school and preschool, like
Speaker 1: one could be a lawyer, one could be an actor,
Speaker 1: one could be a bus driver or whatever it was
Speaker 1: the profession you know they were. My friend's parents were
Speaker 1: equally as famous for just being a parent. You know
Speaker 1: what I mean it had nothing to do with Uh.
Speaker 1: I think what you're scratching at, like, oh, it should
Speaker 1: be some unbelievable miracle that my dad is, you know
Speaker 1: for Zapple. Like, my dad was just someone who uh
Speaker 1: always championed my creativity, let me be a fly on
Speaker 1: the wall in his business meetings. UM was really interested in,
Speaker 1: uh what our interests were, because I think we, as
Speaker 1: his children, influenced UM him in many different ways. You know.
Speaker 1: I mean I assume this because as a father myself,
Speaker 1: I see naturally what my kids are into and it
Speaker 1: informs me and I have opinions about it, you know.
Speaker 1: So UM, I guess I I reflect back on, uh
Speaker 1: those times with my with my dad as remarkable because
Speaker 1: my really really my mother and father are were so
Speaker 1: unique because they um I think made decisions to not
Speaker 1: be like their own parents, and UM gave us the
Speaker 1: freedom to develop and choose our spiritual spirituality. UM so
Speaker 1: as parents, UH and all of us being different in
Speaker 1: in our house, Like my brother was super interested in
Speaker 1: music and playing guitar, and you know, they had that
Speaker 1: kind of relationship and UH, and I think with my
Speaker 1: mother and father had equal interest and just how they
Speaker 1: were doing things. You know, How how were they able
Speaker 1: to pay for something? How when you conceive of a
Speaker 1: creative idea, how do you see it from the beginning, middle,
Speaker 1: and end? How do you complete something? You know? Um?
Speaker 1: And they really instilled instill the fearlessness in me too,
Speaker 1: just you know, deeply believe that anything is possible. And
Speaker 1: you know, I mean it served me well. Okay, So, uh,
Speaker 1: Frank was working a lot. Did you have any of
Speaker 1: the luxuries of having a famous patient of a parent,
Speaker 1: going on vacation, eating and fine restaurants any of that? Uh? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, but again, I feel like all my my
Speaker 1: answers are boring, kind of few and far between. Uh,
Speaker 1: because my my dad would either be on the road
Speaker 1: or he was just a homebody because the studios at
Speaker 1: the house. Um. And he was such a night owl
Speaker 1: that I missed a lot of things. You know, people
Speaker 1: would he would send out for food. Um. The fine
Speaker 1: dining experiences happened in places like Le Cirque, where you know,
Speaker 1: I'm sure we embarrassed him. I remember, I remember when
Speaker 1: one moment when he was really sick and he was
Speaker 1: working on the Yellow Shark. I don't know if you
Speaker 1: know that that record with the ensemble Modarren and and
Speaker 1: so we're in Frankfurt and I forgot the name of
Speaker 1: the hotel that were staying at, but it was a
Speaker 1: you know, fancy hotel. And I see him in the distance.
Speaker 1: He's having some meeting and I wanted to say it
Speaker 1: was you know, me, d Weasel and Moon. I don't
Speaker 1: think Deva was present, um, you know, but we were
Speaker 1: all there as a family. And I started doing this
Speaker 1: like really bad jazz bo dance to the you know,
Speaker 1: the jazz Pierre player, right, And I gotta say that,
Speaker 1: normally that would make my dad chuckle. But the pressure
Speaker 1: that he was under or the feelings he was feeling, um,
Speaker 1: I chalk that up to like, wow, that I really
Speaker 1: ship the bed this hard because you know, like I'm
Speaker 1: I'm I'm freaking out doing this weird dance cookie dance,
Speaker 1: and from a cross room, I get like there's like
Speaker 1: a smile for a moment and then this fucking look
Speaker 1: right and he comes over and I've never this is
Speaker 1: like the most corporate fucking thing I ever said to me.
Speaker 1: It was like, this hotel is part of a chain
Speaker 1: and if you ever want to stay here again, you
Speaker 1: should not. You know do that, And I was like, wow,
Speaker 1: that is I wasn't expecting that, you know, right, but
Speaker 1: he'd obviously you know that was here when people got
Speaker 1: kicked out of a lot of hotels, he learned a lesson. Well, uh,
Speaker 1: that felt very very unusual. Uh, you know, I think
Speaker 1: normally those kinds of things would be celebrated unless you
Speaker 1: were interrupting, I suppose, And maybe maybe I'm an answer
Speaker 1: my own question right now as I'm reminiscing about this.
Speaker 1: Unless you were messing with his you know work, right,
Speaker 1: the workflow, then that was a severe annoyance. Well how
Speaker 1: often did you go on the road with him? Um,
Speaker 1: half a dozen times? So not that man, it wasn't
Speaker 1: a family thing. We're all going to get on the bus. Well,
Speaker 1: I was born in seventy four, so um, I don't
Speaker 1: know how many tours that were kind of in between. Um,
Speaker 1: I mean, if if memory serves, I remember going to
Speaker 1: London a lot, Germany a lot. Um. Yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: we would, we would kind of travel, but my mother
Speaker 1: and father had friends and it was pretty exciting, two
Speaker 1: exciting times. But my dad got sick when I was fifteen,
Speaker 1: so it really kind of stopped like that. Tour. He
Speaker 1: wasn't feeling good. There was bad situations happening with the
Speaker 1: band members, and you know, so it really changed. Uh. Okay,
Speaker 1: you talked about your father being in night all. I
Speaker 1: once heard a story that your father would work his
Speaker 1: way around the clock and that he would work till
Speaker 1: he was done and then he would sleep and then
Speaker 1: whatever time of day it was. Is that true or untrue? Yeah? Time,
Speaker 1: there there's no some there's no schedule like that. He
Speaker 1: was he would work until he was exhausted. But I
Speaker 1: think he was. The work was so fun and he's
Speaker 1: just so prolific. You know. We have thousands and thousands
Speaker 1: and thousands of tapes, so much music in the vault
Speaker 1: he recorded everything. Where those tapes today we have them
Speaker 1: safe and secure. I don't know if you know of
Speaker 1: a place called Iron Mountain, UM, but they've been really great. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, everything used to be housed in a you know, uh,
Speaker 1: pretty decent temperature controlled space UM in our you know,
Speaker 1: at at what used to be our family home. Uh.
Speaker 1: And then when the business because it was run out
Speaker 1: of the house when we when we had to sell
Speaker 1: the house was actually instructed in the trust really after
Speaker 1: your mother died, you have to sell the house. Yeah. So,
Speaker 1: like you know, people just have the I'm sure the
Speaker 1: worst opinion about I'm some fucking nightmared, you know, douchebag
Speaker 1: or something, But in my opinion, it's not. OK. Let's
Speaker 1: go back a little bit to the history. You say
Speaker 1: you left home at what age? Um? I moved out
Speaker 1: around eighteen? You know what was your thought? I wasn't
Speaker 1: really thinking about it. What did you do when you
Speaker 1: were eighteen? Your parents ever talked to you about going
Speaker 1: to college? Oh? No, I because of you were because
Speaker 1: of them? Um. I dropped at a school in the
Speaker 1: beginning of eighth grade. I missed more than half a
Speaker 1: year of school each year prior to that. My parents
Speaker 1: felt that school was ruining my creativity. So what they
Speaker 1: would do instead? Um? Up A tell you know, I
Speaker 1: guess I moved out and started making my own money. Um.
Speaker 1: They would invest in my creative endeavors, which would be what. Well? Um,
Speaker 1: At one point I had this notion, Um, they found
Speaker 1: this guy to help me out. I can't remember his
Speaker 1: first name was Wally, and I'm totally blanking on his
Speaker 1: on his last name, it could have been like Wally,
Speaker 1: like Fiser, or something. UM but I was interested in
Speaker 1: doing something you know, different with credit cards. So as
Speaker 1: a thirteen year old or twelve year old, UM, I
Speaker 1: was like, well, how come there is no credit card
Speaker 1: for for kids? And you know, I want to get
Speaker 1: more benefit because I was looking at the back of
Speaker 1: these um my dad's like cigarettes and you know, there
Speaker 1: was like the cigarette points and I was seeing some
Speaker 1: of these uh loyalty programs right, and I was like, well,
Speaker 1: why can't we do that with credit cards? You know,
Speaker 1: why can't I get more benefits if I want to
Speaker 1: go see a concert or go see a movie, you know,
Speaker 1: where's my lifestyle card? Why don't you know we create
Speaker 1: this kind of like cashless society. And UM, I came
Speaker 1: up with this plan to do to make something called
Speaker 1: a report card and to utilize um some of the
Speaker 1: it's only really in the last couple of years is
Speaker 1: the technology here. But because I had traveled, they credit
Speaker 1: cards there had chips, you know, and you can put
Speaker 1: so much more information on the chips. So I wanted
Speaker 1: to have this smart card that could create a loyalty
Speaker 1: program around. UM I guess stuff. I was interested in
Speaker 1: entertainment and you maybe put money back into the school system.
Speaker 1: So I was calling it the report card. Um. And
Speaker 1: you know, I was really interested in in the local
Speaker 1: restaurants and businesses that were around schools because I figured, well,
Speaker 1: then kids couldn't all the They also learned to be
Speaker 1: more responsible with their money. The parents were the ones
Speaker 1: that could, um, you know, put your allowance on it right,
Speaker 1: and you couldn't buy drugs with it, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. It was accepted everywhere. What did you do
Speaker 1: drugs when you were a teenager, I've never I've never
Speaker 1: tried any drugs. I've never smoked pot. My wife thought
Speaker 1: I was so, I guess boring. She introduced me to tequila,
Speaker 1: and now I'm a fucking massive sean, you know, among
Speaker 1: other alcoholic beverages. But when you move out, what do
Speaker 1: you what do you do for work? What do you
Speaker 1: do for income? Well, you know, as an example, um,
Speaker 1: just in terms of the the access I think, I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't think American Express or Visa or MasterCard. UH
Speaker 1: would have taken the phone call from a twelve year old.
Speaker 1: But my parents, knowing I wasn't going to school, They're like,
Speaker 1: all right, well, let's go to White Plains. Let's go,
Speaker 1: you know, fly and see all the heads of the
Speaker 1: credit card companies. And this is when I pitched out,
Speaker 1: which essentially is like loyalty programs for credit cards right
Speaker 1: as a kid, you know. And I would make do
Speaker 1: these presentations and kind of walk in there pretty fearlessly
Speaker 1: and say like, hey, this is why I think you
Speaker 1: should do it. And that's just an example of how
Speaker 1: my parents supported, you know, my business ideas and and um.
Speaker 1: And I've just been kind of fortunate in the way
Speaker 1: that people would go and see Frank and discuss new
Speaker 1: ideas with him, or he would engage with with people
Speaker 1: around an idea he had, and and his gravitational pull
Speaker 1: for interesting characters. UM, I feel like I have that
Speaker 1: same thing happening in my world to some extent. You know,
Speaker 1: I I wind up meeting very interesting individuals, and I,
Speaker 1: you know, connect the dots. You know. I've been involved
Speaker 1: in tons of different businesses. I mean when I when
Speaker 1: I left, I guess I was a child actor uh
Speaker 1: and made somewhat of a living um uh. And then
Speaker 1: I started hosting shows with my brother and um we
Speaker 1: played in a band together. And and you know, then
Speaker 1: I went off on my own and really wanted to
Speaker 1: become a storyteller, and I wound up setting up I
Speaker 1: wrote my first book, the UM The Monstrous Memoirs of
Speaker 1: a Mighty Make Fairless. I wound up selling that to
Speaker 1: Disney for a million and a half dollars and selling
Speaker 1: it around the world for millions of dollars. And UH
Speaker 1: set up my production company at Disney, and then started
Speaker 1: a really unique kind of production company where I had
Speaker 1: one foot in consumer products and one foot in the
Speaker 1: motion picture group and worked on a lot of interesting
Speaker 1: pieces of technology with imagineering and UM, I really suit
Speaker 1: things that my father or in a lot of cases
Speaker 1: my mother inspired me with stuff that they fantasized about
Speaker 1: that UM stoked the flames of my own imagination. And
Speaker 1: I think because of the access that I had, I
Speaker 1: just learned things from the access I had from being
Speaker 1: a fly on the wall with my dad. UH piqued
Speaker 1: my curiosity, and you know, I learned enough, I guess
Speaker 1: to be dangerous by not going to school and not
Speaker 1: having my creativity ruined and not going to college. You also,
Speaker 1: I've I've just been able to I've only ever had
Speaker 1: jobs in the entertainment industry, and I've i've survived. Okay,
Speaker 1: But you famously hosted a show for a while, right,
Speaker 1: how did that come together? What was that? I've hosted
Speaker 1: thousands of hours of television, shitty, shitty fucking television, and honestly,
Speaker 1: it would give me diarrhea to be so nervous about it.
Speaker 1: I was. I think I was mostly known for uh,
Speaker 1: controlled chaos. You could give me bullet points and say like, okay,
Speaker 1: we need we need to somehow. You need to steer
Speaker 1: this crazy ship that's going down in flame. You need
Speaker 1: to land this plane, right, And that's Those are the
Speaker 1: kinds of jobs that I would get. But when you
Speaker 1: say I hosted some show, I don't know which one
Speaker 1: you're talking about, because there's honestly been a tremendous amount
Speaker 1: of serious you were involved in for a number of years,
Speaker 1: which one bro you know, like, uh, you know, for
Speaker 1: for the for the people that care at all. You
Speaker 1: can see the pilot dog ship that I've been associated with,
Speaker 1: UM And maybe that's a terrible thing to say about
Speaker 1: the shows that I was interested because it paid my
Speaker 1: bills and I had good times, and I was never
Speaker 1: happy doing hosting. UM A lot of those shows, the
Speaker 1: the only the big regret, um, is that I had
Speaker 1: the opportunity. I actually auditioned a couple of times to
Speaker 1: be the host of Let's Make a Deal, and that
Speaker 1: was always my dream job. I love that. I love
Speaker 1: that show. Okay, but you think like that would make
Speaker 1: you happy, would have made you happy. I do like
Speaker 1: the I love sitting down and talking with people, and
Speaker 1: I thought that was a pretty interesting format because it's
Speaker 1: a bunch of crazy crazy is getting dressed up, and
Speaker 1: you know, I love the whole Monty of it all
Speaker 1: where he put his hand in his pocket and be like,
Speaker 1: all right, you can take hundred bugs here, or you
Speaker 1: can find out what's behind door number one or door
Speaker 1: number two. Tell them. I could not I could never
Speaker 1: get enough of that show. That was my favorite of
Speaker 1: the afternoon game shows. Loved and that that's that's like
Speaker 1: my anything that smells like that or feels like that.
Speaker 1: I would totally do that kind of a thing. Again.
Speaker 1: I'm very I'm comfortable in that setting. I like doing
Speaker 1: talk shows. I like sitting down with you because we're
Speaker 1: having a conversation. I feel like there's a real connection. Um.
Speaker 1: But I guess the part that was more stressful is
Speaker 1: sticking to a script. Um is just you know, learning
Speaker 1: the lines to deliver that. This sort of business was.
Speaker 1: It was always pretty stressful. So I'm okay. And in
Speaker 1: this window, somewhere along the line, you married Selma Blair,
Speaker 1: who was a movie star at the time. How did
Speaker 1: that come together? I actually saw her. She was she
Speaker 1: had a boyfriend the time, sitting on some dudes's lap.
Speaker 1: I was at this restaurant called fred Siegel um or
Speaker 1: I forgot the restaurant at fred Siegal. I forgot what.
Speaker 1: I forgot what it's called actually right now. Um, but
Speaker 1: I was with my friend Jules, and she walks in
Speaker 1: and I had seen her in um other cool intention
Speaker 1: or something, and I was like, you know what, like
Speaker 1: I should marry, Like that's that's someone I should marry.
Speaker 1: Rights totally totally random. Uh. And then a few months later,
Speaker 1: a mutual friend I didn't know her at all, but
Speaker 1: a but a mutual friend, um actually introduced us and um,
Speaker 1: you know that was that was that was crazy that
Speaker 1: I got married. I got married and Princess Leah's backyard, right,
Speaker 1: So Carrie Fisher demanded, Yeah, Carrie demanded, you know, like
Speaker 1: you have to get married here and on that particular
Speaker 1: day where she was off meds or I don't know
Speaker 1: what happened to her, but for someone who insisted on
Speaker 1: us getting getting married at her house, she showed up
Speaker 1: and was like, who are all these people? And what
Speaker 1: is going on? Right? Um? And believe me, it wasn't
Speaker 1: a surprise. You. You kind of got to be organized
Speaker 1: if you're gonna, you know, have all that stuff going on.
Speaker 1: So that's you know, that was a pretty funny experience.
Speaker 1: And uh, when we were looking at her house as
Speaker 1: a location, UM, this is so fucking funny to me.
Speaker 1: Hopefully you'll appreciate the story. But we were all in
Speaker 1: Carrie's room, my mother Tracy Ullman. This is not mean
Speaker 1: name dropping. I'm just trying to set right. So Carrie Selma,
Speaker 1: my mother, Tracy um and like you know, Carrie would
Speaker 1: have people just hang out in her bedroom. I don't know.
Speaker 1: It's so if you if you were friendly with her, um,
Speaker 1: well you know she there's a lot of similarities I
Speaker 1: think in um art appreciation with with Carrie and my mother,
Speaker 1: and they were friendly. My my mom and Carrie, you know,
Speaker 1: I knew each other socially. So we're again we're hanging
Speaker 1: out in her room and everyone leaves, except we're walking
Speaker 1: into her kitchen and I remember seeing I remember seeing
Speaker 1: Tracy's shoes and um, so I was hanging back with
Speaker 1: my mother for for ten seconds. Right. So now it's
Speaker 1: just the two of us walking out of the out
Speaker 1: of the Carrie's bedroom together, um to walk towards the kitchen,
Speaker 1: and I see Tracy's shoes, uh, and it's like she's
Speaker 1: trying to plug in a lamp underneath the piano in
Speaker 1: the living room, right, And I thought it would just
Speaker 1: be really funny to play the Exorcist, you know, play
Speaker 1: two tubular bells while season in there. So I decided
Speaker 1: to aggressively play that tune. And then you know, Tracy
Speaker 1: and Carrie uh and Selma come out of the kitchen
Speaker 1: like into the living room. So I'm like, well, who
Speaker 1: the funk is now under the piano and like I'm like, well, funk,
Speaker 1: I'm that's what an assholic thing for me to do.
Speaker 1: And it was Debbie Reynolds, right, her mom, Carrie's mom
Speaker 1: under under the piano, and I'm playing the Exorcist. But
Speaker 1: then Carrie was looking at her mom under the piano
Speaker 1: as I'm playing the Exorcist and it was kind of
Speaker 1: like the perfect moment if you've read any of Carrie's autobiography.
Speaker 1: So it turned out to be a pretty hysterical moment
Speaker 1: for Just to be clear, So what you thought were
Speaker 1: Tracy Ullman shoes were ultimately Debbie Reynolds. Yes, what? I
Speaker 1: just what? I I because of the shoes, I just
Speaker 1: assumed it was Tracy under the piano and it turned
Speaker 1: out it was Carrie Fisher's mom. Okay, so how does
Speaker 1: it end with Selma? Uh? Pretty? It was pretty traumatic
Speaker 1: for me. I had to I had to go to
Speaker 1: a behavioral list afterwards and tried to understand why I
Speaker 1: had such a bad job of picking, you know, people
Speaker 1: to spend h to get into romantic relationships with. Um it,
Speaker 1: you know, we we ultimately got divorced, and you know
Speaker 1: it's pretty sad. But she's going through now. Do you
Speaker 1: have any contact with her? No? Not really. You know,
Speaker 1: of course I wish her and I don't. I don't
Speaker 1: think contact with the X is too much history. No,
Speaker 1: she's she's she's reached out. But it's pretty pretty traumatic
Speaker 1: for me. I mean, what would she leave you? Or? Honestly,
Speaker 1: if I'm being really blunt. Um, she might have been
Speaker 1: turned out to be the meanest person I've ever been
Speaker 1: in a relationship with um, because there were she had
Speaker 1: some some personal uh issues, you know, um that you know,
Speaker 1: She's had other scenarios. I'm sure people can read about,
Speaker 1: you know, but um, and I really do wish her.
Speaker 1: I wish her well. But for me, I wound. I
Speaker 1: found myself cataloging like how many drinks someone might have,
Speaker 1: you know, and and like becoming very aware of of
Speaker 1: how personalities could change if you know, X, Y or
Speaker 1: Z happens, And it made me a little a little
Speaker 1: cuckoo in having to it was. It was really strange.
Speaker 1: If I really reflect on on my life to this,
Speaker 1: to this moment, I think, um, my mother and father's
Speaker 1: relationship and the stress it might have caused my mother
Speaker 1: in maybe his dalliances with other women, UM, and or
Speaker 1: my mom's up and ups and downs. It was. It
Speaker 1: was a pretty harsh reality when I saw a behavioral
Speaker 1: listed and that he was like, well, so basically you
Speaker 1: you married your mother, right, And I was like fuck that.
Speaker 1: I didn't not like fuck you for even saying that,
Speaker 1: what do you mean? You know? And then when I
Speaker 1: started to kind of get underneath what I think. You know,
Speaker 1: he was saying, not only was was I going through,
Speaker 1: uh the pain of you know, because I'm a pretty
Speaker 1: intentional person. If I say I'm gonna do something, uh
Speaker 1: and make a commitment, I that's it really important to
Speaker 1: me and I the failure of the marriage was a
Speaker 1: huge blow to me. You know that that notion. I
Speaker 1: never thought it was going to be someone that would
Speaker 1: ever get divorced or um uh. I think I just
Speaker 1: swung the toll polar opposite way of of I guess
Speaker 1: the relationship that the energy I was feeling from my parents,
Speaker 1: if that makes sense, which I felt the same way.
Speaker 1: You know, I got divorced. My X left me, and
Speaker 1: after you left, I was I never would have divorced her.
Speaker 1: It's like my parents stayed together. My parents flought same thing.
Speaker 1: Really fucked me up. Yeah, it was. It was hard
Speaker 1: to to deal with. But I found myself being a
Speaker 1: really harsh critic of of the choices I made. But
Speaker 1: I have to say, uh, and maybe this is just
Speaker 1: bumper stick or wishful thinking. If all roads lead to
Speaker 1: the road that you're on, um uh. That journey of
Speaker 1: self discovery after the fact of you know, why was
Speaker 1: I attracted to say, let's say, like chaos, right, Um?
Speaker 1: It led me to I truly I worship my wife. Okay,
Speaker 1: So how long after you were done with Salma did
Speaker 1: you meet your wife? A couple of years? And how
Speaker 1: did you meet her? Um? Through a mutual friend actually, UM.
Speaker 1: And what's interesting is we had probably been in the
Speaker 1: same place at the same time, you know, dozens of times,
Speaker 1: and just never you know, laid eyes on one another.
Speaker 1: Not that I'm sur prize, but my wife is because
Speaker 1: it was your wife in the business she she uh yes,
Speaker 1: but for a brief moment of time if you mean
Speaker 1: the business like an actress or something of that, she
Speaker 1: I think, you know, dabbled and then then no, she's
Speaker 1: like funk that noise? Amout. What kind of background did
Speaker 1: she come from? So she grew up in Los Angeles,
Speaker 1: her brother who's who's a great actor. UM and you
Speaker 1: know really my brother as well. You know, I feel
Speaker 1: so blessed in that. Really when I married into her family,
Speaker 1: very different style of parenting, UM, very different uh um
Speaker 1: support system. You know, I think the environment I was in,
Speaker 1: UM could have been pretty competitive, you know, and and
Speaker 1: her her world is just everyone is, um pretty supportive.
Speaker 1: Um not. That's not to say that, you know, my
Speaker 1: parents were totally supportive, because they were, but it would
Speaker 1: it would be like a whole other shell hours to
Speaker 1: kind of go over why the subtle differences. But they're
Speaker 1: they're there, they are different. Um Uh, how many kids
Speaker 1: do you have? I have two little ones? How old
Speaker 1: are they? Have? An eight year old who will be
Speaker 1: nine in December, and I have three year old. My
Speaker 1: daughter is the oldest and my son is the youngest.
Speaker 1: He just he just turned three. Okay, are you going
Speaker 1: to raise them like your parents raise? You're gonna do
Speaker 1: a one eight. I don't even put too much thought
Speaker 1: into it, you know. My philosophy, um is a lot
Speaker 1: of communication. Obviously with my wife, communication is super important.
Speaker 1: But um, I I suppose the thing I'm consciously doing
Speaker 1: different if I'm thinking about my dad is I'm I'm
Speaker 1: more available, you know. And I did this. I put
Speaker 1: the show together called The Bizarre World of Frank Zappa,
Speaker 1: which is this whole multimedia schmorge Bourg of awesome. And
Speaker 1: it was, you know, all my a bunch of my
Speaker 1: dad's band members, people who loved to play with. They
Speaker 1: went out on the road, um and it was this
Speaker 1: you know, fantastic show and will go out again in
Speaker 1: the in the near future. But um I I spent
Speaker 1: so much time directing, conceiving of all the visuals and
Speaker 1: the storytelling that's associated with the with the music, um
Speaker 1: that when it actually came time to show time and
Speaker 1: I traveled with the tour, and that was the first
Speaker 1: time I've been been away from my kids, I was like, wow,
Speaker 1: I'm kind of like living. It was surreal because I
Speaker 1: felt like I was my dad, not not like I
Speaker 1: was him, but like um uh I was um. I
Speaker 1: created a similar dynamic that my father had when he
Speaker 1: was out on the road, where when he would call,
Speaker 1: I had just these fleeting moments that were so meaningful,
Speaker 1: meaningful for me, and all I had was a telephone
Speaker 1: and I would miss him so much, right and and
Speaker 1: think about like when he is he coming home and
Speaker 1: all of this stuff. Um and I was I would wonder,
Speaker 1: you know, was what he is he thinking about his
Speaker 1: kids and the family? You know, just thanks to think
Speaker 1: about when you're a kid and then here I am
Speaker 1: as an adult roughly the same kind of age on
Speaker 1: the like you know, the roles have reversed and that
Speaker 1: was a real trip to to to do that. But
Speaker 1: then it's also my dad's music that that's in the show.
Speaker 1: Uh so it was pretty cathartic too. It's on so
Speaker 1: many levels it was to to be in that experience
Speaker 1: and meet so many fans of my dad's music. Um,
Speaker 1: it made a huge impact on on me as as
Speaker 1: I understand uh who I am as a father, you know,
Speaker 1: and you know I I they love me, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. I don't have any kids, but I
Speaker 1: take your word for it. Let's go back. So you
Speaker 1: say you start working with your mother a year about
Speaker 1: a year before she passes on financial batters. I'm a
Speaker 1: little confused the trust you still own the publishing to
Speaker 1: the music. Yeah, so the financial matters are The cost
Speaker 1: of the long legal battle was millions, I mean five
Speaker 1: six million dollars some crazy, right, So she was really
Speaker 1: in the hole. And part of the way to get
Speaker 1: the music back was UM when when the when that
Speaker 1: UM deal was struck. Uh, there's you know, payments, right
Speaker 1: and if she was ever to default on the payments,
Speaker 1: then we'd lose the music. So uh, it was a
Speaker 1: pretty hefty price tag because she sold the music for
Speaker 1: a lot of a lot of money. So then to
Speaker 1: be able to buy the music back to get it back, um,
Speaker 1: you know I would, I'd get a fucking call. Uh,
Speaker 1: She's like I need a million dollars in a month.
Speaker 1: You know, like, ah, what the fuck? I'd have to
Speaker 1: figure that out. Um, and I did that a couple
Speaker 1: of times. Actually, So where do you get the money from?
Speaker 1: You know, I would organized business deals or or make
Speaker 1: new kinds of I'd have to analyze the assets, you know. Um,
Speaker 1: I put in my own money, and you know, I
Speaker 1: just I did whatever whatever we could do, UM to
Speaker 1: make sure our our business partners were satisfied, and obviously
Speaker 1: try to do the best that we could. UM, with
Speaker 1: a mindful eye on you know, this is this is
Speaker 1: my mother's livelihood. It's you know, she lost the man
Speaker 1: she loved. And you know, as as as much as
Speaker 1: I think my older brother or older sister, or my
Speaker 1: little sister, or even myself have opinions about what it
Speaker 1: could it should have, you know, it was always my
Speaker 1: sort of point of view. It's like, it's not my business.
Speaker 1: I didn't make the music. I wasn't I wasn't my
Speaker 1: dad's business. Partner, you know, and so I have had
Speaker 1: no attachment to um, the a, the money or be um.
Speaker 1: You know, it really wasn't something that I wanted to do.
Speaker 1: Let me say it this way. My mother was someone
Speaker 1: like you know, she's she's big, she's a big Democrat
Speaker 1: and UM you know she she don't she would donate
Speaker 1: a lot of money to cause us she believed in
Speaker 1: And there was this opportunity to go have a photo
Speaker 1: op with the you know, then president and vice president.
Speaker 1: And she calls me and says, hey, do you want
Speaker 1: to go to this this event? And I say not
Speaker 1: at all. I'm not interested. I'm sure other you know,
Speaker 1: I'm sure other people would be interested. And she so
Speaker 1: she's like, well, this is why I'm taking you because
Speaker 1: everyone else wants to go. I'm like, well great, I
Speaker 1: really don't want to go. And then it would become
Speaker 1: an argument, which is like, well I want to take you.
Speaker 1: So you know that I think in a weird way,
Speaker 1: UM in that my being self sufficient or trying to
Speaker 1: be fair minded for all of the family members, um,
Speaker 1: which I really genuinely take seriously and I want to
Speaker 1: try to do. Uh. I think that that's why I
Speaker 1: woke up with this. Um why she asked me for
Speaker 1: help because she she would all the time, you know,
Speaker 1: like a Okay, just to be clear, your three siblings,
Speaker 1: were they capable of giving help? I'm talking about business insight?
Speaker 1: Were they not that kind of person now that financially
Speaker 1: I don't I don't think that they. Um, I don't
Speaker 1: think so. But I mean they might have a different opinion. Um.
Speaker 1: But were they living off the family money or were
Speaker 1: they making their own money? I don't really know to
Speaker 1: the extent all of those details. I mean, they're a
Speaker 1: lot of help given. You know, my brother didn't move
Speaker 1: out until he was thirties seven or thirty six or something,
Speaker 1: which to me is just not my lifestyle. You know that.
Speaker 1: I was like, I want my own space. I don't
Speaker 1: want to have my bedroom next to my mother's, you know.
Speaker 1: I mean, like that doesn't make a bit of sense,
Speaker 1: you know. But there were some pretty awkward, funny moments, uh,
Speaker 1: you know that I've shared with you know, like when
Speaker 1: when he got married, my mom was like, okay, you're
Speaker 1: you're married now and you need to get out, you know. Uh,
Speaker 1: And but you should ask him about you should have
Speaker 1: on the show because he's he's a super amazing talented UM.
Speaker 1: You know, a musician, he's a he's a like he's
Speaker 1: a mutant, like my dad was a mutant. You know.
Speaker 1: He does things with his instruments that are he's I mean,
Speaker 1: he's so he's so phenomenal. I wish that for him.
Speaker 1: If he was born like ten years earlier, he would
Speaker 1: have been more popular than Edward Van Halen, you know,
Speaker 1: like he just I think he missed this window. Um.
Speaker 1: And his music style, in my opinion, has just changed
Speaker 1: a lot because he's you know, by by playing Frank's
Speaker 1: music and really studying it. Um. He again, watch him
Speaker 1: play it's it's it's fucking insane. He's he's really amazing. UM.
Speaker 1: And my my older sister inspired me in so many
Speaker 1: ways because she she does a lot of stand up. Um.
Speaker 1: She wrote her her first book, and I really thought, like, wow,
Speaker 1: I'd love to be able to achieve, you know, for
Speaker 1: someone you know that dropped out of high school, miss
Speaker 1: more than half of years, coolie year and super super
Speaker 1: bad dyslexia. By the way, I have a really weird
Speaker 1: learning disabilities. Um. The idea of of accomplishing what she
Speaker 1: accomplished was so inspiring to me. Um, and and she
Speaker 1: was there for me more than I think my mom
Speaker 1: was too all the time. And I really I was
Speaker 1: really bummed out when she moved out, Like that was
Speaker 1: a huge blow to me. She she moved out I
Speaker 1: think when she was eighteen two, Um, and I was gutted.
Speaker 1: You know, she she's like super mama bear like well,
Speaker 1: was always cooking something, making cy tea and you know
Speaker 1: it's uh, you know it's it's it's just so it's
Speaker 1: just a fucking bummer. That's That's what what happens when
Speaker 1: when like family members died, people call birds go insane,
Speaker 1: birds going sane. That's all I can say. Uh, it's
Speaker 1: it's just a bummer. Okay, So your mother then dies
Speaker 1: and it's public information that she does not divide the
Speaker 1: estate equally. Yeah, what is the inspira nation for that to?
Speaker 1: What did we are you're were it's going to go
Speaker 1: down that way? And what are the family members reactions
Speaker 1: to that? I mean not not great? I mean I
Speaker 1: I think I know why, Um, that decision was made. Uh,
Speaker 1: my mother had a life insurance policy that she bought
Speaker 1: after she sold the Masters, and you know some of
Speaker 1: the financing here, I can't speak someone who probably selves
Speaker 1: life insurance policies will kind of know what I'm talking about, UM,
Speaker 1: but I'll try to explain it. So, she prepaid for
Speaker 1: this this this big you know, life insurance policy, and
Speaker 1: there's something that, uh, I guess she wasn't aware that
Speaker 1: was in there. Um. And the way that she did
Speaker 1: the policy is that she was under the impression that
Speaker 1: she ever needed money, she could borrow against it. But
Speaker 1: there's this thing called a mech that was in there
Speaker 1: that I guess would have had to make her pay
Speaker 1: like a crazy amount on taxes. Right. That was never
Speaker 1: part of um of her understanding. Right. So actually, when
Speaker 1: she needed to uh make some make a payment to
Speaker 1: save all the music, um, she reached out to all
Speaker 1: of us kids, and UM, she was like, hey, listen,
Speaker 1: you know I want to try to this is ultimately
Speaker 1: your life insurance policies for you guys, that I did,
Speaker 1: But what's more important to you money or saving the
Speaker 1: family business? And for me it was no question, like,
Speaker 1: you know, I think the family is the most important
Speaker 1: and uh, yeah, if you needed whatever you need, you
Speaker 1: should do. Uh. My little sister was the same, and
Speaker 1: my older UM brother and older sister just had a
Speaker 1: different opinion. Um. And I think that I think that
Speaker 1: that's a big part of it's a big disappointment because
Speaker 1: it was a lot of arguing that that was going
Speaker 1: on between a lot of stress for me because I
Speaker 1: had to I was the person. I had to find
Speaker 1: the money to make these payments, you know, So she
Speaker 1: never did cash in the life interests, um, because I
Speaker 1: found I found the resources. Um. But I think that
Speaker 1: the notion of like, well, what's what's more important? You know,
Speaker 1: and all these demands were made not by my my,
Speaker 1: my diva diva or I you know, I think that
Speaker 1: just was not a good feeling. But the demands being
Speaker 1: what kind of demands did the other to make? You know,
Speaker 1: you should ask them because you know I already get
Speaker 1: beaten up enough fight, Well, this is your chance to
Speaker 1: tell your side of the story. Well, no, I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm I'm not trying to hold anything back, but
Speaker 1: I mean they you should genuinely No, I'm just trying
Speaker 1: to understand before your mother passed, they weren't interested in
Speaker 1: saving the family business, but did they also want to
Speaker 1: sell it so they could get the cash? Is that
Speaker 1: what it was about? They wanted. Um yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: you'd have to ask them. But the way I interpret
Speaker 1: it is like, well, it was never our money to
Speaker 1: begin with, it was. There's so she's asking us what
Speaker 1: to do because the reason why she's asking is we
Speaker 1: would all have to agree, right, So in all of
Speaker 1: us agreeing, um, I think revealed I think the future,
Speaker 1: you know. And it's of my opinion that in that moment,
Speaker 1: if if she was going to put people that will
Speaker 1: do what's right for the entirety of the family in place,
Speaker 1: That's how I view it, you know, And that's my
Speaker 1: goal is I essentially work for the entire family as
Speaker 1: a co trustee. All it means is that someone has
Speaker 1: to have the ultimate authority to say yes or no
Speaker 1: to something. It's that doesn't prohibit you know, I'm not
Speaker 1: going to prohibit anyone in my family from everyone to
Speaker 1: do something that is our mutual legacy. If you will, right,
Speaker 1: we all get the benefit from it. But there's just
Speaker 1: you know, I think it's just weird. It's just weird, Okay. Well,
Speaker 1: the famous story is about Dweezl going on the road
Speaker 1: in the issue of his right to be able to
Speaker 1: do that, he made a lot of public statements. What's
Speaker 1: your viewpoint on that? Well, um, I can tell you
Speaker 1: what happened. So uh, he was like, Okay, this is
Speaker 1: this is my business. Um and you know, if you
Speaker 1: it's so boring, but you know, think of it from
Speaker 1: this perspective. I think in nineteen seventies six, my father
Speaker 1: trademarked Zappa okay and ah, And anytime you get into
Speaker 1: new businesses, if it was like a new trademark where
Speaker 1: you for anyone who knows trademark law or has trademarks,
Speaker 1: if you're going to be selling T shirts with a
Speaker 1: you know, a name or a phrase on it or whatever,
Speaker 1: there's just different classes. Right. So as a family business,
Speaker 1: we own these marks, right, and I think it's really misleading. Uh.
Speaker 1: And a lot of people think that that I tried
Speaker 1: to trademark the name, uh, which is no. I. I
Speaker 1: continue to uphold our marks so that we can act,
Speaker 1: we protect the legacy which is there, which is my
Speaker 1: older brother and older sister's legacy as well, you know. Um,
Speaker 1: and you know there a lot of that got totally
Speaker 1: blown out of uh proportion, And honestly, really I felt
Speaker 1: like I was really being bullied by my older siblings
Speaker 1: to be if I'm being really honest, and I was
Speaker 1: in the frame of mind that it's not. Um, it's
Speaker 1: really not something I feel like ever really talking about
Speaker 1: because I feel like it's nobody's business. It's family business.
Speaker 1: But they you know, you can look at statements I've
Speaker 1: made and statements that they've made, and I try to
Speaker 1: keep it as um, you know, as private as possible. Uh.
Speaker 1: And maybe I'm saying way too much. Maybe I'm totally
Speaker 1: contradicting that notion. But at least up until this moment,
Speaker 1: I really haven't haven't talked. You're asking me, and I am.
Speaker 1: It's I feel like no one should air their own
Speaker 1: family business. But I can honestly tell you that, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, my feelings were totally hurt, and so many
Speaker 1: mean things were have been said and done, and you know,
Speaker 1: I would never do anything to hurt my my family members.
Speaker 1: Family to me is the most important thing, period. And UM,
Speaker 1: I don't feel entitled to anything. Um. And if you know,
Speaker 1: you asked earlier. And I think when people think that
Speaker 1: there's a money discrepancy, right, if you really think about it, UM, well,
Speaker 1: at least at least in in my case, there were
Speaker 1: things that even weren't. Uh, that's still needed to like
Speaker 1: teas need to be crossed in eyes that needed to
Speaker 1: be dotted. Any chance I could um to have everyone
Speaker 1: have more. That's that's every action I took, you know.
Speaker 1: But the thing is it's an irrevocable trust, right, and
Speaker 1: that means that I can't go against it and they
Speaker 1: can't go against it. And so that doesn't make me
Speaker 1: an asshole. It's just like I'm I'm by law. My
Speaker 1: I have to follow the rules. You know. Now, if
Speaker 1: people can all unanimously agree on something, maybe things can happen. Right,
Speaker 1: but you know so far that you know, at least
Speaker 1: in our family at this moment, you know, things are good. Now.
Speaker 1: It took a while to you know, to kind of
Speaker 1: you know, all get on the same page. And I
Speaker 1: really choked it up to um, you know, the loss
Speaker 1: of I mean, honestly, there's no one else to complain to.
Speaker 1: You know, you are your parents still around, you know
Speaker 1: right right? My mother is ninety, almost gonna be nine three.
Speaker 1: She's losing it. So but you know, the weird thing is,
Speaker 1: like all I feel, all the issues that that went
Speaker 1: maybe unsaid to Frank then got put into my mother
Speaker 1: and you want answers, and you know, x y or
Speaker 1: Z and I really really worked on my relationship with
Speaker 1: my mother in terms of forgiveness or you know, I
Speaker 1: had nothing left to to worry about, you know, and
Speaker 1: I'm not I was never going to change her. And
Speaker 1: that's what I learned, which was I want to be
Speaker 1: able to have the best relationship that I can. And
Speaker 1: you know whose fault is it? And I think I
Speaker 1: believe this for any human being. If you know that
Speaker 1: you have issues with certain people, but you you keep
Speaker 1: going back into you know, having issues, UM, be smarter
Speaker 1: about it, you know, have you think of it, think
Speaker 1: of it in a different way, make make the try
Speaker 1: to do the best you can. You know that. That's
Speaker 1: that's I try to be pretty passive, you know. So
Speaker 1: your brother was on the road and news would say
Speaker 1: you wanted a license for use of the name. He
Speaker 1: always had a license, I mean the whole. So what
Speaker 1: happened was I came up with this idea too. I
Speaker 1: called my brother and well I met with um you'll
Speaker 1: probably know who he is, uh, Bob Dylan's tour manager,
Speaker 1: and the this this other guy named Danny Heaps, and
Speaker 1: I floated this notion of um going back and going
Speaker 1: out on the road, uh and playing Frank's music so
Speaker 1: that you know, new new people could discover the music.
Speaker 1: This years ago and I was like, I'll you know,
Speaker 1: I'll call in and you know, see if my my
Speaker 1: brother might want to do it with me, because I
Speaker 1: after my dad passed, I really had an estranged relationship,
Speaker 1: UM with my brother. We started, I mean, we we
Speaker 1: did so much work together and you know, um, I
Speaker 1: don't know, it's just it's still kind of a mystery
Speaker 1: to me to this day. Um around it just feelings
Speaker 1: and things after after my father passed. But um, so
Speaker 1: I wanted to create this opportunity to say, like, hey,
Speaker 1: we haven't played music together in a while, why don't
Speaker 1: we try to help out, you know, the family business
Speaker 1: and do this you know thing called Tappa plays Appa.
Speaker 1: So when I called him, um, he was like, you know,
Speaker 1: I'll just do that, you know, on my own, or
Speaker 1: or that won't ever happen. You know, that's not real.
Speaker 1: Now I'd already contacted, uh, the the people that my
Speaker 1: dad worked with that you know, when for those of
Speaker 1: you who don't know, if you're you know, you have
Speaker 1: a band, you might talk with the booking agent. They uh,
Speaker 1: we'll tell you how much you can get for you know,
Speaker 1: advance on the shows and all of that stuff. So
Speaker 1: so I've done all the legwork. So I basically came
Speaker 1: with a you know, Turkey operation, and um, I said, look,
Speaker 1: there's this is just already in in play. Why don't
Speaker 1: you know come to a meeting, come, you know? He
Speaker 1: just he didn't believe it, right, So we all sit
Speaker 1: down and we have a we have a meeting, and
Speaker 1: it's like it's very real, and I'm like, all right, well,
Speaker 1: now it's time to go and talk with arm you know,
Speaker 1: with Gail and try to get this going. And the
Speaker 1: way that it was ultimately organized was, so, if it's
Speaker 1: going to be Zappa plays Zappa, my mother her feelings were,
Speaker 1: is that fair to Diva and Moon? So she was like,
Speaker 1: I'm going to create this entity called Zappa plays Zappa
Speaker 1: that anyone named Zappa, right, it's uniquely, it's just unique
Speaker 1: for the family that should anyone ever want to do
Speaker 1: anything with Frank's music, this is the entity, right, and
Speaker 1: so cool, Well, I'm down with that. And then my mother,
Speaker 1: my brother, myself we went on a world tour to
Speaker 1: promote around the world that this is this is what
Speaker 1: we were doing, and um it, you know, we were
Speaker 1: we were all moving forward and and then I just
Speaker 1: got into this scenario where you know, my my mother
Speaker 1: and and my brother and you know, people's emotions and
Speaker 1: things that you know, And certainly when it came to money,
Speaker 1: I was like, you know what, guys, you'd keep it
Speaker 1: all because I've always kind of been there. It's not
Speaker 1: about the money for me, you know. And I helped
Speaker 1: whenever I could. I mean, I put the whole fucking
Speaker 1: show together, you know, conceived of having Frank play in
Speaker 1: the background where de Weesela was playing guitar, and you know,
Speaker 1: so it's kind of weird when when I'm trying to
Speaker 1: put the bizarre world of Frank's APPA together, you know,
Speaker 1: it's it's strange to me with people who really don't
Speaker 1: know right when they have like pushback of like, oh,
Speaker 1: you know, like having video of Frank and playing with
Speaker 1: the band, you know, that's a cash grab. It's the
Speaker 1: same thing they said about Tweeesel and and me and
Speaker 1: Gail when we first announced it, and the same thing
Speaker 1: that they felt when there's a video of Frank in
Speaker 1: the background with you know, uh tweel playing. He had
Speaker 1: to defend all that stuff all day long, and then
Speaker 1: it just you know, people can read about now who
Speaker 1: who's the biggest person who's like, you know, the negative
Speaker 1: about it. You know, let's get to the specific story
Speaker 1: where he was gonna go on the road Zappa plays Appa,
Speaker 1: and there was some disagreement between him and you. He
Speaker 1: he said he wasn't gonna be able to use the name.
Speaker 1: I know, I said, just pay a dollar for the license. Yeah,
Speaker 1: a dollar. Here's the reason. Okay, when you pay a
Speaker 1: dollar for the license, it protects the name and the entity.
Speaker 1: So there's so much that the understanding to try to
Speaker 1: get underneath it of how it protects the global entity
Speaker 1: of the concept, which is it's for all of the kids, right.
Speaker 1: That is not something that I guess, you know, that's
Speaker 1: not his philosophy. And look, you can say like it's
Speaker 1: just a dollar, you know, and and when you go
Speaker 1: out and play, it protects the trademark and a license
Speaker 1: on a global scale, Like you are the only person
Speaker 1: you know out there in the world who if we
Speaker 1: want to protect trademarks and all of those things, which
Speaker 1: he was what he did when my mother was alive.
Speaker 1: It's not like something it was. It's not like a
Speaker 1: new concept right on every a poster, you know, for
Speaker 1: his Apple plays app. But all of that information is there.
Speaker 1: It's not like some like, wait, all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: you want to do this now, it's nothing changed. In fact,
Speaker 1: instead of paying a lot of money for that license,
Speaker 1: it was a dollar. That's That's the thing that when
Speaker 1: when I became a co trustee, I was like, all right,
Speaker 1: fucking it's just a buck, you know. But okay, And
Speaker 1: the lore is that Moon was aligned with him. What's
Speaker 1: her problem with the with your operation of the trust?
Speaker 1: I personally think it's just that they're not the co trustees,
Speaker 1: you know. But but I'll say all day long, it's
Speaker 1: I mean, it's it's a title, So like, go make
Speaker 1: up your own title, fucking do whatever the funk you
Speaker 1: want to do. How much of it is not a
Speaker 1: not a lot of it actually, you know, to the
Speaker 1: extent that things that were kind of left um uh,
Speaker 1: like the publishing is kind of it's it's really not that.
Speaker 1: I mean, uh, the the percentages at the end of
Speaker 1: the day are are not even quite that anymore. That's
Speaker 1: what I was referring to earlier to the extent that
Speaker 1: I could make more benefit for everyone things that weren't
Speaker 1: inside the um inside the trust. It's I'm not trying
Speaker 1: to be vague. It's it's like the granular minutia of like, oh, fuck,
Speaker 1: my mom didn't do this contract right, or this needs
Speaker 1: to be done because we have a deal with this
Speaker 1: partner or X, Y or Z. As as much as
Speaker 1: I could be like this is the easiest way that
Speaker 1: doesn't go against the trust, that everyone gets more, right,
Speaker 1: every chance I've been able to do that. I've done
Speaker 1: that every single time. Okay, Now, when we talked previously
Speaker 1: said when you took over the trust, there really wasn't
Speaker 1: any money coming in, not a dime. Was five million
Speaker 1: dollars in the hole. That's not the case anymore. Okay.
Speaker 1: The five million dollars were those payments to purchase uh
Speaker 1: the assets. Oh there's there's a meal in different you know,
Speaker 1: things that were uncovered in legal bills and just tons
Speaker 1: of stuff. It's just and that's not the case since
Speaker 1: you since you've taken over the operation, you have gotten
Speaker 1: rid of the debt. No debt, Okay, how much income
Speaker 1: you know, I don't need a specific dollar for you,
Speaker 1: which wouldn't tell me. Is it enough for all four
Speaker 1: of you to live on? Um? Yeah, considerable amount of money. No,
Speaker 1: I think people may have a very expensive lifestyles. Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, I don't know. I can't tell you, but yes,
Speaker 1: to up to two people in the world, yes, you
Speaker 1: could make a lot of money. Can you sell the assets?
Speaker 1: And are your siblings talking about doing that or want
Speaker 1: that to happen? Well, they wouldn't. They wouldn't be able
Speaker 1: to do that. Um. I mean we can talk about,
Speaker 1: you know, those kinds of things, but as the co
Speaker 1: trustees that that's I think that that's the psychological rub,
Speaker 1: which is, you know, at the end of the day, Um,
Speaker 1: it doesn't take it's it's not everyone's signature on something,
Speaker 1: you know. Um. But what I say to them, which
Speaker 1: I've always said to them, is like, well, anything that
Speaker 1: you want to do, right, let's do it. You know.
Speaker 1: So like all you gonna do is literally anything that
Speaker 1: you want to do as long as it doesn't contradict
Speaker 1: obviously like a contract with a partner or something like
Speaker 1: that's you know, we're not gonna be cavalier and and uh,
Speaker 1: you know again Negate something for someone else. But we
Speaker 1: have the best benefit. I mean, we're the we're it's
Speaker 1: our business. So I can make the the most favorable
Speaker 1: scenario for every single one in the family happen as
Speaker 1: long as it's the exact same scenario for everyone. So
Speaker 1: the benefit I get is the same benefit that Dweeesel gets,
Speaker 1: the same benefit that Moon gets. There's not some magic.
Speaker 1: There's not some discrepancy, right. That's that's where like I
Speaker 1: sometimes think back and like what is the real argument
Speaker 1: over what what was anyone getting all their you know,
Speaker 1: pennies in a twist over when it is you know
Speaker 1: um As an example, if you decided to make a
Speaker 1: documentary film, right and you're the director, we don't get
Speaker 1: your directing fee, I understanding, you know what I mean, Like,
Speaker 1: if you're gonna do actual business, the estate gets what
Speaker 1: the estate gets. But if you decided, like my brother
Speaker 1: is going out there and he's you know, playing the music,
Speaker 1: I was like paying pay a dollar to keep all
Speaker 1: the money from the ticket sales, you know, right, Like
Speaker 1: you know here, that's that is it? Right? That? That
Speaker 1: was literally the deal. The discrepancy was, well, you know,
Speaker 1: there's merch. What merch is sold at the show, and
Speaker 1: what does everyone get? Like, well, the trust spells out
Speaker 1: what people get that can't be changed. So there's two
Speaker 1: ways to do it. You can either buy it all
Speaker 1: right and then sell it whatever price you want, or
Speaker 1: which is which is a way to do it? Like
Speaker 1: buy it at like fucking rock bottom prices right because
Speaker 1: it costs money to manufacture it, you know, but even
Speaker 1: a viig that would go to the trust is paying yourself, right,
Speaker 1: do you know what I mean? Like the madness of
Speaker 1: all of that. So I'm like, there's this is not
Speaker 1: some um, it's not rocket science. This this kind of
Speaker 1: business happens all day, every day with people. You know. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it totally makes sense. So what's your relationship with Moon
Speaker 1: and do Easel today? It's it's better, It's it's you know,
Speaker 1: like my sister actually emailed me today over something pretty
Speaker 1: um horrific. Uh that was you know, I'm not gonna
Speaker 1: get into but I'm like, oh, that's it was like
Speaker 1: that's bananas, you know, like, you know, I let me
Speaker 1: know if you need anything. You know, it's scary, Uh,
Speaker 1: since you Sagan um And and my brother used out
Speaker 1: on the road. He's you know, he he and I
Speaker 1: took took a it was a much longer journey to
Speaker 1: kind of get back to you know, uh a working
Speaker 1: you know scenario. But I mean he's I don't think
Speaker 1: he's He's like my dad. He never stops. He's always working,
Speaker 1: he's always playing music. So even just scheduling things or
Speaker 1: you know, we we just we have to do a
Speaker 1: better job. I think all of us in the family.
Speaker 1: It's it's all the communication. And I'm pretty cautious. So
Speaker 1: when I'm like, all right, if if you you know,
Speaker 1: and there and they want information, right, so I give
Speaker 1: them as like it's really simple. I'm like, okay, here's
Speaker 1: what we'll do. Anything that happens, we basically send out
Speaker 1: like our internal like here's all the things that happened
Speaker 1: with the business. You guys are all, you know, all
Speaker 1: on the same page. This is all the exciting things
Speaker 1: are happening that everyone's in to know, right, But literally
Speaker 1: no one ever calls, no, no one ever calls, like
Speaker 1: you give them all the information, right and like anything
Speaker 1: you want to do right, just I've they've never called, okay,
Speaker 1: switching gear, so what are you doing to enhance the brand?
Speaker 1: And uh, you know, drive revenue up. Well, Um, first
Speaker 1: and foremost, uh, the musical content, right. I think the fans,
Speaker 1: you know, love the music, and I think I think
Speaker 1: that people are seeing the difference between the projects that
Speaker 1: my mother has done and then the projects that I've
Speaker 1: put out. I think people are really enjoying them. I
Speaker 1: brought you some, right, So how many projects if you
Speaker 1: release since you're in control? Oh I should I should
Speaker 1: know that, but I don't. Um, maybe twelve, you know,
Speaker 1: but they've been pretty substantial. Um, So you're putting out
Speaker 1: physical product the hardcore fans by it, you're doing the
Speaker 1: show on the show. We'll get back to that. Any
Speaker 1: other ideas that you're contemplating rev done? You know, I'm
Speaker 1: I have been speaking about, um, you know, we can
Speaker 1: approach to do a biopic and my mother really kind
Speaker 1: of started that and she had some pretty amazing friends,
Speaker 1: great like really amazing filmmakers. UM. So that's more like
Speaker 1: a I think a waiting game because some of the
Speaker 1: people are are extraordinary, Yeah, that have expressed interests and
Speaker 1: that I think would be UM cool. So tell us
Speaker 1: about the road show, the Hologram show. It's a it's
Speaker 1: a visual smart sport of awesome bro. It is a
Speaker 1: a unique UM visual experience. You know, for me, I
Speaker 1: think it blurs the lines between cinema and a live concert.
Speaker 1: Because to to do what we we did, I selected
Speaker 1: and isolated never before heard UM recordings from a rehearsal
Speaker 1: that my dad had in the seventies. That's kind of
Speaker 1: like the long haired like early seventies. That's kind of
Speaker 1: how I always see him in my mind's eye. UM.
Speaker 1: And I was wanted to, I think, have this seventies
Speaker 1: vibe to the show. UM. So after listening to the
Speaker 1: audio and and some really great song choices and some
Speaker 1: great performances. UM, then I started to work in earnest
Speaker 1: in conceiving of the storytelling all of the visuals. So
Speaker 1: I directed the entire show. You know, I produced the show. UM.
Speaker 1: I'm grateful to the company Illusion because it's you know,
Speaker 1: they put up all the money. UM, and I really
Speaker 1: got to I had a really good time, um, you
Speaker 1: know doing it. And and I designed the stage you
Speaker 1: know of how it works. And some of the early
Speaker 1: UM development I did on on some pretty fun projects
Speaker 1: that never quite saw the light of day. But some
Speaker 1: interesting experimentation I did at Disney I brought into Um.
Speaker 1: You know some of the way that the the the
Speaker 1: people that experienced the show, the holographic projection unit. And
Speaker 1: I say holographic projection unit lightly because it's not truly
Speaker 1: it's not a true hologram, but people people like to
Speaker 1: describe it that way. UM, but you know, it gives
Speaker 1: you a sense of volumetric projection. You know that that
Speaker 1: when you have a photo real asset um, like the
Speaker 1: photo real version of my dad, Um, you know, it
Speaker 1: looks like he's really on stage. And the way that
Speaker 1: the system that we deployed um sits higher than the stage.
Speaker 1: So I created uh um monitors underneath the the the
Speaker 1: quote unquote holographic projection system, which then elevated the band
Speaker 1: so that it gives the appearance it's almost like having
Speaker 1: a stage on top of the stage, so that the
Speaker 1: band is on the same plane of existence as Frank.
Speaker 1: And then I surround this magic box that we can have,
Speaker 1: you know, a photo rel franc appear on stage. I
Speaker 1: surrounded all of that with all of these other monitors, right.
Speaker 1: So the trick of the show, and I think that
Speaker 1: if you know, I go see a ton of concerts
Speaker 1: and I'm I'm frustrated a lot of the time where um,
Speaker 1: the visuals are kind of on repeat, right you might see,
Speaker 1: you know, like I went to Guns and Roses. I
Speaker 1: love the show, but I noticed that it's the same
Speaker 1: skull and Roses, you know, going around a hundred and
Speaker 1: fifty billion times. UM. So the benefit actually of the
Speaker 1: fact that we have uh, Frank's vocals and his guitarist
Speaker 1: to a click track meant that all of the visuals
Speaker 1: can be done in time. So the the storytelling narrative
Speaker 1: happens um across all of the screens, which was a
Speaker 1: whole fucking clusterfuck to figure out how to fire the
Speaker 1: video in sync with the band, and then because it's
Speaker 1: a live band, making up all the you know, doing
Speaker 1: all of the other parts, you know, other than Frank's
Speaker 1: vocals or maybe some sound effects that we might have
Speaker 1: had as that relate to what you see. Um. But
Speaker 1: even Ed Man was you know, he's he made so
Speaker 1: many great sounds that plused the experience. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: live every night. So you go on this journey. The
Speaker 1: the the story I wanted to tell was um from
Speaker 1: my childhood, teenage mind. UM, my dad introduced me to
Speaker 1: Marvel Comics. He was one of the first people to
Speaker 1: advertise in comics for music, and or he might be
Speaker 1: the only person who ever did it for all I know,
Speaker 1: but um, he Jack Kirby and my dad were friends,
Speaker 1: and I have all these awesome memories of like hanging
Speaker 1: out with Jack fucking Kirby and my dad and listening
Speaker 1: to Jack talk about how he thought, um, George Lucas
Speaker 1: ripped him off with Star Wars because really Darth Vader
Speaker 1: is Doctor Doom and kind of went through all the
Speaker 1: other characters that were the archetypes that he thought for
Speaker 1: Star Wars, and I was like, Oh, my god, fucking
Speaker 1: you beads conversation ever nerded at And uh so my
Speaker 1: dad really, my mother and father really loved Nora and Red,
Speaker 1: you know, the silver Surfer from the Planet's end locked
Speaker 1: um and the Power Cosmic and uh when my dad passed,
Speaker 1: we were all together as a family, and I I
Speaker 1: just really remembered the the Power Cosmic because the light
Speaker 1: in the room and I just felt like, there's like
Speaker 1: this light that left the room and escaped. And this
Speaker 1: the narrative I've held with me since his passing is
Speaker 1: that he kind of went full power Cosmic and went
Speaker 1: you know, he's now touring the cosmic us, right, and
Speaker 1: that that thing that I that I gave myself, UM,
Speaker 1: that story that I've had in my brain for so long,
Speaker 1: that was the starting point for for how I was
Speaker 1: thinking about the journey that the audience would go on.
Speaker 1: So really the opening of the show is Frank harnessing
Speaker 1: as much of of this power to um journey back
Speaker 1: to us for this wonderful night of music. UM and
Speaker 1: he you know, so it's like it's it's the cosmos
Speaker 1: and the giant star star filled Frank head, you know, massive,
Speaker 1: and then it all coalesced into this one bright ball
Speaker 1: of light that you know, blast the audience and when
Speaker 1: you're you know you open your eyes again, there is
Speaker 1: Frank holographically, you know, on stage, just fucking crushing the
Speaker 1: solo for Cosmic Debris UM. And then I wanted to
Speaker 1: make sure that from song to song you're never seeing
Speaker 1: the same experience, so you just it's it's all rooted
Speaker 1: in UM things, animation styles or films styles that my
Speaker 1: dad loved, or conversations I had with him. All of
Speaker 1: that became the nutrients that went into the storytelling. That
Speaker 1: that's the that's the show I grew out of memories
Speaker 1: and and really fond recollections, uh that I had with
Speaker 1: my dad. And you know, he loved Terry Gilliam. He
Speaker 1: loved the art style of you know, Monty Python. So
Speaker 1: for Stinkfoot, you know, we we went um searching for
Speaker 1: thousands and thousands of postcards that we could that we
Speaker 1: chopped up to kind of get to to emulate that
Speaker 1: style of animation. Um, and it's it's that song became
Speaker 1: this biological attack, this evil stinkfoot, you know, force of
Speaker 1: nature that first takes over Havana and and you know
Speaker 1: then spreads to the rest of the world. So it's
Speaker 1: quite a show. But in any event, you've been listening
Speaker 1: to Ahmed Zappa. This is the source on all things
Speaker 1: Zappa Co. Trustee of the Zappa Trust. Ahmed, You're obviously
Speaker 1: creative man. A lot of synaps is firing. Thanks so
Speaker 1: much for being on the podcast. Thank you, thank you
Speaker 1: for having me. Let's do it again sometime, you bet.
Speaker 1: Until next time. This is Bob left Slas