Frank & Co
Conversations with Frank Zappa 1977–1993
Co de Kloet

Foreword by Dweezil Zappa
Published February 15th, 2022
ISBN 9781911036814
328pp with 8pp photo insert
6 x 8.5 in (150 x 215mm)
£14.95 UK / $24.95 US / $32.95 CAN

“I think the best way to start when somebody says something can’t be done, just look at them and say: why not?”
Frank Zappa, Los Angeles, 1990

“With this book, the Zappa fan will get a glimpse into Frank that I don’t believe any other book written by him or about him expresses. And us Zappa fans love that. Thank you, Co.”
Steve Vai

 
Co de Kloet and Frank Zappa were friends for many years, and during that time Co recorded nearly every conversation the two men had. They also corresponded frequently—about life, music, politics, and much more besides—and this book offers a unique chronicle of their friendship, from their first meeting in 1977 to Zappa’s death in 1993.

Co is renowned as an expert on Zappa’s music, but this book is about far more than that, and is unlike any other collection of interviews. As his son Dweezil writes in his foreword, Frank was a reluctant and sometimes combative interviewee, yet his conversations with Co were open and wide-ranging.

Through more than two decades of these discussions, Frank & Co reveals a thoughtful, sensitive, and expansive Zappa, offering readers new insights into the life and career of one of the great masters of twentieth-century American music. It also includes Co’s favourite memories of Frank, as well as interviews Zappa alumni Flo & Eddie, Jimmy Carl Black, Pamela Zarubica, and Don van Vliet, aka Captain Beefheart. Also included is the original script of ‘I Have A Cat’, a collaboration with master guitarist Gary Lucas.

 
Co de Kloet is a musician, composer, producer, and radio personality who works for Dutch public broadcaster NTR and the Conservatorium van Amsterdam. Known in the trade as the “Creative Catalyst,” he also runs his own media company, Zivasound. He lives with his wife and two children in Kortenhoef, a tiny village in Holland that a famous painter once described as the centre of the world.