In September Zappa had his last ever tour with a line-up called The Mothers. He then proceeded to fire and sue Herb Cohen and his lawyer brother for stealing from DiscReet (and could no longer use the name “The Mothers.”) Zappa didn’t agree with the artists Cohen was signing and he claimed that Cohen had used his royalty checks to pay for production costs of Beefheart’s album, when Zappa was away on tour. After Zappa refused to send the master tapes of Beefheart’s album, Bat Chain Puller, to Virgin Records for release until he got his money back, everyone claimed that this was proof enough that Zappa only cared about money and not art and that he was acting like the big record companies he hated. The CD was still not released when Zappa died. Zappa was just a smart business man and when he knew something was owed to him he went out and got it. He preached proactivity and he certainly followed his own advice.
When the case reached court in 1977, Zappa asked that DiscReet be dissolved since Cohen mishandled the firm and misappropriated its assets.
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