Ahmet Zappa On ‘Eat That Question’ & His Father, Musician Frank Zappa [VIDEO EXCLUSIVE]

Ahmet Zappa, musician Frank Zappa’s youngest son, recently made the documentary Eat That Question about his late father with his mother Gail Zappa.

Ahmet Zappa On Frank Zappa

Eat That Question started as a project that Gail took on with director Thorston Schutte, who wanted to make an unconventional documentary about Frank Zappa. Instead of making a straight biographical doc, they set about creating a documentary that would explore Frank Zappa’s relationship with the media. Eventually, when Gail became sick, Ahmet Zappa stepped in to see the project through.

For Ahmet, it was a given that he would help the documentary about his father reach completion. Ahmet, 40, is still in awe of his father. “Frank was one of a kind. He was so awesome,” Ahmet told uInterview in an exclusive interview. Ahmet recounted how his father’s openness with him and his siblings led to them making good decisions.

“I think there was some kind of magic in the parenting skills of Frank and Gail to where they always kept us so engaged,” Ahmet explained. “We always had a seat at the table, in terms of conversation with whoever was coming by the house. We were really blessed to have them as parents.”

Part of the Zappas’ unique and effective parenting was allowing their young children to use swear words at their own discretion.

“As he would explain it to us — there’s no word in the English language that can make you go to hell,” Ahmet told uInterview.  “If it helps you get the point across of what you’re trying to express why is that wrong? I actually agreed with him. I think certainly there’s a time and place depending on other people’s preferences. I’m not gonna start swearing at you right now for no good reason, you would be potentially offended but I think that’s kinda what they instilled in us — which was an understanding of where and when to use the words, the bad words.”

If Frank Zappa was still alive now, Ahmet believes that he would be speaking up about the censorship in the music industry – as well as the current political climate.

“He would be furious and he would do whatever it takes to try to stop [censorship],” said Ahmet. Of his father’s reaction to today’s politics, Ahmet added, “He would really try to get people to have some critical thinking here and certainly stick to your guns, fight for what you believe in and I think he would encourage people to get involved to make the changes that are necessary.”