The Cemetery of Rock

R.I.P.

Frank Zappa

of The Mothers of Invention

Date of Birth: 1940
Date of Death: 1993

Cause of Death: Prostate cancer.

Final Resting Place: Westwood Memorial Park, Hollywood, California.

Claim to Fame: Early influential rock pioneer whose repertoire was as diverse as it was large. Along the way he fathered Dweezil, Moon and Ahmet Zappa, discovered Alice Cooper and Steve Vai, and also had an asteroid named after him.   He was a first amendment champion who fought all forms of censorship.   In 1991 he was even appointed (albeit briefly) as Czechoslovakia's Cultural Liaison Officer by Czech president  Vaclac Havel.   Just before his death announced his intention to run as a independent candidate for the U.S. Presidency.   Now this is a guy who knew how to live!

Zappa's grave is unmarked.
 
 

The asteroid ZappaFrank was discovered by L. Brozek on May 11 1980 and named in honor of Frank Zappa. Little is known of its physical properties, but it is thought to be between four and eight miles in diameter. Its orbit is elliptical and approximately 4.08 years in duration, 193 million miles at perihelion and 282 million miles at aphelion. The first diagram, above left, shows the orbit of ZappaFrank relative to Earth , Mars, and Jupiter. The two images on the right were taken on March 10 1996 by D. di Cicco and show the relative motion of ZappaFrank over a period of one hour. This information was extracted from copyrighted material produced by the Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams (CBAT) and the Minor Planet Center (MPT).

Having an asteroid named after you, now that's what I call a tribute!

Images and info thanks to www.zappa.com

Back to The Cemetery of Rock