Frank Zappa

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American musician, a guitarist, singer and composer, an actor, record and film producer. He originated the Mothers of Invention in 1964 and freaked out onto the R'n'R scene in the '60s. On more than 50 records, he displayed a mastery of musical forms from rock and jazz fusion to doo-wop and classical. Contrary for three decades, he put out some 60 albums, such as "Uncle Meat" and "Weasels Ripped my Flesh." He was well respected in his field as the musician's musician, considered by many to be a genius. A true dissident, he has been tried for both pornography and obscenity, a social satirist and innovator. Zappa's dad was Greek, Arab and Sicilian, a meteorologist, and his mom French-Italian. He was one of four kids, sickly as a boy. He was dark and weird in high school where he formed his first band. College lasted a brief six months when he opted for music. His "up-yours" attitude and lyrics got him ten days in county jail in 1962 for making a "pornographic" tape. By the time he founded the Mothers in 1966, he had already worked out his personal credo of Freaking Out; casting off outmoded restrictions. The Mothers did just that in their 14 years, mutating through personnel changes. He won his only Grammy in 1987 for "Jazz From Hell." Married to Gail for 26 years, he had four kids, Moon, Dweezil, Ahmet and Diva. With no interest whatsoever in the Hollywood scene, he built a $2 million recording studio on his property and seldom left the house. Gail ran the family's million-dollar-a-year mail order business in records, videos and Zappa paraphernalia. A fervent nonbeliever in health foods, he smoked quantities of cigarettes while drinking espresso. Zappa had been ill for some years but repeated examinations failed to find the cause until he died of prostate cancer at 7:01pm on 4 December 1993 in Los Angeles. Link to Wikipedia biography