Boy do I miss Zappa. “Brown Shoes Don’t Make It”
And Zappa was a rocker who thought for himself.
“And Zappa was a rocker who thought for himself.”
I had just finished a stint in a MOI type band. A friend who was the big cheese at the local “underground” radio station called me at my teaching gig, and asked me to stop by on my way home. I walked in, and there was Frank, sitting on the sofa. My friend asked me to show Frank around town. I was delighted, to say the least!
Took Frank and his bodyguard John to a local bar. FZ was quite quiet, and non-committal. Well,,,, he didn’t know me, so,,,,.A meet and greet line was set up. A very young, and very pneumatic young girl wanted to meet him, so I asked her name. She asked, “Is that really Mr. Zeppelin? So I introduced her to Frank as Mr Zeppelin. That broke the ice! I almost swallowed my tongue during the intro, and his bodyguard, John, turned around and buckled over! For the rest of the weekend, John and I would not call him Frank,, we referred to him as Mr. Zeppelin. I figured he and I had a similar sense of humor, so I spoke to him in a Southside Milwaukee accent all the time. He was in stitches!
We weren’t friends,,, at best,,, acquaintances. But,, I always got a call from a gal, (his wife?) saying “Frank will be in Milwaukee/Beloit/Whitewater/Chicago, hope you can make it! Passes are at the ticket booth.”
So,,, I had fun, and I guess Frank did too. A great memory, of a great musician/composer. Rivaled only by Robert Lockwood Jr., exclaiming, “Why! You’re White!”