Dweezil Zappa

Dweezil Zappa was born on September 5, 1969, in Los Angeles, California to Frank Zappa and Gail Zappa.[2][3] He is the second of four siblings: his older sister, Moon, younger sister Diva and younger brother Ahmet, and is the cousin of actress Lala Sloatman.[4] Zappa's father was of Sicilian, Greek, Arab, and French descent, and his mother was of German and Portuguese ancestry.[5]

Dweezil's registered birth name was Ian Donald Calvin Euclid Zappa.[6] The nurse at the hospital at which he was born refused to register him under the name Dweezil, to the point of arguing with Gail in the delivery room about it. Rattled at this turn of events, Frank rapidly listed the names of several musician friends, and the nurse added all of them to the birth certificate. "Dweezil" was a nickname coined by Frank for a funny-looking pinky toe of Gail's. At the age of five years, Dweezil learned that his legal name was different, and he insisted on having his nickname become his legal name. Gail and Frank hired an attorney and soon the name Dweezil was official.[3]

In the 1980s, Zappa worked as an MTV VJ and was promptly fired after badmouthing MTV on The Howard Stern Show (also, he had his father Frank Zappa co-hosting, who said that it would be okay for young Republicans to kill themselves after a Suicide PSA). He also recorded some solo albums, as well as playing for other artists. Zappa can be heard playing lead guitar on the Fat Boys' "Wipe Out" (1987) and can be seen in the music video for Don Johnson's top 40 song, "Heartbeat". He also played co-lead guitar (along with Reb Beach) on Winger's cover of Jimi Hendrix's "Purple Haze". He also had a part in the futuristic Arnold Schwarzenegger film The Running Man as Stevie ("Don't touch that dial!"), and gave his most famous cameo role in John Hughes's Brat Pack film, Pretty in Pink (starring Molly Ringwald), as Andie's friend, Simon.

Since the 1990s, Zappa has been working on a piece of music named "What the Hell Was I Thinking?", a 75-minute piece featuring guitar solos by dozens of famous guitar players. The project has suffered from numerous difficulties and has been reworked several times since the '90s. Dweezil said in September 2004:[7] "I started recording it on analog tape almost 13 years ago... There are probably about 35 guest guitar players on it, everybody from Brian May to Eddie Van Halen, Eric Johnson, Angus and Malcolm Young—it's quite a crazy project. I'm still waiting and hoping to record Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page as some of my final guests on there."[7]

For his 1991 album Confessions, Zappa recorded a cover of the Bee Gees' "Stayin' Alive" which featured vocals by Ozzy Osbourne. However, due to Osbourne's label refusing to allow the feature, the vocals were re-recorded by Donny Osmond, who was signed to the same label as Zappa.[8] The version with Osbourne's vocals later appeared on Osbourne's box set Prince of Darkness.

In the mid-1990s, Zappa voiced the character Ajax Duckman on the animated series Duckman. He also briefly appeared in the television sitcom Normal Life with sister Moon Unit Zappa and former Laverne & Shirley star Cindy Williams. He composed and performed the theme music for The Ben Stiller Show (the solo from Spinal Tap's "Break Like the Wind"). In 1998, Zappa played music agent John Kaplan in the Warner Bros. family comedy Jack Frost. In 1999, Dweezil, alongside his brother, Ahmet Zappa, starred in a show featuring celebrities, bands and dance troupe called Happy Hour which debuted April 3, 1999, on the USA Network. The show lasted for one season despite its success due to a copyright dispute over the title of the show. To promote the show, he and Ahmet appeared briefly on the World Wrestling Federation's Rage Party, held the night prior to WrestleMania XV.

Dweezil Zappa performing on the "Zappa Plays Zappa" tour in 2006.

In "Weird Al" Yankovic's 2003 eleventh studio album Poodle Hat, Zappa performs the opening guitar solo and sings on the track, "Genius in France". In 2006, Zappa organized the "Zappa Plays Zappa" tour. He assembled a band of young musicians with a view to bring the music of Frank Zappa to a younger audience. The tour also featured guest appearances by Steve Vai, Napoleon Murphy Brock and Terry Bozzio. The tour began in Europe in May with dates in the U.S. from June. After a break it continued in the U.S. on October 18, 2006. The 2007 version of the tour ran from July, finishing in Australia in early December, and featured Ray White as special guest. The shows ended with the promise: "There are so many songs we want to learn to play ... see y'all next year ...", and further tours have followed each year since 2007.[9] In 2009, Ray White left Zappa Plays Zappa for an undisclosed reason.[10]

Zappa lent his voice to one of the characters in one episode of Metalocalypse on Adult Swim.

In 2016, Zappa went on tour to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the release of Frank Zappa's album Freak Out!. The tour was titled "50 Years of Frank: Dweezil Zappa Plays Whatever the F@%k He Wants – The Cease and Desist Tour".[11] The tour title was inspired by Zappa's feud with his brother Ahmet over the use of the "Zappa Plays Zappa" moniker, which resulted in Ahmet sending Zappa a cease-and-desist letter through the family trust.[12]

Dweezil Zappa at Bluesfest 2008 in Ottawa, Ontario

From 1998 to 2004, Zappa dated musician Lisa Loeb. Zappa and Loeb wrote and performed music together, and Zappa toured with Loeb's band. The couple co-hosted the cooking show Dweezil & Lisa on Food Network in 2004.

Zappa married fashion stylist Lauren Knudsen on September 3, 2005, in Los Angeles. They have two daughters: Zola Frank Zappa (born 2006) and Ceylon Indira Zappa (born 2008).[13][14] In March 2010 Knudsen filed for divorce in L.A. County Superior Court. According to the documents, she applied to share legal custody of their two daughters.[15] In March 2012, with the divorce case still unresolved, Zappa's former lawyer made a public issue of his unpaid legal bills.[16]

Following the death of Zappa's mother, Gail, in October 2015, it was revealed that his siblings Ahmet and Diva were given control of the Zappa Family Trust with shares of 30% each, while Dweezil and his sister Moon were given smaller shares of 20% each.[12] As beneficiaries only, Moon and Dweezil will not receive any distributions from the trust until it is profitable—in 2016, it was "millions of dollars in debt"[12]—and must seek permission from Ahmet, the trustee, to make money off of their father's music or merchandise bearing his name. Dweezil received a cease and desist letter from the trust after he announced that he was being forced to perform his upcoming tour as "Dweezil Zappa Plays Frank Zappa" instead of using "Zappa Plays Zappa". In response to the trust's action, he renamed his performance series "50 Years of Frank: Dweezil Zappa Plays Whatever the F@%k He Wants—the Cease and Desist Tour".[12]

In May 2018, the four siblings announced that they had reconciled.[17]

• Dweezil Zappa's website
• Dweezil Zappa at IMDb
• December 2010 interview Archived 15 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine with Tom Waring
• March 2016 interview with Marc Maron