A Frank Zappa Hologram Is Going On Tour
They’re still making holograms of dead musicians! And now Frank Zappa is about to appear in ephemeral, flickering, made-of-light form! The avant-rock legend, who died in 1993, is getting ready to head out on tour. The Zappa Family Trust, the family company that controls Zappa’s image, has worked with a production company called Eyellusion to put together a touring Zappa show.
According to a press release, the show will feature a number of musicians who played with Zappa over the years, including Steve Vai, Ian Underwood, and Adrian Belew. Lately, members of the Zappa family have been publicly feuding with one another, with Zappa’s son Dweezil complaining that his brother Ahmet won’t let him use the name Zappa Plays Zappa on tour. But in the press release, Ahmet at least hints at a truce:
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? That would be my greatest wish and I look forward to bringing this special celebration of Frank’s legacy to a town near you.
The touring hologram-assisted live show isn’t the only thing the Zappa family is planning. They’re also planning to put together a stage production of Joe’s Garage: The Musical, the three-LP rock opera that Zappa released in 1979. Long considered unproducable, and not just because Zappa appeared in blackface on the first album’s cover art, a version of the opera was staged in Los Angeles in 1998. And now the Zappa family is planning on putting together a new version with the hologram version of Zappa in the lead role as the Central Scrutinizer.