Frank Zappa Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

Universal Music has signed an agreement with the children of Frank Zappa – Moon, Dweezil, Ahmet and Diva, collectively The Zappa Trust – to acquire the late musician’s estate. The deal covers Zappa’s recordings and publishing catalogue, name and likeness rights, film archive and all of his unreleased material.

Cillian Murphy very nearly pursued a career as a musician.At the age of 19, the Oppenheimer star teamed up with his brother, Páidi, to form their own band: The Sons of Mr Green Genes, named after the Frank Zappa tune from his 1969 album ‘Hot Rats’.Now, in the afterglow of Oppenheimer‘s success (and his BAFTA Best Actor win), a video of Murphy talking about the band’s unique sound, and the importance of live music, has resurfaced on social media. You can watch it above.“It came from the whole spirit of jazz, which is the freedom to express yourself on your instrument, which has been lost,” a teenage Murphy said of the band’s style.The actor then explained how “it can be argued through the ’80s and through the early ’90s [bands were] playing to a pop formula.”“This is the freedom to go a bit further,” he continued.

Essra Mohawk, who recorded a dozen albums and saw Cyndi Lauper’s cover of her “Change of Heart” hit No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100, died on Dec. 11 at her home in Nashville from cancer. She was 75.

Kirkman’s widow Heidi Berinstein Kirkman confirmed to the Los Angeles Times that he died of congestive heart failure following a long illness. He is survived by his daughter Sasha, his son-in-law and two grandchildren.The Association formed in 1965 and were famed for their ‘sunshine pop’ sound which focused on tightly woven vocal harmonies and light, melodic songwriting.Their highest charting single in the UK was 1968’s ‘Time for Livin”, which reached Number 23.

NME, the Oppenheimer star opened up about his love for Frank Zappa and The Beatles.Inspired by John, Paul, George and Ringo, Murphy and his brother, Páidi, even formed their own band: The Sons of Mr Green Genes, named after a Zappa tune from his 1969 album ‘Hot Rats’.Their songs were similarly experimental, filled with “wacky lyrics and endless guitar solos”. Eventually, they were offered a five-album deal by London-based Acid Jazz, but he is and brother turned it down, citing reasons of artistic independence.Murphy has often been disparaging about his songs to journalists.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music On the heels of the sale of their award-winning rock documentary “Immediate Family” to Magnolia Pictures, film producer-musicians Greg Richling and Jonathan Sheldon have announced the launch of their production company Pfonetic and are unveiling a slate of music-driven film and television projects. The roster includes a long-in-the-works authorized documentary on the enormously influential but unsung producer Tom Wilson, who produced Bob Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone,” Simon & Garfunkel’s “Sounds of Silence” and the first Velvet Underground album and recordings by John Coltrane, Frank Zappa, Sun Ra and many more — which is now titled “Like a Rolling Stone,” fittingly enough.

Thania Garcia UMe, the catalog division of Universal Music Group, has promoted Tim Plumley to vice president of media and artist relations. He is based in the company’s Santa Monica headquarters and reports to the executive VP of media and artist relations, Sujata Murthy. “Tim is a key member of my communications team, where he continues to develop innovative new ways to promote our artists and their projects across a wide range of media outlets,” Murthy said. “Tim not only has the trust and respect of our executives and members of the press, but crucially he is viewed as a true partner by our artists and their management teams.” His roster at Ume includes the Band/Robbie Robertson, the Beach Boys, Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Zappa, George Harrison, Glen Campbell, Johnny Cash, John Coltrane, John Lennon, Louis Armstrong, Tom Petty, the Rolling Stones and others.

North San Fernando Valley, Laurel Canyon winds through the Hollywood Hills, and spills out at Sunset Blvd. These were the proving grounds where rock married folk – literally in some instances – and was home to everyone from Frank Zappa to Joni Mitchell.Cantor Lam was firmly rooted in the burgeoning explosion of music that marked the ’60s. And as they say, “If you remember the ’60s, you weren’t there.” Cantor Lam not only remembers that era, he was fueled by the artistry that echoes and is still worshipped today.“My best friend in high schools father was David Frisina, longtime virtuoso violinist and concertmaster for the Los Angeles Philharmonic,” Cantor Lam said.

Jim Gordon, one of the most in-demand session drummers of the 1960s and 70s whose beats were heard on dozens of recordings including Derek and the Dominos’ “Layla” and the Beach Boys’ “Pet Sounds” album, has died. He was 71.In 1983, Gordon suffered a psychiatric event and killed his mother with a hammer and a knife.

Black Sabbath is set to release a career-spanning autobiography later this year. Titled Into the Void: From Birth to Black Sabbath – and Beyond, the autobiography is due to hit bookshelves on June 6, and will trace the founding Black Sabbath bassist’s personal and professional life. The latter topic will include a recount of Black Sabbath’s multiple line-up changes and internal struggles, as well as the band’s “beginnings as a scrappy blues quartet”, according to an official synopsis.“A rollicking, effusive, and candid memoir by the heavy metal musician and founding member of Black Sabbath, covering his years as the band’s bassist and main lyricist through his later-career projects, and detailing how one of rock’s most influential bands formed and prevailed,” the synopsis adds.Into the Void is said to include appearances and mentions of Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Frank Zappa, and The Who.

Al Yankovic (Daniel Radcliff) is a curly-haired, awkward kid with no friends and no excitement in his life. Until one day when he ends up at a turnt-up polka party where he wow’s the party crowd by shredding on the accordion. His parents, Mary and Nick Yankovic (Julianne Nicholson and Toby Huss), disapprove of him playing, and his relationship with them becomes strained.

Selma Blair calls her cane a “dance partner” as she continues to battle multiple sclerosis. The ‘Cruel Intentions’ actress, 50, who also wears a turban as she suffers alopecia, said her stylish set of sticks have helped her overcome “compromised” movement due to her nerve disease, diagnosed in 2018. She told the new issue of Harper’s Bazaar magazine: “Movement has been so important to me my whole life.

EXCLUSIVE: Having rallied in recent months against censorship-advocating Republican politicians and the loss of abortion rights in America, Twisted Sister’s Dee Snider is going back to the past to spotlight our potential future.

Bert Schneider, his partner in the independent production company Raybert, began kicking around the idea of a television show about a band “more interested in having fun than making a living”. Their Variety ad seeking “4 insane boys, [aged] 17-21” was answered by 437 hopefuls, and the successful applicants – Davy Jones, Mike Nesmith, Micky Dolenz and Peter Tork – were dispatched on a six-week improv course. The show’s goofily knowing house style did not arrive instantly – a pilot polled direly in testing.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorUniversal Music Group racked up a strong earnings report for the second quarter of 2022, with about $2.7 billion in revenue, a growth of 17.3% in year-over-year in constant currency, a percentage gain that carries over for the entire first half of the year.Recorded-music revenues were up 16.2% (9% in constant currency) to around $1.96 billion, with streaming subscription revenue up 14.6% to $986 million. Subscription revenue saw a boost from a “DSP catch-up payment” (possibly from the Copyright Royalty Board’s confirmation of its 2018 streaming publisher rate increase) amounting to nearly $42 million in revenue and $26 million in both EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorUniversal Music Group has announced an agreement with Frank Zappa’s family to acquire the legendary musician’s recordings, publishing catalog, film archive, name and likeness, and the contents of “The Vault,” the storage facility that houses his complete archives. The agreement is between UMG and the Zappa trust — comprising the musician’s children Moon, Dweezil, Ahmet and Diva Zappa — and spans his four-decade career.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorLegendary rocker Alice Cooper, who should need no introduction, has signed with CAA to represent his touring in North America.He has sold more than 50 million albums over the years and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2011. His nightly radio show, “Nights With Alice Cooper,” continues to air in nearly 100 cities in the U.S., Canada, Australia, and the U.K.

Variety). She is survived by Doerge, her daughter and granddaughter.

Former Republican Senator Orrin Hatch passed away today at the age of 88. The cause of death has not yet been made public

Cynthia Albritton, better known as "Cynthia Plaster Caster" for the plaster casts she made of rock star private parts, died after what her representatives said was a long illness. She was 74. Although unconventional and a self-described "recovering groupie," Albritton evolved as an artist, expanding from music stars to film directors, eventually adding females.

confirmed by her representative, Variety first reported.The native of Chicago’s South Side launched her plaster-casting career in the Windy City circa 1968 after meeting an unlikely patron: Iconoclastic rocker Frank Zappa found the 20-year-old’s artistic vision funny and creative — although he declined to, uh, sit for her — and helped her relocate to Los Angeles.Although guitar god Jimi Hendrix — she “met him” at the Chicago Hilton and Towers in ’68 — was her first cast, she later expanded her oeuvre to include male filmmakers — and eventually the breasts of female artists such as Peaches, Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and many others. (Albritton famously revealed that she found many will assistants who helped prep her subjects for her art.)“I was trying to figure out a way to mold a penis so I thought, ‘Well, let’s get together a kit because that will make it even more absurd and ridiculous — and professional look, and create more laughs,” she said in a 2000 interview.

Cynthia Albritton, better known as “Cynthia Plaster Caster” for the plaster casts she made of rock star private parts, died today after what her representatives said was a long illness. She was 74.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorCynthia Albritton, a.k.a. Cynthia Plaster Caster, the legendary artist and “recovering groupie” renowned for the plaster casts she took of many top musicians’ erect penises and other body parts, has died after a long illness, her rep confirms to Variety. She was 74.Her collection included Jimi Hendrix, Wayne Kramer of MC5, Pete Shelley of the Buzzcocks, Jello Biafra of the Dead Kennedys as well as female breasts from the likes of Laetitia Sadier of Stereolab, Sally Timms of the Mekons, Peaches, Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and many others.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorOutsider music and outsider art have been bedfellows in just about every sense since the two art forms have existed, and that collaboration is celebrated and explored in the Outsider Art Fair, taking place at the Metropolitan Pavilion in New York this weekend.The exhibit — which is celebrating its 30 th year and is billed “the only fair dedicated to showcasing self-taught art, art brut and outsider art from around the world” — features more than 60 international exhibitors, including works from the Michael Stipe Collection as well as an exhibition of psychedelic art curated by Fred Tomaselli called “Field Trip: Psychedelic Solution, 1986 – 1995.”The latter is filled with work from the likes of pioneering underground cartoonist/Zap Comix artist Spain Rodriguez, R Crumb, Robert Williams, Rick Griffin, S. Clay Wilson along with original artwork related to artists like Jefferson Airplane, Buffalo Springfield and the Who — there’s even the original drawing that spawned the Grateful Dead’s logo along with the origin story as well as preparatory drawings for the Jerry Garcia solo album “Compliments Of” from 1974 by artist Victor Moscoso.

Michael Lang, one of the co-creators of the legendary Woodstock Music & Arts festival series, has died at 77 of a rare form of non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma at Sloan Kettering Hospital in New York City, according to his publicist.

Lady Gaga has sold her home in the Hollywood Hills and the daughter of a rock legend is the new owner!

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorIt is remarkable how few people know that the same person produced Bob Dylan’s three defining early albums (as well as “Like a Rolling Stone”), the first two Velvet Underground albums, Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention’s debut “Freak Out” and pivotal music by jazz legends Sun Ra and Cecil Taylor (including tracks with John Coltrane), among many others.It was Tom Wilson, a visionary music producer who died in 1978 at the age of 47.He was even the man who in

Related: 'Frank didn't adhere to any movements': behind the Zappa documentary The most distinct of these women comprised a rock band of their own, the GTOs (or Girls Together Outrageously) who in 1969 recorded for Frank Zappa’s label, Bizarre. “They were genuine individuals,” said Lyndsey Parker, whose new book, Permanent Damage: Memoirs of an Outrageous Girl, captures the memories of the GTOs’ most flagrantly individual member, Miss Mercy.

Frank Zappa’s last ever American concert is set to be immortalised on a new live album, ‘Zappa ’88: The Last U.S.

Gayle King has conducted her fair share of interviews, some good and some very bad.