Gail Zappa | |
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| Born | Adelaide Gail Sloatman (1945-01-01)January 1, 1945 |
| Died | October 7, 2015(2015-10-07) (aged 70) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Occupation | Trustee of Zappa Family Trust (2002–2015) |
| Spouse | |
| Children | |
| Relatives | Lala Sloatman (niece) |
Adelaide Gail Zappa (néeSloatman; January 1, 1945 – October 7, 2015) was the wife of musician and composerFrank Zappa and the trustee of the Zappa Family Trust. They met inLos Angeles in 1966 and married while she was pregnant with their first child,Moon, followed byDweezil,Ahmet andDiva. Gail was also the aunt of model and actressLala Sloatman.[1][2]
In 2002, Gail Zappa founded the Zappa Family Trust, a holder of the title and copyright to Frank Zappa's musical and artistic products, as well as his commercial image. In 2015, the Trust was given to her son Ahmet shortly before she died oflung cancer.
Adelaide Gail Sloatman was born inPhiladelphia to John Klein Sloatman Jr. (1915–1967), a second generation German-American who was a nuclear physicist with theUnited States Navy, and Laura Freitas (born 1921), who was born inHonolulu of Portuguese ancestry.[3] She had 7 siblings, including 1 half-sibling from her father's previous marriage to Joan Lou Gatt. She was named after her maternal grandmother, Adelaide Silva. She grew up inHollywood, and lived with her family in London, where her father was posted in 1959, and attendedMarymount International School. She also modeled for photographerTerence Donovan.[1]
She worked at the Office of Naval Research and Development, and then moved to New York, where she studied at theFashion Institute of Technology in the mid-1960s. After returning to Los Angeles, she met producerKim Fowley, and recorded a spoken word single with him as "Bunny and Bear". The record is a satire ofSonny and Cher.[2][4][5]
Gail Zappa made a very brief appearance with then musician boyfriendBobby Jameson in the documentary filmMondo Hollywood, filmed in 1966.[6] She metVito Paulekas andCarl Franzoni, the leaders of what became known as the "freak scene" in Los Angeles, and by her own account became something of agroupie.[7]
She met her future husband Frank Zappa in 1966 when she was working as a secretary at theWhisky a Go Go nightclub on theSunset Strip in Los Angeles. They married in a civil ceremony in New York on September 21, 1967, late in her pregnancy withMoon Zappa, born a week later. The marriage also produced childrenDweezil,Ahmet andDiva Zappa. Gail had a fraught relationship with her oldest daughter, Moon, which seemed to have been repaired at the end of Gail's life. But, upon her death, it was revealed that the Zappa estate would not be divided equally among the four Zappa children, leaving Moon and Dweezil in a weaker financial position.[8] "It's complicated enough to be grieving the loss of a mean mom", Moon Zappa told theLos Angeles Times in 2016, "and then to find out she was meaner than I could have possibly comprehended ... It's comical, the level of betrayal".[8] Ahmet Zappa insisted his mother was misunderstood. "She demanded respect and got the respect", he said, "and that's really unusual".[8] An interview with Gail was featured in the 1987 bookRock Wives, written by Victoria Balfour.[9]
Gail can be seen behind Frank Zappa on the sleeve of his albumAbsolutely Free (1967) and on the original, parody cover of hisWe're Only In It For The Money album (1968). Frank Zappa also namedBarking Pumpkin Records after his wife'schronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or smoker's cough.[10] Frank Zappa's relationship with manager Bennett Glotzer ended in 1984.[11] From then on Gail co-managed with Frank, acted as business secretary, and supervised the record labels and mail order business.[1]
At the time of his death in 1993, Frank urged Gail to withdraw from the music business, but never clarified what was to be done with his publishing catalog. In 2002, Gail founded the Zappa Family Trust,[3] intended to oversee the release of his recordings, including multiple previously unavailable works. Thetrust holds title andcopyright to Frank Zappa's musical and artistic products, as well as his commercial image.[12][13]
After Frank's death Gail authorized the release of the albumLäther. Frank had intended to release this in October 1977[14] but due to legal problems he was forced to shelve the album. Upon release in 1996 Gail said "As originally conceived by Frank,Läther was always a four-record box set."[15] Despite this, Frank had already submitted a group of four individual albums (five full-length LPs) toWarner Bros. Records in March 1977.[16][17] The four individual albums and theLäther package have much of the same music, but each also has unique content.[17] In any case, Warner breached the contract by failing to pay Frank upon delivery of the recordings.[17][18][19][20] Gail also claimed that Warner had broken up theLäther recordings into individual albums.[21] However, this is directly contradicted in multiple interviews.[17][20][22] In 1978 Frank said "Läther was made out of four albums. Warners has released two of them already and they have two more that they're probably gonna release."[23]
In July 2015, it was announced that Ahmet Zappa would take over operation of the trust.[3] Ahmet's siblings Dweezil and Moon publicly expressed frustration with his appointment to that role.[8]
Described as "a strong-willed and savvy business woman", Gail Zappa "frequently squared off against the music industry's major players ...". She sent a note ending "Fuck you" toSteve Jobs over the creation of theiTunes Store.[1] She criticizedtribute bands playing Zappa's music, saying: "It is absolutely identity theft because from my point of view, Frank Zappa’s audience deserves to hear the music—if it’s for the first time, especially—presented in a way that is in the best possible light of what the composer intended."[1]
In 2008, the Zappa Family Trust sued the organizers of theZappanale Festival, held outsideBad Doberan, Germany, demanding they change the name of the festival, remove their promotional posters (which contained an allegedly trademarkedmoustache similar to Frank Zappa's) and remove the bust of him that has stood in the city center since 2002. In January 2009, the court found in Zappanale's favor after their defense argued that as the Zappa Family Trust only sells products on the Internet and accepts onlyU.S. dollars, it had not effectively exercised its trademarks in Germany for more than five years. The court also ruled that the use of the moustache was sufficiently different in Zappanale's merchandise so as not to cause confusion between the two.[24]
Gail Zappa died in Los Angeles on October 7, 2015.Rolling Stone andTMZ reported that she died following "a long battle with lung cancer".[2] She was 70.
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