Adrian Belew Artistfacts

December 23, 1949
It wasn't until the 1970s that Belew began going with Adrian as his first name. His birth name was Robert Steven Belew.
During an interview with The New York Optimist, Belew offered fond thoughts of his former band leader, Frank Zappa. "Musically speaking, he took me under his wing and he was very generous to me. He was a great teacher and motivator. He told me a lot of stories which generally were funny stories, but they had lessons to be learned in them."
Belew toured with David Bowie in 1978, resulting in the release of the double live album, Stage, an unreleased concert movie titled On Stage, as well as a studio effort, Lodger.
Belew served as Talking Heads touring guitarist for a spell. There were rumors that he would replace David Byrne in the band, but Belew took up Robert Fripp's invitation to join forces, which eventually led to a new version of King Crimson.
Belew's recording debut with King Crimson was on 1981's Discipline. As he explained in the book No Schlock... Just Rock, "It certainly wasn't a record that your average person would know, but it had an affect on Primus, Tool, Trent Reznor, and so many people. That record affected the way they saw music. So for me, that's even better than saying, 'We had a big hit record.'"
The King Crimson song "Thela Hun Ginjeet" (an anagram of "heat in the jungle") contains snippets of Belew recounting a tale, in which he was almost mugged on the streets of London, while recording Discipline. The story is entirely true, and Belew was unaware he was being recorded at the time.
Belew helped co-write the Tom Tom Club hit single, "Genius Of Love," and would receive some serious royalties when Mariah Carey later sampled part of the song on her 1995 #1 hit single, "Fantasy."
For many years, Belew's instrument of choice was a battered Fender Stratocaster, but that all changed in the early 21st century, when he made the jump to Parker Guitars - a company that eventually gave Belew his own signature model.

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