Growing Up Zappa: Moon Unit Zappa on Life in Frank Zappa's Orbit

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Writer, performer, and Gen-X legend Moon Unit Zappa joins Meghan for a conversation about her new memoir Earth To Moon. She talks about being the eldest child of iconoclastic musician Frank Zappa, growing up in the chaos of the 1970s and 80s rock-and-roll scene, the cultural phenomenon of the hit single Valley Girl, fissures within the Zappa family, and forging a life and career in the today’s creative economy.
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GUEST BIO
Moon Unit Zappa was born in 1967 to legendary musician Frank Vincent Zappa and his second wife, Gail Zappa. At the age of 14, she appeared in Frank Zappa’s career-defining song, “Valley Girl,” which later helped jump-start Moon’s career. Since then, Moon has firmly established herself as a writer, actress, comedian, artist, podcaster, and tea merchant.
www.MoonUnit.com
Buy the book: moonunit.com/p...
/ iammoonunitzappa
/ moonunittea
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[@porkstore7405]

Excellent! One of the best interviews with Moon out there!

[@tomashughes6310]

Awesome interview- i am very endeared to Moon and her story! I am grateful for her memoir and her introspection. She is healing, but also helping others to heal (parents and children).

[@MarkKramKarmVI]

Moon Zappa🎉

[@Dales815]

What a great conversation!

[@lorirees4248]

Great interview. So interesting to hear about Moon's life and Moon seems like a really cool person. Also, I love Moon's frames and you both look look gorgeous.

[@TheUnspeakablePodcast]

❤

[@groonspider]

Excellent dialogue! You made my day. Kudos to you both.

[@NoBeard-v8b]

I'm a little bit older than Moon and I decided long ago that life was the ability to successfully navigate from one catastrophe to the next. I'm very pleased she has done so too. As long as I learn something new every day and manage to maximise the distance between the catastrophes, all is good 🙂

[@slimzimm1031]

Frank's guitar skills were sublime, those rare unreal heavenly solos not utilized enough on his core albums. What a bummer when your parents lose their marbles. Moon you are a survivor. Thanks for sharing.

[@augustusbetucius2931]

His guitar playing was completely secondary to his song writing/compositional skills. There are countless pieces he wrote that have zero guitar solos, sometimes no guitar at all, and these stand out on their own strengths, requiring no guitar at all.

[@slimzimm1031]

@@augustusbetucius2931 That's like, your opinion man.

[@Davejkn]

Thank you!!!! So far this is the best interview I've seen with Moon, probably because you digress from talking about the book into other interesting areas and I love interesting conversations... I just finished reading the book late last night and it's great for all kinds of reasons - the insights into human behaviour, the mini reading list on page 303 and Marshall Rosenberg who I'd not heard of before and thinking about my own dysfunctional relationship with my deceased parents. If the purpose of books is to provoke thought, then this one has succeeded admirably. I look forward to the ayahuasca episode 😄

[@lisapa297]

Great interview! The way Moon opens up is refreshing and with her being optimistic despite everything. She naturally shines!!Sad and unfortunate the complicated relationships with bpd narcissistic mothers. She mentioned Angela's Ashes, an incredible book! Looking forward to reading her book.

[@Danuta628]

Honestly I don’t know how she’s not in a padded cell. How she is still so intact and loving and kind as a human being. It’s just so much to grapple with as a human… I read the book in 2 days. Also a Libra here, close in age - so I know how much work and dissecting is involved in order to compartmentalize her life. That I get. But still, it’s just a lot / Moon deserves all the peace and harmony and love in the world. She seems like she’s in a good place now ❤🙏🏽

[@connshawnery6489]

Very good interview. One of my fundamental takeaways from this (being a Gen X’er raised by Boomers myself) is the fact that Frank and Gail’s concept of family and parenting style were likely directly informed by their own experiences being reared by the previous generation. From my view, they simply were colder and rougher people in a general sense that my parents would repeat the phraseology they heard as kids, such as “Go play in the traffic” and “Kids should be seen and not heard” throughout their (and our) childhood. This is in no way an excuse for the inexcusable bullying and disregard that Moon describes with regard to her childhood, but as an example of the differences in the American parenting culture across generations.

[@Scorpia1987]

Great interview :)

[@maarzt]

enjoying the moonlight!

[@admarhermans1]

One ‘magical’ word Moon mentions: kid math. Brilliant! Genious! That’s she, her siblings, us, everyone in a nut shell! The whole point! That’s what all traumatic experiences and children’s ways of thinking and their coping strategies under those circumstances originate! Kids are very good at maths, don’t let nobody tell us otherwise. Brilliant! From my experience: there’s almost always the mix of two parents (around or away). And than there’s extended family (grandparents, uncles, aunts primarily), or lack there off. In a kid’s brain that might be both the kid physics & kid chemistry before and after the kid math.

[@augustusbetucius2931]

Frank wasn't really a "rock star", he wasn't quite a household name. He was more infamous than famous. He had an unexpected popularity and public profile in the 70s, that is best summed up by the common response to his name being mentioned. People would say, "I've heard the name, but couldn't tell you anything about him." But as the man himself said, radio didn't play his music, except occasionally after midnight, which is a good metaphor for the man's celebrity. I'm a *huge* fan of his music. We have at least forty CDs on the shelf, and tons of bootleg audio and video. As a teen, I really respected him, and thought he was a good moral model. Boy, was I wrong. Between all the biographies that came out in late 90s and the first years of the 21st century, then the documentary, the true picture began to come into focus. Then Moon's book came along and fleshed out the rest of the puzzle. What a dark, cold and self centered man. So self absorbed and unable and unwilling to see how his behavior effected his wife and kids. I'll *always* be a huge fan of his music, but I'd never want to meet him if he hadn't died.

[@rubbersoul3723]

Watching from the State of Rhode Island-already caught an interview with Moon-so-almost passed over this one-assuming it would merely be a crescent-Moon-but to my great surprise-it was a full-Moon-having had parents of the same generation & having had many of the same kind of experiences with them as Moon-& been traumatized in many of the same ways-I so get it. Peace!

[@bitterklinger8160]

One of the strangest things I've found recently during this rabbit hole I've found myself in, is that Diva Zappa worked with Tipper Gore on an album playing drums I think. They was soooo weird to read.

[@tomashughes6310]

U dont say?

[@oddmagnestandnes4462]

Frank was voted best singer in a norwegian magazine 1979

[@gustavovalverde6226]

🤣

[@patrickcosgrove886]

I understand that Frank really loved cats. There's a picture of him taken when he was very ill and he's sitting with a dalmatian.

[@annickbelanger6751]

Hey, host! Let your guest talk!

[@Jim_L]

Two things: FIRST, I finished Moon's book about two weeks ago, and it was a super-fun read. 😃 I've been a Frank Zappa fan for decades (I'm Moon's age), so it was such an eye-opener to read what Moon had to say about what took place in that household. I highly recommend her book to all Zappa fans (as well as non-Zappa fans). SECOND, this was a great interview! I thought the host and guest felt comfortable with one another, which helped make for an easy going conversation. Plus, there were some interesting tidbits shared here. 😃 On another note, Moon makes a brief mention about seeing a sexual therapist some day. To that, I would suggest that I'm afraid it's too late to seek therapy for sexual issues, because she's just a bit too old at this point. This is something she should have done a few decades ago. But as someone who's close to 60-years-old, her sex days are mostly over. The body just gets too wrinkly and saggy for sexual attraction. Again, I'm the same age as Moon, so I include myself in this boat. We are just not appealing to the eyes any longer. Of course there are exception, but by and large, our sex days are over. So for Moon to deal with this now, at this stage of her life, I would say, What's the point?! 😥

[@carlhovde6846]

Moon has the benefits of genious.genetics

[@philcremer4709]

80% of all therapist who have nothing to offer say "run for your life". Get a divorce, never talk to your parents again, write them out of your will, run away from home, etc. . . .

[@joanfedora7414]

I read the book, it was disturbing. People seem to worship FZ, but to me, he seems like a misogynistic, authoritarian jerk. Love Moon, she writes beautifully.

[@strat1999]

She meant am radio

[@admarhermans1]

I don’t agree Zappa was an artist of his time, although some ingredients of his music did fit. Hearing (and reading Moon’s book) about his behavior and demeanor he seemed more like a late 19th early 20th century writer, painter or composer. Most certainly around the house. Artists like Thomas Mann come to mind. Mahler. And their families.

[@wietzejohanneskrikke1910]

I couldn't disagree more. His music and lyrics reflect very much the time that he lived in and he spoke very candidly about things happening in the world more than any artist I know. No subject was off-limits to him and he was very prolific, so his body of work can be treated as a historical account of life from the 60's up to the beginning of the 90's.