I can’t see how it’s good for Franks legacy to treat his children as unequals. Especially when the two who participated in his music and were the oldest get burnt. As far as I’m concerned it’s a shortsighted cruel thing to do and I won’t be paying money for anything Zappa anymore, if I was going to.
The latest episode of Marc Maron’s podcast (which I happened to have listened to today) Dweezil was on to talk about some of what is going on. He said she had a Medea complex. Deep seeded resentment and anger towards Frank that she took out on the kids. He said he had a happy childhood but things changed later. One example he gave was asking his mother to update the website with his tour dates and she screamed “I’m not some groupie your father fucked on the road!”
From all I’ve read and heard Ahmet is definitely in the wrong and Dweezil is only looking for what is fair. All Ahmet is doing is assuring that no money will be going into the family trust.
*"She’s a mean little sucker,” said Frank with a tone of admiration… *
From the above article.
I think that kinda sums it up - both her character AND the fact that Frank loved and admired her for it. She had a reputation as being tough as nails and I have zero doubt that she was doing exactly what Frank would have wanted in her wielding of tight control over his legacy, turning it into a profitable business.
Now whether he would have wanted an uneven split among his offspring is a different matter. He was an odd duck, but the one thing he seemed sentimental about was his family. A semi-plausible explanation is that the younger two had less of an independent source of income than the their elders. But whatever it was, it surely was a foolish move on Gail’s part. Pity to see this kind infighting.
What she did was to make the legacy less important and profitable. I hate parents who treat their children unequally. There’s never a good reason for it especially if you’re famous. It turns me off of the music. It’s a bad look for the business too.
Imagine going through life with the name Dweezil, or moon Unit, and then getting shafted by your mom like you weren’t as good? And when you are the musician in the family.
No, what Frank wanted was for her to take the deal to sell his whole catalog and vault for a lump sum and get out of the business. She screwed that up, and wasted most of the money buying the catalog back and suing everyone who wanted to play Frank’s music.
True and they did follow through on the first part for a tidy sum. Seems she couldn’t abide the second part though.
I’m not sure how much was bought back vs. reverted/was sued back, but the posthumous vault material I understand was released by her ( or rather the family trust ). Theoretically that should have increased the value of the trust. Supposedly they put the family house up for ~$9 million to solve the liquidity/debt problem.
I can’t say all that much good about her character from what I’ve read ( then FZ wasn’t a great prize either, other than his dedication to family and work ). But the one thing she seems to have been is dedicated to FZ’s legacy ( even if he may not have given a shit himself ).
Let’s remember that Dweezil is the only one in the family who has musical talent.
Here’s a few things Gail did according to Dweezil
- Hid the fact that there was a will.
- Trademarked the name “Zappa Plays Zappa”
- Charged her son a per performance fee to use the name
- As part of the family trust he was supposed to get part of the money back but never did.
- She kept 60% of the merchandise revenue of his own merch. But in fact he never saw any of it.
- He had to pay all expenses for all performances and got no money from the trust.
- He was left all of his father’s guitars in the will. He still doesn’t have any.
- Bankrupted the trust in a 20 year court battle saying she did not sell off the digital rights to the songs when she did.
If anyone thinks these are rich kids fighting, Dweezil mentioned his wife is a flight attendant and she has kept her job so they could have health insurance.
She spent a lot of time (don’t know how much money it takes) to keep all his music off YouTube. No one is doing that anymore and you can find a lot of his material there.