The Zappa Family trust to “resurrect” Frank through gimmick hologram performances
Disturbing news have surfaced today after the Zappa Family Trust made a public announcement about them working with Eyellusion – the same live music’s hologram production company responsible for the Dio hologram – to produce hologram performances of Frank Zappa, which was described as “giving fans an opportunity to experience the prolific, eclectic and critically acclaimed music legend live in concert again”
Ahmet Zappa, co-Trustee of the Zappa Family Trust, and brother of Dweezil Zappa said: “I’m thrilled that Frank Zappa will finally be going back out on tour playing his most well-known music as well as some rare and unheard material… how radical would it be to have Moon singing ‘Valley Girl’ onstage with Frank? Or to see Dweezil side by side with our father playing dueling guitar solos?…” Wait a minute Ahmet… are you talking about your brother Dweezil playing alongside your father hologram? Is that the same brother you engage with in one of the ugliest family feuds ever exposed publicly, while trying to prevent him from playing his father’s music after he had been honoring his legacy and paying tribute to it for years under the name Zappa Plays Zappa? Yeah, you must be referring to the same brother you informed not a long ago he couldn’t use the name anymore and “that he risked copyright infringement damages of $150,000 each time he played a song without proper permission.” The same one who told the Times, “My last name is Zappa; my father was Frank Zappa, but I am not allowed to use the name on its own. I’m not allowed to use a picture of him. I’m not allowed to use my own connection with him without some sort of deal to be struck.”
If the idea of attending a Dio concert when you would see the heavy metal icon singing as an hologram felt kind of weird and probably creepy, this move from the Zappa Family Trust strike us as a blatant cash-grab, one disgraceful and pitiful that goes completely against what Frank Zappa was about. Instead of dilapidating probably millions of dollars in a nonsense project like this, they should assemble a band with Dweezil and all the world class musicians they want now to involve in this superficial and hollow nonsense, or maybe go back to the huge amount of unreleased Zappa material still sitting on some archives somewhere and for instance produce proper vinyl releases for Grand Wazoo, Waka Jawaka and others. Zappa plays Zappa was the only tribute to Frank Zappa ever required, and a fabulous way to keep his music out there in the live arena. We would truly welcome a revival of Zappa’s humongous legacy, but this is clearly not the way to go about it.
We are certainly loss for words. What’s you opinion?
