Roy Estrada is an American musician and vocalist, best known for his bass guitar work with Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention and for having been a founding member of Little Feat, playing on their first two albums. Take a look below for 20 more strange and interesting facts about Roy Estrada.
1. As of 2016, Estrada is incarcerated in a Texas prison.
2. He was convicted for sex offenses, first having been convicted of child sex abuse in 1994 and serving six years imprisonment, then pleading guilty to abuse of a young relative in 2012.
3. He will not be eligible for parole until 2036, at which time he will be 93 years old.
4. With drummer Jimmy Carl Black and vocalist Ray Collins, Estrada was an original member of Frank Zappa’s Mothers of Invention.
5. Previously, Estrada had been a founding member of the Soul Giants, the band from which the Mothers of Invention was formed.
6. In addition to playing bass guitar, Estrada sang vocals, often in a falsetto in Zappa’s arrangement of doo wop harmonies.
7. Prior to the Soul Giants, Estrada fronted a band called Roy Estrada and the Rocketeers.
8. In addition to his work with Zappa, Estrada formed Little Feat with Lowell George, Richie Hayward and Bill Payne in 1969, playing bass and singing backing vocals on their first two albums before quitting in 1972 to join Captain Beefheart’s Magic Band.
9. Beefheart gave him the nickname “Orejon”, meaning “big ears.”
10. Estrada played bass for Zappa’s transitional 1976 Zoot Allures touring band, and provided vocals and acting for Zappa’s 1979 movie “Baby Snakes,” and vocal work for the 1980s Zappa albums “You Are What You Is, Ship Arriving Too Late to Save a Drowning Witch” and “The Man from Utopia.”
11. Estrada has done session work by playing bass for a diverse range of artists, including Ry Cooder on his eponymous debut album, Ivan Ulz, Leo Kottke, Van Dyke Parks and Howdy Moon.
12. In 2002, two years after his release from jail, Estrada joined former Mothers members Don Preston and Napoleon Murphy Brock, along with guitarist Ken Rosser and drummer Christopher Garcia, to form The Grande Mothers.
13. In 2003, Estrada was featured on the album Hamburger Midnight on the record label Inkanish Records, on which he collaborated once again with Jimmy Carl Black.
14. Estrada served six years in prison after he was convicted of committing lewd acts with a child in Orange County, California, in December, 1994.
15. In January, 2012, he plead guilty to a charge of continuous sexual abuse of a female family member younger than 14, which happened in March, 2008.
16. In the plea bargain agreement, he was sentenced to 25 years in prison and isn’t eligible for parole.
17. A Texas court heard how he abused a female family member after he was released from a California prison for a separate felony offence of committing a lewd act with a child.
18. Melody McDonald, spokeswoman for the Tarrant County, Texas district attorney’s office said, “The victim’s family was unaware that he was a convicted sex offender.”
19. Estrada was sentenced to 25 years in a plea bargain agreement is not eligible for parole.
20. He will be 93 years old before he is released for prison.