Dweezil Zappa has a pretty cool résumé, including gigs as an MTV VJ, actor ("The Running Man," "Pretty In Pink") and TV show host (the Food Network's "Dweezil and Lisa").

Yet, all that really matters to Zappa is his guitar.

So it's not surprising that Zappa is obsessed with the music created by his icon father, Frank Zappa. For the last two years, Zappa -- who calls his late dad Frank -- has been focusing on his pop's tunes. His aptly named tribute band, Zappa Plays Zappa, will reverently showcase Zappa material tonight at the Lincoln Theatre.

Zappa, 38, called to chat about the impact of his late father, his unusual upbringing and remarks made by Project Object, a Zappa cover band.

Q: What inspired Zappa Plays Zappa?

A: I don't want Frank's music to be forgotten. There are a lot of younger people who were never exposed to his music. And then there are the casual listeners, who just know "Dancin' Fool," "Don't Eat the Yellow Snow" and "Valley Girl." Frank was much more than those songs. Those songs don't give you one sixty-fourth of what he was all about. There was no one like Frank, and there is no one remotely like him today. That's why I'm out there playing his music.

Q: How do you even put together a set list? The Zappa canon is so diverse and immense.

A: He composed and recorded so much music that what I pick for shows is endless. I look at that as a good thing. The first thing I did when I started this project was listen to everything Frank did in chronological order. There are so many special details in his music.

Q: Project Object takes exception to your work. This is what PO's Andre Cholmondeley said recently: "Our band is the closest to how [Frank] Zappa did it. We leave room for experimentation. Zappa Plays Zappa plays it by the book. There's a gross misunderstanding there. Zappa kept it tight, but he kept a window open." Your thoughts?

A: There's no reason I should take anything they say as valid. To try to turn this into a competition is stupid. They're trying to make a living off of material that's not their own and they're doing a poor job.

Q: So you treat your father's music like an orchestra treats Mozart?

A: That makes total sense to me. Do some of these bands think they're going to make my father's music better? That's not going to happen. Do orchestras take Mozart and rip it apart? Of course not! Frank did things a certain way, and that's the way we present the material. This project is so important to me.

Q: You add an extra element that Project Object or any other band tipping the cap to your father can't bring, which is Frank Zappa. He performs posthumously courtesy of audio/video synchronization, which is trippy.

A: Yes. He's on multiple tracks playing and singing, and it really works well. It's something you have to see to believe.

Q: When did you realize that your dad was different from everyone else?

A: I think it was pretty obvious early on. I would go to friends' houses, and they were run rather differently. Most kids wanted to come to our house because it had a very different kind of structure. The kids had freedom. At our house there wasn't a real issue how you expressed yourself. We didn't go out of our way to use profanity. There was an appropriate time and place for that language. It was used to best make a point.

Q: You take the taboo out of it.

A: Exactly. We did that about everything. Look at the way my family grew up as opposed to other Hollywood families. I've never smoked a cigarette, never taken a drug, never been drunk. Compare that to the rest of the Hollywood kids, many of whom have been in jail or rehab. They say, "Life has been so miserable." Give me a break. But people figured that my siblings and I with the screwed-up, crazy names would be the troubled kids. We ended up being smart and creative due to how we were raised. We learned right from wrong. What I left our house with was the belief that no matter what you do, do it the best you can and be of some value to society.

Q: When did you realize that your dad was a music icon?

A: It never was something that I thought about it. I knew that's what he did. It became important for me to realize it. That's been brewing for a long time. I decided to do this tour four years ago. I had to take two years to make a lot of changes in my own guitar playing style.

Q: What was your greatest adjustment?

A: I physically played guitar for over 20 years. I had to adjust how I attacked the strings. It was the equivalent of learning how to walk in a different manner. Frank approached things differently. He wasn't a traditional guitarist. He started as a drummer and then studied to be a composer. He didn't worry about texture or instrumentation. He didn't worry about things that went together. He was about deviating from the norm. That's how he approached everything, and that's why his music is so unique.

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