Dweezil Zappa is bringing more than two hours of his late father's music to Royal Oak Music Theatre on Friday, marking 20 years since he first began performing Frank Zappa's catalog on stage. Doors for the show at 318 W. Fourth St. open at 6:30 p.m., with the 57-year-old guitarist leading a tour he's calling DZ20: Like Father, Like Son.
The tour's name nods to a milestone: Dweezil began touring his father's compositions around 2006, a project he initially called Zappa Plays Zappa. According to Royal Oak Music Theatre, the current run features more than two hours of music spanning Frank Zappa's storied career and returns to North America in 2026 with shows across the U.S. and Canada to celebrate two decades of Dweezil performing his father's work. Those earlier Zappa Plays Zappa tours honored various eras of Frank Zappa's career and sometimes included members of his father's old bands, though the touring was at times interrupted by legal disputes with Dweezil's younger siblings, who were given control of the Zappa estate in 2015.
Dweezil, born September 5, 1969, in Los Angeles as the son of the iconic musician Frank Zappa, has built a touring résumé that few guitarists can match — Royal Oak Music Theatre notes he has performed more than 2,000 concerts worldwide. He's also a veteran of the Experience Hendrix tours, a separate credit that speaks to his standing among working guitarists outside his father's shadow.
Two Decades Later, Still Finding New Angles
Rather than treat the anniversary as a nostalgia lap, Dweezil has described the ongoing project as a way to keep discovering his father's intentions. He told Guitar Player, “I've learned so much about how my dad wrote his music and what he wanted to accomplish with it,” adding that while the touring started in 2006, he had already begun relearning the material and overhauling his own guitar approach back in 2004.
That sense of rediscovery carries into each new leg of the tour. Per dzplive.com, Dweezil has said, “Every tour gives me a chance to revisit my father's work from a new perspective while finding ways to surprise audiences — and myself.” The same promotional material describes a set built from fan favorites, deep cuts, improvisational moments and surprises, and Live For Live Music reports that his shows frequently reshape notable songs into hybrid arrangements, revive rare compositions for contemporary audiences, and reveal unexpected dimensions — a description that fits a catalog as sprawling and genre-hopping as Frank Zappa's.
His Own Songs Join the Setlist
Dweezil is also weaving his own music into the current tour rather than sticking strictly to his father's compositions. Guitar Player reports that his own songs are part of the show.
A Guitar Project Still Taking Shape
Beyond the touring, Dweezil continues working on What the Hell Was I Thinking?, a guitar project that Guitar World reports features solos by dozens of famous players. He's also kept developing an immersive Dolby Atmos version of the recording, telling the outlet, “This project is going to be great for [Dolby] Atmos because it is a totally immersive experience.”
For Royal Oak audiences, Friday's show offers a chance to hear both sides of that ongoing project — the decades-deep catalog of Frank Zappa's compositions and the newer material Dweezil continues to build on his own terms. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. at Royal Oak Music Theatre.
