Tag: music

It’s brother and sister against brother and sister in bitter fight over control of Frank Zappa’s legacy

When Frank Zappa’s wife Gail died last year she left control of the estate to two of the Zappas’ four children.

I’d certainly like to have the Zappas’ money. But I’m grateful I don’t live in the shadow of a dead, famous father.

Randall Roberts/The LA Times:

To say Moon and Dweezil were surprised by the imbalance is an understatement.

Moon, the eldest child, says she and Gail had a rocky relationship, but in her mother’s final year and a half after the cancer diagnosis, Moon tended to Gail’s needs, driving her to oncologist appointments and bringing her meals.

“I was showing up because that’s what you do,” she says. “I still loved her, and I still didn’t want to see somebody sick suffer.”

For Moon, the most painful part was that as her mom’s health deteriorated, she thought she and Gail had fully made amends. In hindsight, Moon believes Gail was asking forgiveness with the knowledge that her eldest child would be devastated by the slight to come.

“It’s complicated enough to be grieving the loss of a mean mom,” Moon says, “and then to find out she was meaner than I could have possibly comprehended.”

In a public letter posted on Facebook, Moon opened with the heading, “Things my mother taught me,” and continued: “What’s yours is mine. What’s mine is mine. Your father is mine. What was his was mine. Who he was was mine.”