Frank Zappa’s children feuding over control of name and musical legacy worth millions

Inside a home recording studio known as the Utility Muffin Research Kitchen, where the late Frank Zappa composed and recorded some of his most adventurous works, his youngest son, Ahmet, reflects on his father’s legacy.

It is a rich musical heritage from one of rock ’n’ roll’s most beloved figures, but one that has become entangled by a contentious family battle.

The Zappa Family Trust owns the rights to a massive trove of music and other creative output by the songwriter, filmmaker and producer – more than 60 albums were released during Zappa’s lifetime and 40 since his death in 1993. Like the intellectual property of many rock stars, the Zappa archives controlled by the trust are potentially worth tens of millions of dollars, according to one music insider.

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However, since the death of Zappa’s wife, Gail, in October 2015, their children have become embroiled in a feud over control of the trust, which is millions of dollars in debt, pitting sibling against sibling. At issue is not just a celebrated artistic legacy but even which of the children can perform using the Zappa name and profit from it.

Sitting in the recording studio beneath a portrait of his father, Ahmet, 42, is contemplative. “It’s emotional for my older sister and my older brother and certainly my little sister,” Ahmet says. Thanks to a decision by their mother, he and his younger sister, Diva, 36, share control of the trust – to the dismay and anger of their older siblings, Dweezil, 46, and Moon, 48, who got smaller portions of the trust.

It was “the most hideous shock of my life”, Moon says of the day she learned of her mother’s division of the trust. “It’s comical, the level of betrayal. That’s all I can say.”