Frank Zappa will always be remembered but his little sister Patrice is doing her part to make sure of that. While she did write plenty of stuff in the book, the most amazing things are the pictures that are included. Candid shots of Frank with his family. I flipped out when I found out Frank died. It's truly a must have for someone who wants to discover the real Frank.
Check out Patrice's website.
Even though Frank was 11 years older than Patrice they had a special relationship because she was the only sister and the baby of the family.
Daniel Robert Epstein: The big question of course. What was it like growing up with Frank Zappa?
Patrice Zappa: It was really neat. I enjoyed growing up with Frank because he was a pretty good big brother. He took care of me because I was the youngest out of all four of us so that made me the baby and the only girl. There was one time when I was six, we lived in Lancaster and the boys were outside playing touch football. Being the tomboy I was I wanted to play too. I remember my father shaking his finger and telling the boys to take care of me. If I ended up screaming my dad would go crazy.
I remember Frank being a very creative person. My love of the doo-wop came from him because he would play the old fifties music and he would dance with me at the age of five. It was neat.
DRE: Would you say it was a normal dysfunctional family?
PZ: Oh yeah. Every family has got their kinks and we had ours. Our parents came from a generation where it was respect the parents. It was a lot of what they don't do today. Frank being the independent creature he was wanted to see things his own way. That produced a lot of tension between him and my dad.
DRE: What kind of stuff did you and Frank used to do together?
PZ: Well there was 11 years between us so I didn't get to hang with him as much as I would have liked. He would go off with his friends. The times we were together we would talk about the old horror movies. He had a fondness for Mighty Joe Young [released in 1949]. I remember watching that with him one time and crying my eyes out because it's so sad. I didn't want Mighty Joe to die. Frank knew what was in my head without me saying anything. Being around Frank was like any holiday you can imagine.
DRE: When was the first time you heard Frank's music?
PZ: That would be when Freak Out came out in 1966. Actually before then he'd been at Studio Z in Cucamonga. He took me out there and showed me the sets he built for the movie Captain Beefheart Versus The Grunt People. He would show me his music. I was privy to that because he wanted my opinion. Before the albums even came out he would come over and show me songs like Status Back Baby. As a matter of fact he was going to have me sing it but it didn't happen. He used to teach me to play certain chords and songs he wrote.
DRE: Obviously he's been a huge influence on so many artists. Have you met many of those people?
PZ: Not many. I wasn't privy to that part of his life for a long time. When he took off to be a "mother" I was still in school. Then in 1970's I was married and raising kids. I didn't get to meet as many people as I would have liked. I met Jeff Beck in 1969 and I didn't know who he was and then I found out later who he was. He was going to put me in a concert in 1969 with Wild Man Fisher. Thank god he didn't. He also wanted to put me in a short mini-skirt with my hair up and have me sing Angel Baby. I'm glad I didn't do that because that would have made me cry.
DRE: When did you start putting this book together?
PZ: I started writing this in 1996. I was working with a couple of other people and we started to do a screenplay about Frank. In fact I have the screenplay done now. We were having a little bit of a problem because they wanted to go in a direction I didn't want to go. So we parted company and someone suggested I write a book. It took me five years. California Classics edited it and published it.
DRE: Who would be perfect to play Frank Zappa?
PZ: I always thought Nicolas Cage would be perfect because he's got the same kind of nose and deep set eyes. I never spoke to him about it. But Frank did some investigating and found that our father's mother's maiden name is Coppola. So we may be related distantly to Francis Ford Coppola and Nicolas Cage. Nic baby what's up?
DRE: Maybe you can see them at a family reunion.
PZ: [laughs] Well Nicolas won't work on a movie with Francis Ford Coppola.
DRE: I'm not going to say you're riding Frank's coattails or anything. But what's it like being somewhat famous because of your brother.
PZ: Well I didn't know that I was. I don't know how I feel about this. I had always admitted and respected Frank's talent and genius. I could only hope to have a tenth of that talent. I do sing myself and no one has thrown tomatoes even though I might have ducked them [laughs]. Frank told me one time after he heard me sing and said he I sing very well. He didn't have time to bullshit anybody. I'm working on my own stuff and I like singing his music because some of the lyrics are hysterical and incredible. Broadway the hard way is probably even now the most apropos writings even though it was done 1988.
DRE: What does your family think of the book?
PZ: They're very proud and happy. My mother is just ecstatic. The first thing out of her mouth was "Who'd you dedicate it to?" To you Mom I said to her. I didn't want her to spank me with a cane. My father isn't with us anymore but he's in there too. If it wasn't for them having Frank none of this would be possible.
DRE: I read you went to Germany and saw posters of Frank sitting on the toilet.
PZ: Yeah we went to Germany for a Zappa tribute concert. My brother Bob went to and it was an exciting fun and memorable time. They had the Phi Zappa Crappa toilet seat picture which I understand wasn't posed. He was going to the bathroom and someone came in and took his picture. If I had known as a small child I was going to go to Germany and see pictures of my brother on the toilet I wouldn't have believed it.
DRE: Obviously it was a big deal when he passed away. How did you react to it?
PZ: My brother Bob lives on the east coast so he wasn't here but me, my mother and my brother Carl weren't even there when he died. We got a phone call the next day. They buried him already. It was pretty disruptive mentally and emotionally to my mom. I didn't deal with it very well either. It was a hard time and took me a long time to get over. I still get uptight and emotional when I think about it. For a long time I couldn't even listen to his music. Now I'm ok with it.
DRE: You do your own music.
PZ: Yeah my boyfriend Nolan Porter, who had a couple of albums in the 70's, and I put an album together. We've done like three shows. The first year it was called Legacy and we renamed it this year to Once a Legacy. We've honored artists from the past. We had a friend of Nolan's who played with the Doors cover band Wildchild. He looks a lot like Frank especially with the wig and he came out and did some of Frank's songs. We had a forty foot screen on stage and we showed some of the family pictures on it with me narrating.
DRE: What do regular people say when they find out your Frank Zappa's sister?
PZ: [laughs] It goes from "No way" to "Oh my god" to "Who's that?" I reply to that last one that he never heard of you either. When I was in my senior year of high school in 1968 when he was popping the teacher was calling names and when she called my name I said here. Someone called out "any relation to Frank?" I said yeah he's my brother. All of a sudden I was surrounded by the class and one girl wanted to kiss my feet. In the 80's I would like to go to clubs to check out the newer music. Band members would ask me to sing because they recognized me from when I was singing in other clubs. When they found out who I was they would ask for my autograph. I would do it as long as it wasn't on a blank check.
by Daniel Robert Epstein.
Check out Patrice's website.
Even though Frank was 11 years older than Patrice they had a special relationship because she was the only sister and the baby of the family.
Daniel Robert Epstein: The big question of course. What was it like growing up with Frank Zappa?
Patrice Zappa: It was really neat. I enjoyed growing up with Frank because he was a pretty good big brother. He took care of me because I was the youngest out of all four of us so that made me the baby and the only girl. There was one time when I was six, we lived in Lancaster and the boys were outside playing touch football. Being the tomboy I was I wanted to play too. I remember my father shaking his finger and telling the boys to take care of me. If I ended up screaming my dad would go crazy.
I remember Frank being a very creative person. My love of the doo-wop came from him because he would play the old fifties music and he would dance with me at the age of five. It was neat.
DRE: Would you say it was a normal dysfunctional family?
PZ: Oh yeah. Every family has got their kinks and we had ours. Our parents came from a generation where it was respect the parents. It was a lot of what they don't do today. Frank being the independent creature he was wanted to see things his own way. That produced a lot of tension between him and my dad.
DRE: What kind of stuff did you and Frank used to do together?
PZ: Well there was 11 years between us so I didn't get to hang with him as much as I would have liked. He would go off with his friends. The times we were together we would talk about the old horror movies. He had a fondness for Mighty Joe Young [released in 1949]. I remember watching that with him one time and crying my eyes out because it's so sad. I didn't want Mighty Joe to die. Frank knew what was in my head without me saying anything. Being around Frank was like any holiday you can imagine.
DRE: When was the first time you heard Frank's music?
PZ: That would be when Freak Out came out in 1966. Actually before then he'd been at Studio Z in Cucamonga. He took me out there and showed me the sets he built for the movie Captain Beefheart Versus The Grunt People. He would show me his music. I was privy to that because he wanted my opinion. Before the albums even came out he would come over and show me songs like Status Back Baby. As a matter of fact he was going to have me sing it but it didn't happen. He used to teach me to play certain chords and songs he wrote.
DRE: Obviously he's been a huge influence on so many artists. Have you met many of those people?
PZ: Not many. I wasn't privy to that part of his life for a long time. When he took off to be a "mother" I was still in school. Then in 1970's I was married and raising kids. I didn't get to meet as many people as I would have liked. I met Jeff Beck in 1969 and I didn't know who he was and then I found out later who he was. He was going to put me in a concert in 1969 with Wild Man Fisher. Thank god he didn't. He also wanted to put me in a short mini-skirt with my hair up and have me sing Angel Baby. I'm glad I didn't do that because that would have made me cry.
DRE: When did you start putting this book together?
PZ: I started writing this in 1996. I was working with a couple of other people and we started to do a screenplay about Frank. In fact I have the screenplay done now. We were having a little bit of a problem because they wanted to go in a direction I didn't want to go. So we parted company and someone suggested I write a book. It took me five years. California Classics edited it and published it.
DRE: Who would be perfect to play Frank Zappa?
PZ: I always thought Nicolas Cage would be perfect because he's got the same kind of nose and deep set eyes. I never spoke to him about it. But Frank did some investigating and found that our father's mother's maiden name is Coppola. So we may be related distantly to Francis Ford Coppola and Nicolas Cage. Nic baby what's up?
DRE: Maybe you can see them at a family reunion.
PZ: [laughs] Well Nicolas won't work on a movie with Francis Ford Coppola.
DRE: I'm not going to say you're riding Frank's coattails or anything. But what's it like being somewhat famous because of your brother.
PZ: Well I didn't know that I was. I don't know how I feel about this. I had always admitted and respected Frank's talent and genius. I could only hope to have a tenth of that talent. I do sing myself and no one has thrown tomatoes even though I might have ducked them [laughs]. Frank told me one time after he heard me sing and said he I sing very well. He didn't have time to bullshit anybody. I'm working on my own stuff and I like singing his music because some of the lyrics are hysterical and incredible. Broadway the hard way is probably even now the most apropos writings even though it was done 1988.
DRE: What does your family think of the book?
PZ: They're very proud and happy. My mother is just ecstatic. The first thing out of her mouth was "Who'd you dedicate it to?" To you Mom I said to her. I didn't want her to spank me with a cane. My father isn't with us anymore but he's in there too. If it wasn't for them having Frank none of this would be possible.
DRE: I read you went to Germany and saw posters of Frank sitting on the toilet.
PZ: Yeah we went to Germany for a Zappa tribute concert. My brother Bob went to and it was an exciting fun and memorable time. They had the Phi Zappa Crappa toilet seat picture which I understand wasn't posed. He was going to the bathroom and someone came in and took his picture. If I had known as a small child I was going to go to Germany and see pictures of my brother on the toilet I wouldn't have believed it.
DRE: Obviously it was a big deal when he passed away. How did you react to it?
PZ: My brother Bob lives on the east coast so he wasn't here but me, my mother and my brother Carl weren't even there when he died. We got a phone call the next day. They buried him already. It was pretty disruptive mentally and emotionally to my mom. I didn't deal with it very well either. It was a hard time and took me a long time to get over. I still get uptight and emotional when I think about it. For a long time I couldn't even listen to his music. Now I'm ok with it.
DRE: You do your own music.
PZ: Yeah my boyfriend Nolan Porter, who had a couple of albums in the 70's, and I put an album together. We've done like three shows. The first year it was called Legacy and we renamed it this year to Once a Legacy. We've honored artists from the past. We had a friend of Nolan's who played with the Doors cover band Wildchild. He looks a lot like Frank especially with the wig and he came out and did some of Frank's songs. We had a forty foot screen on stage and we showed some of the family pictures on it with me narrating.
DRE: What do regular people say when they find out your Frank Zappa's sister?
PZ: [laughs] It goes from "No way" to "Oh my god" to "Who's that?" I reply to that last one that he never heard of you either. When I was in my senior year of high school in 1968 when he was popping the teacher was calling names and when she called my name I said here. Someone called out "any relation to Frank?" I said yeah he's my brother. All of a sudden I was surrounded by the class and one girl wanted to kiss my feet. In the 80's I would like to go to clubs to check out the newer music. Band members would ask me to sing because they recognized me from when I was singing in other clubs. When they found out who I was they would ask for my autograph. I would do it as long as it wasn't on a blank check.
by Daniel Robert Epstein.
VIEW 7 of 7 COMMENTS
sad to read they weren't notified of the death until after he was buried