More than three decades after Frank Zappa died of prostate cancer, Adrian Belew still vividly remembers the final time he saw the musician who helped launch his career.
These days, Belew is preparing to head back out on the road with Beat, the quartet devoted to the 1980s music of King Crimson. Belew — who played in that era of King Crimson alongside Robert Fripp — will join Steve Vai, Tony Levin and Danny Carey for a European tour that launches on June 7 in the U.K.
But in a recent Instagram post, Belew found himself looking much further back — to the final months of Zappa’s life. The guitarist recalled visiting Zappa shortly before his death in December 1993, a meeting he says left him deeply shaken.
“My last time seeing Frank Zappa face to face was just months before his death in December 1993,” Belew wrote. “I went to the Zappa abode for a short visit. He looked like the picture [in his Instagram post below], which was a shock.”
“Frank was obviously ill, his voice a whisper,” he continued. “There was an older man. Only 52, but seeming very weak and tired. In place of his usual habit of chain-drinking espresso, he was sipping orange juice freshly squeezed by his maid.”
Belew said Zappa spoke briefly about a new project before tiring and excusing himself to rest.
“Our interlude was over,” he wrote.
The guitarist’s connection to Zappa dates back to the late 1970s, when he was playing with the Nashville covers band Sweetheart. Zappa reportedly spotted Belew performing in a local club, and after a lengthy wait finally brought him in for an audition. Belew would spend roughly a year in Zappa’s band, appearing on the 1979 album Sheik Yerbouti and in the concert film Baby Snakes.
Though the stint was relatively brief, Belew has often described it as a formative experience.
“It was the first and only time that I’ve ever had serious instruction,” he once said of working with Zappa.
But Belew says the memory he prefers to hold onto is not their difficult final visit, but an unexpected exchange that happened about a year earlier.
“I prefer to remember a different ending,” he wrote. “One night in late 1992, I woke up from a vivid dream.”
In the dream, he and Zappa were laughing together and talking about music “like a friendship.” Unable to get back to sleep, Belew went downstairs and decided to send Zappa a fax describing the dream and thanking him for everything he had done for him professionally.
At the time, Belew said, he had no idea Zappa was gravely ill.
“Later that afternoon, I got a call,” he recalled. “It was Frank — what a great surprise! He said to me, ‘That was sweet’ — not a word you would normally associate with the acerbic, edgy satirist.”
He said to me, ‘That was sweet’ — not a word you would normally associate with the acerbic, edgy satirist.”
— Adrian Belew
The two then shared what Belew described as a warm, meaningful conversation — one that closely mirrored the dream itself.
“And that’s the way I remember Frank.”
Belew has been dealing with his own health issue. The guitarist said he required surgery on his left hand for carpal tunnel syndrome following the last Beat tour. The strenuous performances threatened to detail performances.
“It would get numb,” he says. “And during part of the tour, it would stay numb from the moment that I woke up, all the way until sometime during soundcheck.
“It was a little scary,” he adds. “I’d be like, ‘Oh, boy, you better wake up soon!’”
Hopefully non such problems await him as Beat return to the road October 9.
