7885 Woodrow Wilson Drive

The living room in Zappa's house at 7885 Woodrow Wilson Drive, Laurel Canyon, L.A..

7885 Woodrow Wilson Drive was Frank Zappa's house in Laurel Canyon in the Hollywood Hills in Los Angeles, where he lived from September 1968 until his death in December 1993.

7885 Woodrow Wilson Drive

In 1968, Zappa lived in The Log Cabin in Laurel Canyon, L.A. Later that year, in September 1968 , he moved to 7885 Woodrow Wilson Drive, still in Laurel Canyon, where his recording studio, the Utility Muffin Research Kitchen, and archives, The Vault, were located. The house also had a swimming pool, a tennis court, seven bedrooms, six bathrooms, a massage room, a greenhouse, an art gallery and guest houses.

Not far from Zappa's house, Ringo Starr used to live in the early 1970s, at house number 7708 in Woodrow Wilson Drive. .

In various documentaries and TV interviews with Zappa, made between 1970 and 2016, his house is prominently featured, including Frank Zappa (1971 Documentary), The Revenge Of The Dead Indians, Peefeeyatko, BBC Television Tribute, The Artist Formerly Known As Captain Beefheart, Frank Zappa: The Present-Day Composer Refuses To Die, Frank Zappa Phase II: The Big Note and Frank Zappa: Pioneer Of Future Music, parts 1 & 2.

Posthumous events

In 1993, after Zappa's death, his widow Gail Zappa kept living in the house until her own death in 2015. Afterwards, the house and most of its possessions were auctioned.

Between 2016 and 2023, the house was sold to and owned by pop singer Lady Gaga. Interviewed by Howard Stern, Gaga said: "“[t]he house is very special and magical. His studio is in it, and I get to keep the [sound] board! You should have seen me while I was looking at the house. The realtors would be like, ‘No pictures!’ and I’m in there, photographing the compressors…it’s mystical to me that the music he made travelled through this board…the idea is to restore it and help it to be in its best condition and kind of leave it the way that it is and hear the sound that comes out. There’s two studios, the whole basement is recording studios, and it’s absolutely stunning and beautiful and amazing and it sounds incredible… I’ll use it for both [recording and living], you know I have a lot of friends that make music like Mark Ronson, Josh Homme."

However, in 2023 she resold it to Lizzy Jagger, daughter of Mick Jagger and Jerry Hall.