“Jimi Hendrix came down to see us – he came up to me and said, ‘Shake my left hand, man, it’s closer to my heart’”: King Crimson’s Robert Fripp on the time he met Jimi Hendrix
In a recent interview on Rob Squad Reactions, King Crimson’s Robert Fripp has recounted the band’s early years – including a memorable encounter with Jimi Hendrix.
Fripp met Hendrix in 1969 at London’s Revolution’s Club, a meeting he frequently refers to as “one of the best calling cards any working musician is ever likely to be able to present.”
“This is the hand shaken by the hand of Jimi Hendrix,” he said. “He came to see the band and… was apparently upstairs saying, this is the best band in the world. And he came down to see us, and he came up to me and said, ‘Shake my left hand, man, it’s closer to my heart.’”
When talking about the 1981 King Crimson album Discipline, Fripp said that “the band met and wrote all the material in three weeks. We took it on the road in Europe for three weeks, and then we recorded it in three weeks.”
In addition, he said that he plays around “nine notes per second in the fast parts” of the track Frame by Frame. His wife, the singer and actress Toyah Willcox was also part of the interview and alluded to Fripp’s dedication to his craft:
“As someone who has listened to Robert play for 38 years within our house, the intensity of the fingers and the speed of the fingers and sometimes Robert’s playing 11 notes a second. He practices for four hours a day. Sometimes it can be hell. Other times, it’s an absolute inspiration because he can do it for a long time.”
Robert Fripp and Toyah Willcox have a busy festival season performing under the moniker Toyah & Robert. They’ll be playing the Avalon Stage at this year’s Glastonbury and will also perform at the Isle of Wight Festival. This will be followed by a tour in December, which kicks off at Queens Hall in Edinburgh on December 16.
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The pair went viral over the pandemic with their weekly Sunday Lunch video series. Fripp spoke to Guitar World last year, revealing how he ended up covering – and loving – the likes of Megadeth, Metallica and Slipknot.
Meanwhile, new King Crimson supergroup Beat – which counts Adrian Belew and Steve Vai among its lineup – will be touring the prog icons’ ’80s material later this year.
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