ROY ESTRADA
Roy Estrada
was born in Santa Ana, California in April 1943. He was a founding member of
the Soul Giants, who Zappa took over and renamed The Mothers in 1965.
Estrada played bass with the Mothers until
1969, then co-founded Little Feat with Lowell George,
playing on the albums Little Feat
(1971) and Sailin' Shoes (1972). He then joined Captain Beefheart's Magic Band for the Clear Spot album
(1972), earning the nickname Orejón (or
'big ears').
He rejoined Zappa and toured with the
Mothers throughout 1975 and 1976. In 1977, he was a special guest at Zappa's
Halloween shows in New York – as can be seen in the film, Baby Snakes.
Estrada performed on stage with Zappa more
than any other musician, with their last appearance together coming in Los
Angeles on 31 December 1977. He continued to record with Zappa in the early
1980s and his voice can be heard on the albums Ship Arriving Too Late To Save A Drowning
Witch (1982), The Man From Utopia
(1983), Them Or Us (1984) and Thing-Fish (1984). He can also be found
on the posthumous live releases FZ:OZ (2002), Road
Tapes, Venue #1 (2012), Joe's
Camouflage (2014) and The Hot Rats
Sessions (2019).
In 2002, Estrada joined the Grandmothers
with Don Preston and Napoleon Murphy Brock (who insisted on rebranding them the
‘Grande Mothers’) and a year later he reunited with Jimmy Carl Black for the
album Hamburger Midnight (credited to
B.E.P. – Black, Estrada and English guitarist Mick Pini).
I hit upon the idea of setting up an interview
with Estrada while chatting with Black before a Muffin Men concert at the
Manor, Biggin Hill in November 2002. It helped that
I’d just gotten the Hamburger Midnight
CD from Black, which includes Estrada’s email address.
I knew from our earlier discussions at
Zappanale that Estrada would be staying in Germany with Black for a couple of
weeks in the summer, but I thought they would be taking it easy rather than
going into the studio. I’m glad they did; they produced a fine album. Black
told me that it was just like old times – as if the intervening 30 odd years
since they’d last hung together had evaporated – and they had tremendous fun
together, as they always had. When I first introduced myself to Estrada and
suggested an interview, he warned, “I have to tell you, I don’t like beating
around the old bush… I like telling what it is.”
Not widely known at this time was the fact
that Estrada had been convicted for committing a sex assault on a child in
1977, spending six years in jail.
In 1994, he was again charged with
committing a lewd and lascivious act with a child under 14.
It was while touring with the Grandmothers
that rumours of some past misdeeds started to circulate.
Then at the Zappa Forum on 23rd February
2009, Gail Zappa posted, "Roy has his nerve complaining about FZ in
interviews now and if I catch another example I will officially go on record
for what he has never taken responsibility for and remind him that we did not
report him to the police all those years ago."
Three years later, after pleading guilty to
a charge of repeatedly molesting a child under the age of 14, Estrada was
imprisoned for 25 years without parole.
He will be 93 years old before he is
released from prison.
First of all, tell me a little
about The Vi-Counts and how Jimmy Carl Black became their drummer.
Jimmy Carl
Black was never the Vi-Counts drummer.
Oh?
The
Vi-Counts were an 11-piece band that was put together by an early friend and myself, in which I played and managed. I was 17 years old at
the time. The band consisted of two trumpets, four saxophones, piano, guitar,
bass, drums and a singer. Later, I put together a four-piece group named the
Soul Giants. Our Vi-Count drummer did not want to do the club scene, so I was
looking for a drummer and Jimmy had an ad at a local music store. He and his
family had just moved into the area, from New Mexico. We obtained a gig at a
club called The Broadside, where we met Ray Collins and added him to the group
– as a singer, of course.
Can you remember your first
meeting with Frank?
Our guitar
player was being drafted into the armed forces. Ray Collins said he knew a
guitar player that was looking for a group to play with. So, Frank came during
a week and sat in with us. At that time, it was like meeting another guitar
player, but with original music.
Didn’t you first suggest the name
‘Muthas’?
After
reaching the point of playing mostly original music, Frank asked for
suggestions for giving the group a different name. I recall mentioning the name
‘The Mothers’ – referring to ‘motherfuckers’. He said, “No! It will not be
accepted.” We fiddled around with other names, but later, when he went into
Hollywood, he settled on The Mothers. When we signed with MGM, they added ‘Of
Invention’.
I read in Billy James’s book that
you have a penchant for dismantling hotel rooms but, unlike Led Zeppelin, you
put them back together again afterwards[i]!
When the
window air conditioner was not operating, I could not wait for their
maintenance person…
Aside from the sex and drugs,
what are your fondest memories of those early days?
The fun we
had on stage, especially when we made Frank laugh – to the point of falling
over. Then his eyes would get glassy and he would go into the realms of
uncharted music.
What was your reaction when you
first heard Arthur Barrow’s overdubs on We’re
Only In It For The Money and Cruising With Ruben & The Jets?
What can I
say; Arthur Barrow is a great bass player.
True. What is your favourite of
the early Mothers albums?
One is Freak Out!…
Any idea why Frank never released
Oh, In The Sky?[ii]
No!
You are generally regarded as the
funny one; tell us a joke.
You have the
Queen – we have our Bush.
Why did you follow Lowell George
into Little Feat[iii],
before Frank disbanded the Mothers?
I quit The
Mothers, the last part of 1969. Frank didn't want me to quit. Towards the
middle of 1970, I got together with Lowell, Richie and Billy, forming Little
Feat.
Why did you then quit Little Feat?
I wanted to
get away from the hustle and bustle and pollution of the Los Angeles area. So
when Don Van Vliet found out, he asked me to join
their group, who lived in Northern California by the ocean and in the Redwoods.
Artie Tripp didn’t have many nice
things to say about Frank after his stint as a Mother. Did you agree to
disagree, or just not talk about it?
Art Tripp’s
musical ability was not given any appreciation by Frank. The original members
were not either, after all the struggles we went through playing Frank's music.
We all respected Frank's musical abilities but, evidently, Frank was on his own
time frame.
What do you think about FZ:OZ[iv]
being the first release from Vaulternative Records?
We were
showcasing some new material; they are showcasing the Vault contents.
What was that band like in 1976
compared to the original Mothers?
The members
were all great – they were in a different musical area.
You must be the only person to
have performed with Frank in the 60s, 70s and 80s. Did you remain friends up
till his death?
Yes! I hoped
I could have been with him towards the end.
Does your asthma contribute in
any way to your distinctive ‘weasel’ vocal stylings?
And does it limit your number of performances? I guess what I’m trying to say
is: why don’t you sing more often – I like it? We only got one song at
Zappanale and one lead vocal on Hamburger
Midnight[v].
I get short
winded. It's hard to hold long vocal notes with any strength.
How was going into the studio
again with Jimmy Carl Black after all these years?
Hamburger Midnight was an all together other
reuniting party. For Jimmy and myself, it’s been since
1969… no one knows that I had quit The Mothers before Frank disbanded the
group. Anyway, we had fun recording this CD. Mick Pini
is a great guitar player and thee Indian? Well, need I say more?
What version of the Grandmothers
will be playing these gigs next year with the Dresden Philharmonic?
Bunk Gardner,
Don Preston, Napoleon Murphy Brock, Ken Rosser, Chris Garcia and myself. The
Classic-Jazz division of Warner Bros. Records will be recording the whole crust
of the matter[vi]. It will be a
H-Mungus party!
Interview
conducted on Monday 17th November 2002. The complete interview with Roy can be
found in Andrew's book Frank Talk: The Inside
Stories Of Zappa's Other People
(Wymer UK, 2017).
***
Photo of Roy on stage with
Napoleon Murphy Brock at the Borderline on 31 January 2004 taken by the Idiot
Bastard.