Dweezil Zappa
Second child of four, first son, born September 5, 1969.
Dweezil was originally named IAN (Ian Underwood) DONALD (Don Van Vliet - a.k.a. Captain Beefheart) CALVIN (Cal Schenkel) EUCLID (Euclid James Jim "Motorhead" Sherwood)...
As a baby, appeared on the Dutch VPRO documentary, the video of "True Story Of 200 Motels", and can be heard on the interview disc "Incredibly Frank".
"My Guitar Wants To Kill Your Mama", album (1988, Chrysalis Records, CHR1633) and single.
"Havin' A Bad Day" (LP, Barking Pumpkin ST-74204, August 22, 1986), produced by FZ.
Shot the front cover photo for "Zappa In New York".
Plays guitar solos on "Sharleena" and "Stevie's Spanking" on "Them Or Us".
Guest vocals on "Frank Zappa Meets The Mothers Of Prevention".
Guitar solo on "Whipping Post" on "Does Humor Belong In Music?".
Contributed to "Sharleena" on "You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore Vol. 3"
Barks on the track "Waffenspiel" on "Civilization Phaze III".
Played lead guitar on "Dirty Love" and "Chunga’s Revenge" on the "Zappa's Universe" video.
Produced the "Frank Zappa Plays The Music Of Frank Zappa" CD, and sequenced and edited the tracks with Spencer Chrislu; also wrote the liner notes.
Voice of Ajax, son of Duckman, in the "Duckman" cartoon (1994).
FZ in The Real Frank Zappa Book (1989): "When Dweezil was born, Gail decided to have 'natural childbirth.' At that time, the only hospital in Los Angeles that would allow this process to occur with a Dad in the delivery room was Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital. When it was time for the Big Delivery, we experienced a slight delay - we had to fill out a mass of papers before they'd let us in, riddled with irrelevant questions like: 'What religion are you?' Gail looked at me and said, 'What do we put?' I said, 'Musician.' That was the first thing that upset the admitting nurse. The second thing to spoil her afternoon was when she asked: 'What are you going to name the child?' Gail said, 'Dweezil.' Gail's got a funny-looking little toe which had been the source of family amusement so often that it had acquired a 'technical name': it wasn't really a toe - it was a 'Dweezil.' I thought then, and continue to think today, that Dweezil is a nice name. Fuck the nurse if she didn't like it. The nurse pleaded and pleaded with us not to name the child Dweezil. Labor pains and all, she was going to make Gail stand there unless we gave her another name to put on the form. I couldn't see letting Gail suffer just to argue the point, so I rattled off an assortment of first names of guys we knew: IAN (Underwood) DONALD (Van Vliet) CALVIN (Schenkel) EUCLID (James 'Motorhead' Sherwood). As a result, Dweezil's original birth certificate name was Ian Donald Calvin Euclid Zappa. The nurse thought that was okay. In spite of this harrowing experience, we always called him Dweezil. He was five years old when he discovered the real names on his birth certificate. Dweezil was very upset, and demanded that steps be taken to rectify this tragedy. We hired an attorney and had his name legally changed to Dweezil."
See more of the Zappa Household:
- Gail Sloatman (Gail Zappa)
- Moon Zappa (Moon Unit Zappa)
- Ahmet Zappa (Ahmet Emuukha Rodan Zappa)
- Diva Zappa
