Circa 1979
by D.L.A.K.

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I had the honor of seeing Frank four times in the 70s and 80s. The incident I am referring to started at the Milwaukee show during the panty/bra tour I think it was 1979 but the 70s are a little fuzzy to me now. Frank was accepting underpants and other articles of clothing from the audience which were at a later date supposed to be made into a giant quilt. (Does anyone know what happened to the quilt?)

My girlfriend gave him a pair of her panties that we had drawn on and she wrote a sexually explicit comment which I no longer remember. Anyway during the encore a large man came up to the stage and handed Frank his leather jacket. Frank put the jacket on and wore it for the rest of the song. I have pictures of this. Frank took the coat off and handed it to someone backstage.

Flash forward to the following year and the next Frank tour (He almost always played Milwaukee.) The band comes out and warms up with (I think) Zoot A Lures then Frank goes into a speech about how on the last tour he wanted things given to him on stage and now he doesn't. He said if any handed him any funny little cigarettes they would end the concert.

It was classic Frank. Just as he finished saying not to hand him anything I stood up (I had first row) and handed him a bumper sticker that said "Don't Let Your Meat Loaf" and it had a picture of a sausage in a lawn chair. Frank saw me trying to hand it to him and gave me a look that I can best describe as really fucking pissed. Then I showed him the sticker and he laughed and took it from me and showed the audience. He then handed it to Steve V.

What he did next was the coolest thing I ever saw a rock star do. He went back stage and brought out the leather jacket that the guy had given him a full year before. He said that if the guy was there again he should come back stage and get his coat back. Frank said that the guy must have froze his ass off on the way home that night and he deserved to get his coat back. The audience gave him a standing O.

Now I think about Frank saving that coat for a year remembering were he got it and bringing it with him on tour just to give it back to a fan he didn't even know. That my good Zappa fanatics is the definition of cool.

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