Dweezil Zappa will be embarking on his first ever spoken word tour this summer, where the famed guitarist will tell stories accompanied by guitar. A unique experience for Zappa fans, City Winery will be the perfect setting for the show.

As a way to show gratitude to his longtime, supportive audience, Dweezil Zappa will open himself up this summer on his first spoken word tour, Dweezil Zappa: What’s in a Name? Beginning July 7 in Chicago (with a preview show in Napa on February 26), Dweezil will share stories spanning his 30+ year career, take questions and highlight some of the mind-bending guitar playing of his father, Frank Zappa. When Dweezil was born, his father Frank Zappa inscribed "musician" on his birth certificate in place of “religion.” At the age of 12, Dweezil released his first single “My Mother is a Space Cadet,” produced by Edward Van Halen. Shortly after that, at the age of 15, Frank Zappa produced Dweezil's first complete solo album, Havin' A Bad Day. “I didn’t hear the radio until I was about 12,” says Dweezil. “I had only heard my dad's music, whatever he was writing or working on or what he was listening to recreationally. I heard all kinds of things growing up, Johnny Guitar Watson, Stravinsky and even the Bulgarian Women's Choir. So when I actually heard the radio, my first thought was, where's the rest of it? It felt like what I was hearing didn't take advantage of all the instrumentation possibilities I had grown accustomed to.” When Frank died at 52, Dweezil dedicated his life to continuing his father’s legacy. “Dweezil takes his job as Frank’s musical ambassador seriously,” writes the LA Times. For over a decade, the renowned guitarist has been honoring his father by touring the world with his Grammy-winning project, now named Dweezil Zappa: 50 Years of Frank. Hitting the US and Europe this year, 50 Years of Frank has been described by David Fricke / Rolling Stone as a “loosely chronological tour of a Great American Songbook: the opening flush of doo-wop and dada from Freak Out!; a stroll forward through Frank's 1971 cinema lark, 200 Motels; mid-Seventies fan favorites from Over-Nite Sensation; and a heavy chunk of the Eighties opera Joe's Garage…” “I look at it what I do like an old-school Italian family business,” says Dweezil. “I want to carry on a tradition in a way that respects my father's intentions as a composer and his integrity as a person. At the same time I have my own music to create and share with people. The best way to carry everything forward is to play the music live and share stories.”