Tell us how you got involved in 200 Motels

Uh, it was very strange actually
A call came from the office, the Apple office at the time
That, uh, Frank Zappa had this idea
And he wanted to come and present it to me
So I thought, "Oh, great," 'cause, you know
I'd heard Frank's music, you know
You know, in a very musical way, it was pretty wacky actually
And, uh, so I invited Frank to, to my house
Where he, he came with a, a huge, um, score
And he laid this huge score out and he said, uh
"You know, I've got this idea, I wanna make this movie, and hеre's the score"
And I thought, "Why arе you showing me the score? I cannot read music
But because of that, I will do the movie"
So that's how it happened and he was very, uh, very straight
So he told me he wanted me to play him
'Cause he just wanted to be, like, the musician in it, so
Also it was, like, you know, pretty strange
Like, the Ringo playing Frank, and then Frank being a musician
So it was, it was a nice premise and I hung out with musicians
So that was always a good deal

It was, it was filmed in a very short period of time under fairly chaotic circumstances

It was, uh, filmed very fast
And a lot of it, though there was the outline and some script
I mean, sometimes, you just made it up, um
And, you know, I was like the devil Frank
And I would take the band when they were ordering food or whatever, you know, talking
And then Frank'd write a song about it and force them to play it and sing it
Which was fun
So, it was a really nice experience for me
In many ways, it was a kind of a send up of the whole pop star scene (It was)
Did that appeal, did that appeal to you? (It does)

And, uh, you couldn't get a bigger pop star than me at the time

What was it like working with him?

It was good, you know, uh
Everyone had that image at the time
Frank was like this drug fiend and
You know, we all know now and I knew then that, uh
It's not something Frank got involved with at all
He just, uh, just his image came across like
"Oh, god, he's gotta be on drugs," you know?
And, uh, that was it

Can you remember seeing the film and did it—

I did see the film
Oh yeah, it was good, you know, it was good and it—
Again, because it was fast and we did it and it was just a film
Uh, you know, it wasn't, wasn't pretentious, you know?
Like, "Oh, we're making this movie"
Like some rock 'n' roll movies started to get in the end
It was good
It's nearly as good as Greece's Palace
Anyway, that's it really, I mean what else can I say?
It was a really nice experience, uh
Frank was an incredible musician and that's the end of it