How Belew got the Zappa gig 

Imagine having Zappa, Talking Heads, Bowie and King Crimson on your resume. RIP John Smothers who passed in 2019.

Adrian's vocals and of course his signature duet lead with Frank on "City of tiny lights" just sticks in your brain like glue.

Love hearing anything Zappa related 👌

I saw Zappa in 1978, at SDSU, and was really impressed by this Adrian Belew guy I'd never heard of. A few months later I saw Bowie at The San Diego Sports Arena, and there he was again.

Adrian Belew, such a super nice dude. Met him in 2001 when at Crimson show. Total class!!

In 1988, Adrian and The Bears were playing at a small-ish Hollywood club. I was in the second row. He began playing his semi-hit, "Oh, Daddy, Daddy," whatever it was called - the song explains to his daughter how hard he's working towards being a big star. Someone in the front row calls out "You already are." It got really quiet, and Adrian bowed towards the person calling out. Then the show continued.

Belew is such a singular, unique, and amazing player. He can evoke and coax sounds from a guitar that you have never heard or even imagined possible, short of maybe Jeff Beck, Eddie Van Halen, and a few others. And he makes everybody's music he plays on better and broadens their sonic palette and landscape. His work with Talking Heads, among others, for example, is absolutely incredible. Just a great artist, who is often forgotten about and not mentioned on the perennial and requisite lists of best guitarists, probably because his playing is unconventional, unpredictable, and highly original.

That whole Sheik Yerbouti album is phenomenal with Adrian and the incredible Terry Bozzio at his best and in his "prime" on the drums! SoEspecially on the song "City Of Tiny Lights"! What a great Zappa jam! Adrian's voice is flawless on that song and that fast, super tight beat and amazing fills that Terry throws down is phenomenal! Frank had such an incredible ear and feel for talent! To pluck up Adrian like that was amazing! He definitely kicked ass on that album and fit into the band so well!

If you could dig up Steve Vai's narration of how HE got into Frank's band, the two tales would go well back-to-back. Steve's a very funny guy!

Many have talked about getting to work with FZ - and how he taught them how to survive out on the road - most bands would do a sound check a few hours before show time - FZ & band would do 3 or 4 throughout the day - so his band stayed out of trouble as they were too busy constantly rehearsing - writing new stuff etc. - Frank was pretty much the ultimate workaholic.

Great story! Adrian's work with Zappa, Bowie, Talking Heads, and King Crimson, made me a life-long fan. I get to see his Power Trio every couple years!

Believe it or not AB is a HUGE influence on my bass playing and songwriting. Not scared of weird fx on a bass. Thank you Adrian!!

I met Adrian at the time he release "lone rhino" at a music convention. so talented. talking heads, king crimson etc etc.

I love Adrian Belew, one of my favorites of all time

If the cover band Adrian was playing with was his old band SWEETHEART, no wonder FZ dug him! I saw them at a club in Jackson, MS, once...they walked out to a half-empty house and played The Royal Scam...not the song...the WHOLE EFFIN' album! Keep on playin', Lone Rhino!

I have heard this story before but I never get tired of hearing it because it reinforces for me the importance of being ready for the next creative step. For artists, this is a continuous process.

"City of Tiny Lights....don't you wanna go ?...."🚬😎

Great to see Don King and Larry David chatting 💓

I was so lucky to see that Zappa tour with Adrian!! Later King Crimson... and The Bears!

Lived in Champaign, Ill. in the mid '80s when Adrian lived there. You'd occasionally bump into him in one of the local music clubs. Pleasant guy.

Belew is such a cool guy. Imagine a guitarist of his calibre working with the likes of Bowie, Zappa, and the Heads who still insisted on living in Champaign, IL (where he befriended local band the Elvis Brothers and produced their second album for CBS) and, later, Lake Geneva, WI, where he had free run of a nice recording studio there for many years (Royal Recorders, I believe). That's what we in da Midwest like to call a nice midwstern guy who never lost his roots yet could hang with the big city boys in every way. Glad to see he's still out there making magic every night.

Zappa knew when he saw and heard Adrian play and sing like no one else. Frank knew there was an excellent front man in Belew.

I love his story about breaking the news to Zappa that he Bowie wanted him in his band. Bowie's understated "that went well". The lone time I saw Bowie was at the Forum in L.A. and Adrian was playing with him. I spent has much time watching Adrian as I did Bowie.

I saw KC on the Thrak tour in Chicago. About have way through the show something clicked in my head and I realized I had seen AB on the Sheik Yorbuti (sp) tour with F Z . That's the funny thing about growing old sometimes we need some loud freaky music to shake a memory loose.

:)...I saw Belew with Crimso in 84- at Berkeley's greek theater, for a philly dude; it was surreal...They had a juggler to open...:)...Fuckin 80's...smh... Loved his work for decades and this is First time I heard him interviewed...AN AXEMAN EXTRAORDINAIRE! ...

Hey Andre! Used to go see Project Object w/ Ike Willis @ the lions den and BB Kings. Good to see you. Thanks for keeping Zappa alive!!!!!

Thanks for posting! 👍🏻

That was a fantastic live stream and it went by so quickly 🎵

Man I love this guy. So talented yet humble. Much respect. 🙏🏼

Great clip, I’ll have to check the full interview 🤘🏽

Belew is great, my first stadium concert was Bowie sound and vision tour 1990, Belew was MD!

His work with Talking Heads is also amazing.

Gosh you guys got such incredible featured artists on your channel.

Great story Adrian. Good for you brother. That's awesome.

I met both of these fine musicians on separate occasions. Both are as pleasant as they are talented. Down to earth and willing to talk to people after the show.

Saw him with Frank Zappa, Talking Heads and King Crimson great musician.

Belew is a truly weird and unique player who fit in with so many kinds of truly weird and unique groups

Adrian signed a telecaster I had. Nicest dude around.

Hello, Loved the Girl Scout thing. I saw you at the Paradise in Boston. Lonely Rhino. At the foot of The Sonic Temple. You are a Master. Thank you, jcw You really don't have any idea of how much you are Loved. Amazing

Hey! That's Andre from Project/Object!! Where have I been?? Every time you guys came around to Valentines in Albany it was sure to be an awesome night! Love Adrian and all things FZ. Music is the Best!

First I heard of Adrian was his hit "Oh Daddy". I bought the album and immediately fell in love. Young Lions was epic! One of my all-time favorites

Adrian Belew is a wonderful talent and is so cool with it.

Love Adrian !!! 🙏🙏🙏

Hey ! Look Back in Anger. Brilliant. So Honest. A Work of Art. Thank you, Lodger is Amazing.

Met Adrian at Sweetwater Sound 5 yrs ago, such a nice man and great guitarest!

He was 27 when he started playing with Zappa. Young for sure but not a kid. Anyway, a great guy and a great guitarist / singer.

King crimson ❤️

Adrian Belew playing with Talking Heads on Live in Rome 1980 is a thing of beauty.

Hey Andre. Just came across this channel. Long time no see. I was Ike's buddy from Boston at the North Hampton shows that said you guys should crash at my house and play Boston. Hope all is well my man. Merry Christmas fellas. I love hearing these stories. ✌🏾

Hey Andre ! Great interview! I miss seeing you and Project/Object. Y'all come on back to Vermont sometime!

Love Adrian Belew and his guitar playing. Still watch Oh Daddy thanks to RU-vid!

Big fan of Belew.

wow Adrian so cool..

I never met Frank but even I thank him. I met Dweezil a couple of years ago and thanked him vicariously.

A humble guy. Hat's off to you Sir Mr Belew.

what a gem! new sub!

I was at the concerts at the Palladium in NYC during Adrian's time. It was such a GREAT band. I would talk with Tommy Mars about it out in L.A.

Can't wait to see him in April! Saw him with King Crimson, but missed him with Zappa by about 6 months.

I watched Adrian's "Big Electric Cat" video on LSD (also "The Residents" - it's a man's man's man's world video). I've been hooked ever since...on the music, lol. (It saved me from Hair Metal) *I must've been only 16 years old.~ sorry ♡mom♡...not sorry:)

Good to see you Adrian. Great podcast! Saw you and Ike many years ago in New Paltz,NY. You guys all slept at my house that night. Stay loose

😎 cool deal...excellent artist 🎨

Just a testament to what an awesome 😎 talent Adrian was and still is. Frank had some very high standards that very few could attain!

Love Adrian, but I have to say, I feel like he might have broken Frank's heart after all the extra energy he had invested in him for that year. Especially since Adrian didn't read and, as he says himself in this interview, Zappa took him under his wing. I believe after Adrian left was the point at which Zappa had other band members rehearse the band, probably because he just didn't have the energy to re-teach his material over and over again. The story of Zappa and Bowie meeting face to face after he poached Adrian away is pretty hilarious; Zappa kept calling him "Captain Tom". He demoted him! lol. Anyways, Zappa pulled the rug out from under the early Mothers so I guess what goes around comes around.

It's amazing Adrian did that much with Frank in only 1 year.

love AB in KC, he took that band stylistically into the next decade like no one else could. Fripp knew what he was doing. Rabin did the same for Yes, not nearly as well, in my opinion, but i'm sure many would disagree.

he had a nice characterful voice too.

Good interview , Thanks for letting the good guy talk , seems you can't take yourself too seriously . 😂 Good stuff

I saw Adrian at a Northside Chicago club (late 70's or early 80's). In between sets, I shook his hand and got an Electric shock! He said he liked my sweater (was a droopy dark green cardigan). Good sense of humor.

Thank Frank :)

Very cool story!

Another memory shook loose I remember the Warner sucks banner or something of that nature. Some guy rushed the stage and threw a soft drink ( I think it was Coke) towards FZ but from my perspective most of it ended up on AB who was standing in front of a tower of rack mount effects. My first thought was what a jerk you could have electrocuted the rhythm player and that would really ruin the show. Thank goodness no one was hurt except maybe the guy who threw the drink. Believe me if Frank commanded the crowd would have torn that dude limb from limb. I also set the car on fire driving to the show. I was sitting in the backseat passenger side of an old Mercury I think, you know the kind with the push button transmission. Anyway I flicked my cigarette out the window or so I thought. About five minutes later smoke started to pour out from under the front passenger seat. Being an intelligent college student I poured my beer under the seat successfully extinguishing the fire. When the driver, let's call him Paul, found out what I had done I was in a deep load of trouble. I thought for sure they were going to leave me on the shoulder of the Eisenhower express way. Well my cigarettes, lighter, pipe and weed were confiscated and I was officially "cut off" for the rest of the night. They did let me smoke a cigarette at the show. Need I say a freaky fantastic show. "I'd like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony..."

That music in the end of the clip... Só exciting. Why music didn't go that path somewhere in the late 90's?

Saw Belew several times, like '81 for Discipline. Incredible. Saw the Bears in '90. They opened the show with Purple Haze! How can anybody do that? And it totally worked!

You still living in Champaign? - I remember seeing you at Mabel's... you were fantastic! I had a show on WEFT in the mid-80's until I was thrown out after I played Frank's "Ain't it fuckin' great to be alive?" rant on impulse one afternoon...!!! -- c'est la vie!

"You're the only person I know who might get this." Saw him with The Bears at King's Head in Norfolk around 88. Super nice guy.

❤

I discovered Adrian while discovering King Crimson on youtube. I love Frame by Frame.

yeah, hey! yo, adrian!

Hey, Andre, have you checked out the likes on the "Snail Pie" video? Loved the last show I saw with Brand-X in Philly! My most recent book "The Beatdown" is available on Amazon. You should come back to the ABC with Project Object in Harrisburg; we dig seeing your band!

AH Frank Zappa that brings back some memory's

one of the most underrated singers of all time, his guitar playing speaks for itself.

Whoa..... what's the outro music? Also, good moments with Adrien, thanks for posting.

Frank also gave us the serious soul patch.

Adrian Belew was a guest on a music trivia show in Australia. Rockwiz was the show. The contestants had to guess who the mystery guest was in order to have the guest on their team. Clues of the guest were given. I am sitting there shouting at the t.v. ADRIAN BELEW!!!!!! No one knew who he was. Radio has a lot to answer.

Nice Lakland P bass back there ;)

Lone Rhinoceros

Freak Out and Absolutely Free Turned me into HippieDom!!

A beautiful trib to the Z man, Zoot, Sheik, Joe Garage, Hot Rat, Mutha of them all.

I’m the twang bar king….🎶🎶🎶

I'm puzzled by this. We all understand what Mr. Belew brings to the table, but I heard that he doesn't really read music and we also know what a stickler Zappa is for sight reading and music theory. How did Mr. Belew pull that off? Yes I'm a big Belew fan so I know what he can do, but I'm also a big Zappa fan and I know what a stickler he is about his musicians.

Back in the day, we had Hendrix and Zappa... Gene Krupa and Buddy Rich goin' balls-out-MAD with their Tappa-tappa-tappa... What happened to all those cats, man... what happened to the SCENE?!? I listen to the sounds they're playin' these days and it's hard for me to believe they're even the same type of Human BEAN... Gimme Moving Pictures, gimme Bark At The Moon, gimme Kashmir, Black Dog and Fool In The RAIN... Knowing that these pretenders to the throne are rakin' in such big bux confuses all-hell outta me and causes me so much PAIN! Hey, mister... can I borry a quarter for the jukebox? I gotta get this Lady Gaga out of my HEAD... Go home and look at my face in the mirror... these Tracks Of My Tears gotta be washed off, my tear ducts left behind evidence of how much I've BLED! I dunno what we're gonna do, I'm not sure any of us can survive... Changing definitions of words erry' day... better look up the entry for Music and make sure they didn't remove all the shuck and JIVE... You tell me if I'm wrong, make your best case and convince me it's just ME that's gone crazy... 7 Nation Army marchin' off to war? How do they expect to be victorious with 3 whole-friggin' notes... when did we start to reward somethin' so damn LAZY? This video's pretty old. I'm not sure how many people will even notice my little comment-bitch... I mighta stepped on some toes... if people come in here and beat me down, I better be careful not to hear any Justin Beiber or I'll laugh so hard I might bust a STITCH!

Muffin Man changed my life, for the longest time I thought AB was Zappa. When I saw it live for the first time, I shit my pants.

The chemistry of Adrian Belew and Zappa on stage in the Baby Snakes movie is one of my favourite Zappa's performances. It's the first time I actually saw Zappa on TV on the 'Old Grey Whistle Show' 1979 playing City of Tiny Lights. 'Muffin Man' is a great ending to that gig with Belew making fantastic demented noises. Shame he was only with him a year but I'm a massive Bowie fan too and Belew's live performances with Bowie up here on RU-vid live in Japan are worth checking out. Especially Station to Station.

What exactly is playing when the interview is over, the music? Sounds like some really interesting outro music, just not sure exactly what.

If you sampled his work with FZ and Crimson, it would be more than enough.

I always wondered how Zappa felt when Bowie sort of stole Belew away from him. I asked Belew that once on his FB page (where he responds to people a lot) but he didn't answer my question.

And Laurie Anderson!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What song plays at the end of the video? It sounds amazing

Belew is the nicest guy in the industry. I know this for a fact.

I heard that Zappa ask Belew : are you able to read music and Belew said no but i learn fast. Is it true ?