The Hot Rats Book

"A movie for your ears" is how rock icon Frank Zappa first described his album Hot Rats, which remains, 50 years after its release, not only one of Zappa's most critically acclaimed and commercially successful albums, but a stunning tour-de-force of the totality of his musical genius and legendary skills as a composer, lyricist, producer, arranger, studio innovator and virtuoso guitar player. To celebrate the 50th anniversary of this much-loved LP, Ahmet Zappa and the Zappa Trust have teamed with Backbeat Books and Bill Gubbins, the only photographer to document the Hot Rats sessions, to create The Hot Rats Book, a deluxe, commemorative book packed with never-been-seen-before photos and an interview between Ahmet Zappa and Bill Gubbins documenting the Hot Rats sessions and last U.S. show of the original Mothers of Invention on August 10, 1969 at Cleveland's Musicarnival in Warrensville Heights, Ohio.

The Hot Rats Book is an official Frank Zappa book produced and written with the full cooperation and endorsement of the Zappa Trust.

Bill Gubbins' photographs have appeared in the New York Times and Rolling Stone and have been exhibited in the United States (Detroit, Nashville, Philadelphia, and soon, Los Angeles) as well as internationally (Bad Doberan, Germany; Klagenfurt, Austria).

Ahmet Zappa, the second son of Frank and Gail Zappa, is, in addition to being the head of the Zappa Family Trust, a successful entrepreneur, New York Times best-selling author, and film and television screenwriter and producer.