WEBVTT - Robert Fripp 0:00:08.680 --> 0:00:13.360 Welcome, Welcome, Welcome back to the Bob Leftsetts Podcast. Today 0:00:13.440 --> 0:00:17.799 our guest is the one and only Robert frim Robert, 0:00:18.040 --> 0:00:19.960 did you practice today? 0:00:21.000 --> 0:00:23.800 I have not yet strapped on a guitar today, Bob. 0:00:24.239 --> 0:00:26.880 But may I also say you have a second guest, 0:00:27.000 --> 0:00:33.280 David Singleton, who is my business business partner, King Crimson Producer, 0:00:34.000 --> 0:00:37.040 and we've been engaged in various forms of musical and 0:00:37.080 --> 0:00:42.000 professional activities since about nineteen eighty nine. I say this 0:00:42.159 --> 0:00:47.279 because David has a far greater intelligence than mine. And 0:00:47.320 --> 0:00:52.279 there's also a philosophy graduate from Cambridge University, one of 0:00:52.320 --> 0:00:56.720 the two press these universities in England, whereas I am 0:00:57.200 --> 0:01:01.959 from working class stock and grammar school education and has 0:01:02.160 --> 0:01:06.480 really been educated by the life of a professional musician. 0:01:08.040 --> 0:01:11.800 Okay, since you mentioned David, you're both on the call 0:01:11.840 --> 0:01:15.360 here today. The two of you are going on tour 0:01:15.600 --> 0:01:18.240 imminently on the West coast of California. Can you tell 0:01:18.280 --> 0:01:20.640 me about that. Why David's involved in what you're going 0:01:20.680 --> 0:01:20.920 to do? 0:01:21.959 --> 0:01:27.800 Well, David's involved because he has a superior intellect of mine. 0:01:27.920 --> 0:01:34.399 He's also has a far greater overview of my affairs 0:01:34.440 --> 0:01:38.680 than I do, because I tend to be more specifically 0:01:38.800 --> 0:01:42.920 focused in the moment with what I'm doing. For example, 0:01:43.959 --> 0:01:48.480 a working musician walks on stage, plugs in, and begins 0:01:48.520 --> 0:01:53.720 to play, and their focus tends to be very specifically 0:01:53.840 --> 0:01:59.120 located in that moment during the performance. Now, when I 0:01:59.240 --> 0:02:05.200 walk off stage age, my recall tends to be better. 0:02:05.360 --> 0:02:09.560 If the gig has been really bad. If the gig sucks, 0:02:09.600 --> 0:02:12.480 you remember more of it. If it takes off and 0:02:12.560 --> 0:02:18.400 flies away, you're in a different place, and when you 0:02:18.560 --> 0:02:22.359 land on earth you don't quite have access to that 0:02:22.480 --> 0:02:27.600 same place until you take off and fly again. However, David, 0:02:27.720 --> 0:02:31.639 who maybe for example, watching from the auditorium, has a 0:02:31.639 --> 0:02:37.320 better distance and overview of what has gone on, and 0:02:37.400 --> 0:02:41.959 also a far better skill set in terms of analysis 0:02:42.280 --> 0:02:46.680 than I do, so his opinion is infinitely more reliable 0:02:46.760 --> 0:02:50.760 than mine. So he's coming along when I stumbled. He 0:02:50.840 --> 0:02:53.600 will tell people what I meant to say had I 0:02:53.720 --> 0:02:55.720 been a younger, more intelligent man. 0:02:56.960 --> 0:02:59.480 Our talks grew out of talks that we used to 0:02:59.480 --> 0:03:02.640 give the all the King Crimson shows. So before the 0:03:02.680 --> 0:03:04.480 King Crimson Shows, we used to do a thing called 0:03:04.480 --> 0:03:07.160 the Royal Package, where some fans could come in early 0:03:08.080 --> 0:03:11.040 and I recall when we were originally planning what we 0:03:11.120 --> 0:03:14.160 might do before the shows. I said, well, somebody should 0:03:14.520 --> 0:03:16.360 talk to the fans, you know, for the hour before 0:03:16.360 --> 0:03:19.800 the show, And I remember distinctly Robert saying to me, David, 0:03:19.880 --> 0:03:22.280 you should talk to the fans. I love it when 0:03:22.320 --> 0:03:26.200 you do the work and I earn the money, which 0:03:26.280 --> 0:03:28.480 wasn't true, by the way, because he shares the money. 0:03:28.480 --> 0:03:33.240 But anyway, so I began talking to fans before Robert 0:03:33.280 --> 0:03:35.600 joined me, one of the band members join me, and 0:03:36.880 --> 0:03:39.520 so to some extent, we're now doing those talks without 0:03:39.560 --> 0:03:39.920 the show. 0:03:42.360 --> 0:03:47.000 Okay, Robert, you're a man who has very distinct opinions, 0:03:47.680 --> 0:03:51.760 So it's funny that you talk about trusting Dave. Is 0:03:51.880 --> 0:03:56.760 Dave unique or you're more trusting than your image. 0:03:57.520 --> 0:04:04.120 David is one of two people who I trusted to 0:04:04.400 --> 0:04:10.080 give me objective and accurate feedback on anything that was 0:04:10.120 --> 0:04:14.400 particularly a rising in my life, or shall we saying 0:04:14.480 --> 0:04:19.479 King Crimson the fis Bill Reeflin and David Singleton were 0:04:19.600 --> 0:04:22.839 the two characters who if anyone in the band felt 0:04:22.880 --> 0:04:27.080 that Robert needed to be told a particular something but 0:04:27.279 --> 0:04:30.880 maybe they were afraid to tell him, then they would 0:04:30.920 --> 0:04:35.400 go to either Bill Reeflin, who was our drummer and 0:04:35.760 --> 0:04:41.240 keyboard player in the twenty fourteen twenty eighteen incarnations. They 0:04:41.240 --> 0:04:45.000 would go to Bill Rieflin or to David Singleton, both 0:04:45.040 --> 0:04:50.000 of whom I trust to be entirely impartial and give 0:04:50.080 --> 0:04:52.800 me the good, bad news, or whatever it might have been. 0:04:54.240 --> 0:04:58.240 There were very few people, very very few people who 0:04:58.279 --> 0:04:58.800 were like this. 0:05:00.240 --> 0:05:03.880 But you seem so warm and friendly right now? Is 0:05:03.920 --> 0:05:08.080 this your normal demeanor? Because your reputation is not that. 0:05:10.160 --> 0:05:15.640 It's true, my reputation is appalling, and it's interesting as 0:05:15.680 --> 0:05:19.440 an older man to look back consider why why this 0:05:19.560 --> 0:05:23.400 might be. And I'm beginning to come up with a 0:05:23.520 --> 0:05:30.160 few clues is to why my reputation is appalling. But 0:05:30.240 --> 0:05:32.960 since I trust David, David, why do you think my 0:05:33.080 --> 0:05:34.480 reputation is appalling? 0:05:35.760 --> 0:05:38.200 Well, I'll answer that in two ways. Firstly, the very 0:05:38.240 --> 0:05:41.280 first time Robertson and I went out doing a speaking tour, 0:05:42.040 --> 0:05:45.160 it had a subtitle that awful Man and his manager 0:05:46.720 --> 0:05:50.200 We didn't, which wasn't a tagline that we added. Somebody else, 0:05:50.240 --> 0:05:52.040 some wit came up with it when we were about 0:05:52.080 --> 0:05:53.880 to go on tour and said, oh, this is what 0:05:53.920 --> 0:05:56.039 you should call it. That awful man and his manager. 0:05:56.760 --> 0:06:01.480 And the main reason I think Robert has that reputation 0:06:01.600 --> 0:06:05.200 is because he prioritizes the music in all situations. So 0:06:05.440 --> 0:06:09.000 if you have a show or you're recording, Robert prioritizes 0:06:09.040 --> 0:06:13.720 the music, not the social or And for some people, 0:06:13.760 --> 0:06:16.880 I think that probably irks them. 0:06:17.480 --> 0:06:22.599 Okay, but Robert, let's say, in this hypothetical you walk 0:06:22.640 --> 0:06:26.359 into a coffee shop, are you the warmest guy or 0:06:26.440 --> 0:06:29.320 do you'd say, hey, this is exactly what I want 0:06:29.680 --> 0:06:34.560 and you're happy if it's not perfect. Would someone encounter 0:06:34.680 --> 0:06:38.440 this so called appalling reputation if you were just in 0:06:38.480 --> 0:06:39.159 everyday life. 0:06:39.920 --> 0:06:45.279 Probably I find that if you'd like a buy and 0:06:45.400 --> 0:06:50.239 large overview. If someone comes to me with a flea 0:06:50.320 --> 0:06:53.800 in their ear, they tend to leave with two a 0:06:53.880 --> 0:06:57.120 flea in each year. If someone comes to me with 0:06:57.240 --> 0:07:00.920 an attitude, they tend to leave with more of the 0:07:00.960 --> 0:07:03.640 same attitude. For example, if they come up to me 0:07:04.400 --> 0:07:08.520 with an open heart, they tend to find a person 0:07:08.680 --> 0:07:12.720 with an open heart. There are exceptions to this, and 0:07:13.440 --> 0:07:17.000 I can recall a few of them. For example, if 0:07:17.040 --> 0:07:22.040 I go into a coffee shop and I'm reading, for 0:07:22.080 --> 0:07:25.400 someone to come up and say excuse me, mister Fripp. 0:07:25.920 --> 0:07:30.080 I didn't want to interrupt you. My response might be 0:07:30.520 --> 0:07:35.160 to actually quote Jimmy Hendrix in the same situation. Then 0:07:35.200 --> 0:07:39.480 why are you so If a person comes up knowing 0:07:39.520 --> 0:07:44.360 they're interrupting me, I might remind them that they know better, 0:07:45.640 --> 0:07:50.040 or on some cases I've simply ignored them. 0:07:50.160 --> 0:07:53.560 Okay, you're in your home right now. I don't want 0:07:53.560 --> 0:07:55.600 the specific address, but where is it? 0:07:55.720 --> 0:08:00.320 Generally it's in Middle England. It's about thirty miles south 0:08:00.360 --> 0:08:06.200 of Birmingham. It's geographically middle England. It's in the County 0:08:06.240 --> 0:08:10.560 of Worcester, and it's what is called a Georgian market town. 0:08:10.920 --> 0:08:14.560 That most of the buildings on the high street, Bridge Street, 0:08:14.840 --> 0:08:17.840 and where we are right in the center of town 0:08:18.200 --> 0:08:23.760 for the market square. It's Georgian. That is approximately mid 0:08:23.800 --> 0:08:30.200 eighteenth century. However, David, who lives in the old vicarage 0:08:30.240 --> 0:08:34.400 in town, looks out his window and sees the abbey. 0:08:35.520 --> 0:08:38.480 I look out our front windows and see the abbey 0:08:38.520 --> 0:08:42.880 about two hundred yards away as the crowflies. So we're 0:08:42.920 --> 0:08:47.360 looking at the site of Christian worship in this town 0:08:47.440 --> 0:08:53.040 since about seven hundred a d. Now, to an American 0:08:53.120 --> 0:08:56.480 this is maybe kind of astonishing, since the colonies were 0:08:56.480 --> 0:08:59.960 only set up, as we know, in the early seventeenth century. 0:09:01.559 --> 0:09:07.679 To have an ongoing site of worship in any religion 0:09:08.559 --> 0:09:12.920 for a period of what thirteen hundred years thirteen hundred 0:09:12.960 --> 0:09:17.560 and twenty years is quite astonishing. At the end of 0:09:17.600 --> 0:09:20.760 our garden, I live here with my wonderful wife Toy. 0:09:20.920 --> 0:09:22.800 We walk down to the garden. At the end of 0:09:22.840 --> 0:09:26.920 the garden is the River Avon. You turn left and 0:09:27.040 --> 0:09:31.199 go up twenty miles you'll pass William Shakespeare's old cottage 0:09:31.280 --> 0:09:34.800 old house. If you turn right and go down about 0:09:34.800 --> 0:09:41.280 one hundred miles you will pass Sting's House just outside Salisbury. 0:09:41.440 --> 0:09:46.640 So at the River Avon here the Vikings used to 0:09:46.679 --> 0:09:50.559 come up river and beat people up in our town 0:09:51.200 --> 0:09:55.520 and beastly characters that they were. They would burn down 0:09:56.480 --> 0:09:59.880 the wooden Christian Church in town, so eventually it was 0:10:00.040 --> 0:10:05.160 rebuilt in I think early twentieth century of Stone and 0:10:05.240 --> 0:10:09.960 the local Worthy, tough guy, the alpha male of the time, 0:10:10.559 --> 0:10:14.280 the local Worthy Night saw the Vikings off in a 0:10:14.320 --> 0:10:18.679 big punch up up the hill here. He saw them 0:10:18.720 --> 0:10:22.520 offer I think about ten seventy five, and they never 0:10:22.559 --> 0:10:27.360 came back. So we've had relative peace in town through 0:10:27.360 --> 0:10:33.360 about thousand years. So, David, would you add to this 0:10:33.480 --> 0:10:34.360 what am I missing? 0:10:35.200 --> 0:10:37.280 No? I thought that was wonderful. I was gonna say 0:10:37.280 --> 0:10:39.440 when you said relative piece in town, that's obviously until 0:10:39.520 --> 0:10:40.160 Robert moved in. 0:10:41.760 --> 0:10:45.160 So Robert, why this general location in England? 0:10:45.960 --> 0:10:46.360 All right? 0:10:46.559 --> 0:10:51.560 When I first met my wife in nineteen eighty three, 0:10:51.600 --> 0:10:55.240 but we met again in nineteen eighty five working on 0:10:55.280 --> 0:11:01.000 a charity record for to raise money for children's schooled 0:11:01.040 --> 0:11:04.000 in West Virginia, associated with the charity of which I 0:11:04.080 --> 0:11:08.640 was at that time the president. I met my wife 0:11:08.640 --> 0:11:12.080 and proposed. In a week. We had a date on 0:11:12.120 --> 0:11:15.880 the Friday, she went back to London, returned for our 0:11:15.960 --> 0:11:20.840 second date Friday one week later, and I proposed. At 0:11:20.880 --> 0:11:26.080 that time, my little elderly mother was alive, So my 0:11:26.240 --> 0:11:29.719 wife moved to my part of the world because we 0:11:29.840 --> 0:11:34.160 knew that maybe not too far down the road, one 0:11:34.240 --> 0:11:38.120 day the phone would go and the voice would say, 0:11:38.160 --> 0:11:41.720 you need to come now. Well, after my wonderful little 0:11:41.760 --> 0:11:46.839 mother died in nineteen ninety three, we could then be anywhere. 0:11:47.840 --> 0:11:51.840 And in nineteen ninety nine my wife's parents retired. She 0:11:51.960 --> 0:11:56.800 bought them a cottage just half a mile up river 0:11:58.120 --> 0:12:01.680 where there is a boat club that Toya essentially throughout 0:12:01.679 --> 0:12:06.400 her youth, about age I think two or three onwards. 0:12:07.280 --> 0:12:12.680 My wife became associated with this specific location. She moved 0:12:12.720 --> 0:12:16.800 her parents into retirement to this location, and at that 0:12:17.000 --> 0:12:23.320 point it became obvious that we should change from Wiltshire, Wiltshire, 0:12:23.360 --> 0:12:26.880 Dorset up to Worcestershire here to be in near them. 0:12:27.400 --> 0:12:28.720 So that's why we're here. 0:12:30.600 --> 0:12:33.160 Why did you know or how did you know she 0:12:33.280 --> 0:12:34.679 was the one so quickly? 0:12:35.760 --> 0:12:40.960 How could you not know that you've just met your wife? 0:12:41.160 --> 0:12:43.840 How old were you when you met your wife? 0:12:44.080 --> 0:12:47.480 At thirty nine? Was when we had our first date. 0:12:47.559 --> 0:12:52.079 And I proposed, okay, they are all these rock stars 0:12:52.640 --> 0:12:56.840 who do drugs sleep with a lot of women, but 0:12:56.920 --> 0:12:59.480 not all of them. Iani Anderson told me, you know 0:12:59.559 --> 0:13:02.000 that he was living a more conventional life while the 0:13:02.040 --> 0:13:05.679 members of his men were partying. You'd already had a 0:13:05.720 --> 0:13:08.959 lot of success, not to riet he'd been on the road. 0:13:10.000 --> 0:13:13.400 Had you partaken so called of the fruits of the 0:13:13.520 --> 0:13:17.800 road or were you in your hotel room practicing? What 0:13:17.920 --> 0:13:19.880 was your life like before you met to it? 0:13:21.880 --> 0:13:26.240 Well, I never took drugs, Yes, I practiced in my 0:13:26.400 --> 0:13:29.840 hotel room for hours and hours and hours. Did I 0:13:30.040 --> 0:13:34.679 socialize from time to time, Yes, But in nineteen sixty nine, 0:13:35.440 --> 0:13:39.280 Peter Simfield, the lyricist for the first King Crimson, who 0:13:39.280 --> 0:13:45.400 wrote some astonishing words, he commented that Robert practiced in 0:13:45.440 --> 0:13:49.440 his hotel room for eight hours a day. Now, from 0:13:49.440 --> 0:13:53.199 my position today, looking at Peter and looking at Robert, 0:13:53.440 --> 0:13:56.520 and asked to take a decision on these two young 0:13:56.559 --> 0:14:02.920 men's future, I would be inclined to say that guitarist 0:14:03.000 --> 0:14:08.920 is likely to succeed. And in terms of being a nasty, horrible, 0:14:09.080 --> 0:14:13.520 creepy person. To come back to what David said, and 0:14:13.559 --> 0:14:18.240 since we're talking about nineteen sixty nine King Crimson, Michael 0:14:18.320 --> 0:14:24.760 Jarles the drummer, astonishing drummer, probably the drummer of his 0:14:24.920 --> 0:14:28.760 generation in rock music. He said, there are three three 0:14:28.840 --> 0:14:32.920 areas for a band, the music, the money, and the 0:14:32.960 --> 0:14:35.960 social life. Any two of those you will have a 0:14:36.000 --> 0:14:39.760 successful band. And I would say any three of those 0:14:39.840 --> 0:14:43.960 and you have an astonishingly successful band. But going back 0:14:44.000 --> 0:14:50.680 to it, my priority working as a professional musician is 0:14:50.720 --> 0:14:54.920 the music. There are some professionals who take an alternative 0:14:55.000 --> 0:14:59.640 style of alternative you and that's entirely legitimate, which is 0:15:00.120 --> 0:15:04.160 this is a lifestyle that I would like, the socializing 0:15:04.280 --> 0:15:07.560 with the other members of the band, the life on 0:15:07.600 --> 0:15:12.960 the road, and so on. If that's congenial for them, fine, 0:15:13.280 --> 0:15:17.160 that is not my primary concern, and a life on 0:15:17.200 --> 0:15:22.720 the road has been distinctly non congenial for me as 0:15:22.760 --> 0:15:27.120 a person. In terms of the money, my attitude has 0:15:27.200 --> 0:15:32.800 been this is coming from the background of the nineteen 0:15:32.960 --> 0:15:38.520 sixties and King Crimson began essentially as a cooperative venture. 0:15:39.760 --> 0:15:43.440 Share the money, and after the dissolution of the first 0:15:43.520 --> 0:15:49.600 King Crimson and the subsequent incarnations, then I've kept to this. 0:15:51.000 --> 0:15:56.000 If you ask a person in the band to make 0:15:56.080 --> 0:15:59.320 the commitment that you were making, you share the money 0:15:59.360 --> 0:16:02.960 with them, and if you don't share the money with them, 0:16:03.480 --> 0:16:07.040 you can't legitimately ask them to make the commitment that 0:16:07.120 --> 0:16:11.600 you are. So for me, I've worked with the musicians 0:16:11.720 --> 0:16:15.840 that personally were exceptionally difficult for me to work with 0:16:16.680 --> 0:16:21.360 if I felt that these were the musicians needed to 0:16:21.480 --> 0:16:25.320 make this music available. So, in other words, the social 0:16:25.400 --> 0:16:29.800 aspects of working within a group have not been a 0:16:29.880 --> 0:16:36.840 priority for me personally. The money neither. Particularly it comes 0:16:36.880 --> 0:16:37.840 down to the music. 0:16:38.680 --> 0:16:45.840 Yeah, So you mentioned not taking drugs. Is that a philosophy? 0:16:46.320 --> 0:16:49.480 Did you just stumble into that and you didn't take drugs? 0:16:49.520 --> 0:16:50.520 Tell me more about that. 0:16:53.000 --> 0:16:55.560 It was always very clear to me that this was 0:16:55.640 --> 0:16:58.840 not a way for me, Just that clear. 0:17:00.040 --> 0:17:00.880 What about alcohol? 0:17:01.920 --> 0:17:05.760 Yes, I've pushed the boat out a young man of 0:17:05.840 --> 0:17:09.040 my generation that didn't take drugs, and we were now 0:17:09.040 --> 0:17:13.440 looking at the early nineteen sixties. What he might do, however, 0:17:13.520 --> 0:17:16.040 is have a pint of cider on the Saturday night 0:17:16.480 --> 0:17:21.240 even too, and it would be rough cider, and why roughsider? 0:17:21.320 --> 0:17:24.359 Because it was one shilling and one pence and on 0:17:24.400 --> 0:17:28.199 a Saturday night. If you're only getting five shillings a 0:17:28.280 --> 0:17:32.880 week for your earnings, or even five pounds a week 0:17:32.920 --> 0:17:36.679 for your earnings, that was all you could afford. So 0:17:37.280 --> 0:17:40.240 age sixteen or seventeen, I would go down to the 0:17:40.280 --> 0:17:43.480 Cellar Club in Pool to see the rock groups playing 0:17:43.680 --> 0:17:47.439 in the Cellar Club. Greg Lake and his band was 0:17:47.480 --> 0:17:50.920 one of them. And for two shillings and two pence 0:17:51.720 --> 0:17:54.199 and the price of a bus ride there, which is 0:17:54.200 --> 0:17:59.440 about a shilling, you could have a relatively straightforward and 0:17:59.560 --> 0:18:04.919 enjoy full Saturday night out. It was affordable. Did I 0:18:05.040 --> 0:18:09.000 grow older? And develop a taste in something finer than 0:18:09.080 --> 0:18:14.280 rough sided. Yes, I quite like sparkling wine. Champagne is fine, 0:18:14.440 --> 0:18:17.800 but I'm not snobbish about it. I'm very happy to 0:18:17.840 --> 0:18:23.359 have prosecco, and I have learned to drink margaritas. My 0:18:23.520 --> 0:18:30.800 wife makes astonishing monster margaritas, so I have also enjoyed 0:18:30.840 --> 0:18:36.320 monster margaritas on many occasions with Adrian Blue, we would 0:18:36.320 --> 0:18:40.720 go out to some modest Mexican restaurants and have the 0:18:40.800 --> 0:18:45.320 monster margaritas. But I do not drink when I'm working. 0:18:47.160 --> 0:18:51.359 So other than your wife, where's the best margarita you've had? 0:18:54.480 --> 0:18:56.640 Now you have me, I tell you what. I had 0:18:56.680 --> 0:19:00.560 a really good margarita at Daryl's house in not October 0:19:01.200 --> 0:19:06.680 of twenty twenty two. We did our live at Daryl's house, 0:19:06.880 --> 0:19:10.640 and then afterwards I wasn't anticipating drinking, but it did 0:19:10.680 --> 0:19:13.679 feel like an appropriate moment. So I had a margarita 0:19:13.720 --> 0:19:15.240 and it was very, very good. 0:19:16.840 --> 0:19:21.600 And you know, traditionally margarita's come with salt on the rim. 0:19:22.119 --> 0:19:25.560 Are you a traditionalist or do you say? No salt? 0:19:26.080 --> 0:19:31.800 Classic salt margarita on the rocks, preferably crushed ized, no doubt, 0:19:32.760 --> 0:19:34.920 fresh line fresh line, and. 0:19:35.280 --> 0:19:39.040 Does it matter whether it's Quervo eighteen hundred or just 0:19:39.600 --> 0:19:41.240 whatever tequila's on hand. 0:19:43.640 --> 0:19:47.720 I'm not snobbish. I prefer white tequila. Blue a garth 0:19:47.840 --> 0:19:51.200 goes down very nicely, indeed. But now here's the one. 0:19:52.359 --> 0:19:57.520 I was in Mexico in Cernavaca with my pal Leo, 0:19:58.200 --> 0:20:03.359 who organized guitar craft and guitar circle courses at to Potsdam, 0:20:04.840 --> 0:20:08.760 and we were in the restaurant, which was formerly the 0:20:08.800 --> 0:20:15.320 house of Diego Rivera, and we were having lunch together 0:20:15.359 --> 0:20:17.520 and I thought, well, I'm not working, I'll pus shake 0:20:17.600 --> 0:20:20.960 the boat. I'll have a margarita. And Leah explained to me, 0:20:21.960 --> 0:20:25.600 you don't get margaritas in Mexico any more than you 0:20:26.160 --> 0:20:30.080 used to get pizzas in Italy. He said, we drink mescal. 0:20:30.600 --> 0:20:32.960 I thought, all right, I'll give this a chop and 0:20:33.080 --> 0:20:35.880 I took my first sip and I thought, oh, that 0:20:35.920 --> 0:20:39.520 tastes nice. I'll have a second one. Once I got 0:20:39.560 --> 0:20:42.800 to the end of my first mescal, I realized, now, 0:20:43.800 --> 0:20:46.040 now a second one is really a step too far. 0:20:53.280 --> 0:20:56.320 Okay, what kind of kid were you growing up? Were 0:20:56.359 --> 0:20:58.800 you a member of the group, were you under sports? 0:20:58.840 --> 0:21:04.240 Were you that odd kid. It was always by themselves. 0:21:03.400 --> 0:21:09.280 Probably all of those. I think it changed when I 0:21:09.359 --> 0:21:16.080 was about age nine or ten and my reading skills 0:21:16.119 --> 0:21:20.840 had developed, and at that point I would tend to 0:21:20.920 --> 0:21:29.200 stay in more evenings than not reading. When I became 0:21:29.240 --> 0:21:35.280 a guitarist at eight eleven, this was a very good, 0:21:35.440 --> 0:21:41.520 natural and developing tendency. Because if you are a musician, 0:21:41.880 --> 0:21:48.280 an Aspen musician, and or a composer or writer, you 0:21:48.520 --> 0:21:53.440 have to have what Professor John Slaboda in his Psychology 0:21:53.520 --> 0:22:00.800 for Musicians refers to as the capacity of strong interestpect. 0:22:02.160 --> 0:22:06.080 If you are a serious practicer, this is four to 0:22:06.240 --> 0:22:09.640 eight hours of your life at least, and if you're 0:22:09.640 --> 0:22:14.600 a young concert pianist it might be twelve sixteen hours 0:22:14.600 --> 0:22:18.359 a day now to sit on a chair mostly on 0:22:18.400 --> 0:22:24.320 your own, focusing on your practicing or your writing. That 0:22:24.520 --> 0:22:28.479 much time on your own for most inverted comrasordinary people 0:22:30.600 --> 0:22:35.040 would be a struggle. If, however, you have an innate 0:22:35.359 --> 0:22:42.520 or developed capacity for introspection, which is healthy, this is 0:22:42.560 --> 0:22:46.639 what Professor Roboda refers to. This is a strong and 0:22:46.920 --> 0:22:55.000 healthy capacity for introspection, not not somehow a failing to 0:22:55.119 --> 0:22:56.560 engage socially. 0:22:58.040 --> 0:23:02.280 Okay, is like your wife. As soon as you started 0:23:02.320 --> 0:23:05.440 playing the guitar, you said, this is it. How did 0:23:05.480 --> 0:23:08.520 you make the transition from a non player to a player? 0:23:11.000 --> 0:23:15.159 When I met my wife, I practiced less than hitherto. 0:23:18.359 --> 0:23:22.960 Ok, let me rephrase this question. How did you first 0:23:23.240 --> 0:23:26.840 get an instrument? And was guitar your first instrument? 0:23:27.680 --> 0:23:32.560 Yes, it was December twenty fourth, nineteen fifty seven, Christmas 0:23:32.640 --> 0:23:34.720 Eve and my mother, who had bought me all my 0:23:34.840 --> 0:23:38.240 Christmas presents. But I believe the day before I said 0:23:38.280 --> 0:23:42.239 I want a guitar for Christmas. So my mother and 0:23:42.280 --> 0:23:47.159 I went out shopping into Bournemouth, which was nine miles 0:23:47.160 --> 0:23:52.040 from Wimborne, where we lived. And this area in Dorset 0:23:52.359 --> 0:23:56.560 based around actually just four miles north of Wimburne is 0:23:56.600 --> 0:24:00.360 the Fripp family village where the Trips have gone back 0:24:00.400 --> 0:24:04.080 father to father for four hundred years. For example, in 0:24:04.119 --> 0:24:07.960 the village where Toya and myself had our first datum 0:24:08.000 --> 0:24:12.040 where we got married. My great great great great great 0:24:12.040 --> 0:24:16.760 grandfather Robert Fripp died in seventeen fifty four, but my 0:24:16.920 --> 0:24:20.840 father took the geniality back a little further actually to 0:24:20.920 --> 0:24:24.840 fifteen ninety in Edmonsham, which is five miles north of that, 0:24:25.960 --> 0:24:30.040 so that's a slight distraction. Now back we went from 0:24:30.040 --> 0:24:34.000 Wimborne into Bournemouth. We went round all the music shops 0:24:34.040 --> 0:24:39.720 in Bournemouth, finding nothing appropriate until write about five o'clock 0:24:40.320 --> 0:24:44.040 at the end of our shopping day, to Min's Music 0:24:44.119 --> 0:24:48.000 of Westbourne. And as we were there in the shop, 0:24:49.480 --> 0:24:54.920 a woman came in with this guitar and she said, 0:24:55.240 --> 0:24:58.119 I would like to return this to you. We're getting 0:24:58.600 --> 0:25:03.280 a better guitar for my So we stepped forward and 0:25:03.359 --> 0:25:08.600 said we will buy this, and the Eggermann Freys instrument 0:25:08.720 --> 0:25:13.400 bought for six guineas, is now in the cellar directly 0:25:13.440 --> 0:25:18.280 below the study were speaking. It was an appalling instrument, 0:25:18.440 --> 0:25:23.160 a really, really terrible instrument which creppled my left hand 0:25:23.200 --> 0:25:30.639 action for years. Even in nineteen seventy I remember having 0:25:30.720 --> 0:25:35.119 to practice to develop a more relaxed left hand grip 0:25:35.720 --> 0:25:42.600 after learning to play this instrument. You'd need players to 0:25:42.640 --> 0:25:45.120 put the strings down above the seventh threat. The action 0:25:45.320 --> 0:25:48.119 was so bad. But anyway, that was my first guitar 0:25:48.640 --> 0:25:52.080 and was in three months. I knew this was my life. 0:25:53.440 --> 0:25:57.800 Okay, you take the guitar home, what do you do? 0:25:58.160 --> 0:26:01.000 First of all, there's the issue of tuning it. You 0:26:01.040 --> 0:26:04.560 don't know how to read music? What were your steps? 0:26:05.800 --> 0:26:10.680 All right? Well, the man in men's music obviously knew 0:26:10.720 --> 0:26:13.440 three or four chords to persuade people that this was 0:26:13.480 --> 0:26:17.760 an instrument worth playing, and he tuned it up for us. 0:26:18.359 --> 0:26:23.000 So I took it home and there was the guitar 0:26:23.200 --> 0:26:28.800 tutor of the day. Was actually an appalling tutor, hugely 0:26:28.960 --> 0:26:34.240 successful called play in a Day by Bert Whedon, which 0:26:34.600 --> 0:26:39.200 many of the leading guitarists of the time looked back 0:26:39.240 --> 0:26:42.640 on and refer to it as the first tutor. It 0:26:42.680 --> 0:26:47.879 was an appalling tutor. Nevertheless, this was where one began 0:26:48.080 --> 0:26:54.280 at the time until we received better information. So about 0:26:54.320 --> 0:26:57.000 three months after having the guitar, I went for my 0:26:57.200 --> 0:27:02.159 first guitar lessons with Missus cah Felleen Gartel of the 0:27:02.240 --> 0:27:06.560 kauf Mullen School of Music, kauf Mullen being three miles 0:27:06.720 --> 0:27:09.920 down the road from Wimborne and where I grew up, 0:27:09.960 --> 0:27:13.679 spending the first three years of my life in kauf Mullen. 0:27:14.640 --> 0:27:22.240 Missus Gartel was a very good Salvation Army lady who 0:27:22.280 --> 0:27:26.920 saw it as her work in life as educating children 0:27:27.560 --> 0:27:32.679 in music. She was primarily a piano teacher, not an 0:27:32.720 --> 0:27:36.600 awfully good guitar teacher, which she knew, and after my 0:27:36.760 --> 0:27:40.960 first course of I believed ten or twelve lessons I 0:27:41.119 --> 0:27:43.879 was her star student. So she sent me on to 0:27:44.600 --> 0:27:49.840 a proper guitar teacher, Don Strike of Westbourne Arcade, who 0:27:49.920 --> 0:27:54.320 was actually only two hundred yards from Min's Music where 0:27:54.359 --> 0:27:59.160 I bought the guitar but had not quite discovered him. 0:27:59.200 --> 0:28:03.200 I wish i'd governed him earlier, and under Don Strike 0:28:03.880 --> 0:28:11.760 I began to develop seriously and find my own way forward. 0:28:12.920 --> 0:28:18.560 When I was seventeen, I visited Don Strike's music shop 0:28:18.640 --> 0:28:24.159 on that particular Saturday afternoon. This is what young guitarists 0:28:24.160 --> 0:28:27.000 would do. There were two shops in town. You go 0:28:27.119 --> 0:28:31.199 to Don Strike's in Westbourne Arcade and then maybe you 0:28:31.400 --> 0:28:42.400 go to Eddie Moore's Music in not Westbourne it was. 0:28:43.640 --> 0:28:48.800 It was before christ Church anyway, it was East Bournemouth, 0:28:49.480 --> 0:28:52.600 and in between two shops there would be movement. I 0:28:52.680 --> 0:28:57.880 went in one Saturday and Don Strike shook my hand 0:28:58.080 --> 0:29:02.760 and acknowledged me as the better get guitarist. At the 0:29:02.920 --> 0:29:07.560 time it didn't strike me particularly, but as I've got 0:29:07.600 --> 0:29:13.640 older and from where I am now, I recognize this 0:29:13.960 --> 0:29:21.720 as a very generous compliment from an older generation player 0:29:22.280 --> 0:29:24.840 acknowledging a younger generation player. 0:29:26.480 --> 0:29:29.560 Okay, when you take lessons, they teach you how to 0:29:29.640 --> 0:29:33.520 read music. Do you read music today? Do you write 0:29:33.560 --> 0:29:34.760 out charts? 0:29:36.280 --> 0:29:39.280 Do I read music today? Yes, but slowly because it's 0:29:39.320 --> 0:29:46.240 not part of my daily activity. Historically, when I became 0:29:46.280 --> 0:29:49.400 a professional in nineteen sixty seven and moved to London, 0:29:50.360 --> 0:29:58.800