Moon Unit Zappa on Family Trauma, Neglect, and Building a Self

For much of the world, Moon Unit Zappa is famous for two things:
the unusual name given her by her father, iconic musician Frank
Zappa, and the 1982 song “Valley Girl” where she appeared with
Frank when she was 14. The full, complex portrait of life in this
unconventional family isn’t all that funny as told by Moon today.
She tells of a lifetime of neglect, of witnessing Frank’s serial
infidelity within the family home, of a mother prone to severe
narcissism, and of a great deal of alienation between Moon and
her three siblings. You can’t control the world you grew up in
but you can conscientiously choose the world you create
afterwards.


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