WTJU Rock DJ Don Harrison Interviews Guitar Legend Adrian Belew
Don Harrison, writer, editor, and long time WTJU DJ on Radio Wowsville (Sundays, 11 p.m. to 1 a.m.), recently interviewed Adrian Belew, “guitar wizard and sideman to the stars.” We’ve included the introduction below. Follow the link to Style Weekly for the interview. (photo credit A.J. Chippero)
Adrian Belew’s career in music seems like some Hollywood-styled fable, the story of a Zelig-like character who comes from nowhere to influence everything … and yet remains largely unknown to the general public.
“From the time I was young, I had an interest in both pop and the avant-garde,” says the guitarist/producer/songwriter/vocalist. “I always liked interesting movie scores and avant-garde percussion music, but at the same time, I was in love with the Beatles and the Kinks. I like catchy, singable songs that have something interesting musically inside them, and I’ve always been guided by that.”
With a CV that includes everything from backing Nine Inch Nails to scoring the Oscar-winning Pixar animated film, “Piper,” Belew, 72, was discovered by none other than Frank Zappa, seasoned by David Bowie, who employed him as his tour guitarist and later musical director, and mentored by guitarist Robert Fripp, who asked Belew to join, and practically take over, King Crimson. The Kentucky native was also a key collaborator on classic records by Talking Heads, Tom Tom Club and Paul Simon. Since 1981, he’s had a side-career leading his own four-piece, the Bears, and has crafted more than 20 albums of solo rock ‘n’ roll, most recorded one-man-band style. This underrated solo output has managed to be musically innovative while diving headfirst into the kind of melodic pop that he loved as a kid. (Ironic that, as a solo artist, he’s only had one Top 40 hit, 1989’s irresistible “Oh Daddy,” a tongue-in-cheek sing-a-long about not being able to score top 40 hits).
Belew says that his latest disc, “Elevator,” is his best and most complete to date. For that, he thanks the COVID layoff. “It was the first time that I had the chance in my whole career to sit and concentrate on the record that I was making, with no pressure or deadlines.” He wanted to make a set of songs that would help people feel good about their lives again after being grounded. “Hence the title, ‘Elevator.'”
Playing a mixture of solo material and King Crimson favorites, The Adrian Belew Power Trio — with bassist Julie Slick and drummer Johnny Luca — will perform at the Ashland Theatre on Aug. 1. Style Weekly recently caught up with the affable axeman at his Nashville home studio to talk with him about, among other things, his unlikely origin story, how he creates those trademark animal sounds on his guitar, and what it takes to be one of rock ‘n’ roll’s great collaborators.
