by Ahead of his upcoming UK tour, Robert Fripp delved into the history of his career in a recent chat with Guitar World and shared a memory from his days in King Crimson. He revealed that Billy Gibbons or someone else from ZZ Top’s team sabotaged his band’s set in the ’70s.
While talking about the songs he has covered up to now, the guitarist explained:
“I wasn’t very aware of Korn, Megadeth, or Slipknot before ‘Sunday Lunch.’ I did, however, have some familiarity with Billy Gibbons and ZZ Top. King Crimson were supporting ZZ Top at a stadium in Denver back in 1974. We came on, and roughly 20 minutes in, the sound completely died. We didn’t know why, but we left the stage.”
He mentioned the rumors about who was responsible for the cut:
“20 years later, I learned that it was ZZ Top who pulled the power – but there were various versions of it. Some people said it was the tour manager, but others have suggested it was Billy Gibbons who didn’t like us and made him do that. Another version is that the tour manager didn’t like us. I don’t know! The tour didn’t last long.”
Despite the past incident, Fripp gave a nod to ZZ Top on his YouTube show in 2021. He covered two of the band’s songs, ‘Sharp Dressed Man’ and ‘Gimme All Your Lovin’,’ with his wife, Toyah Willcox. Referring to one of them while sharing the covers that stuck out for him, the former King Crimson guitarist said:
“As for ‘Sharp Dressed Man,’ the best version I know is Billy Gibbons’ Live [from] Daryl’s House.’ I would recommend anyone reading this to look that up. It’s a gentle revelation in that bluesy area. First of all, the click on the ZZ Top version is around 126. On this version, it’s around 115, which means it slides straight into the pocket. There are three soloists, and Billy is first. He doesn’t use a lot of notes… Billy doesn’t have to.”
