Adrian Belew, Steve Vai, Tony Levin and Terry Bozzio are touring together this fall, as BEAT.
BEAT, featuring former King Crimson bandmates Adrian Belew and Tony Levin, will kick off a tour on Oct. 9, in California, with a show scheduled for NJPAC in Newark, on Nov. 9. The group’s primary mission is to play a “creative reinterpretation” of music from the three albums King Crimson made between 1981 and 1984, though some later King Crimson material will be included on this tour as well.
BEAT first came together in 2024, and released a live album, the two-CD Neon Heat Disease: Live in Los Angeles, last year.
On this fall’s tour, guitarist Steve Vai will continue in the group with singer-guitarist Belew and bassist Levin. But Terry Bozzio — who has previously played with Frank Zappa and the bands Missing Persons and U.K. — will replace Danny Carey of Tool, on drums.
Discipline (1981), Beat (1982) and Three of a Perfect Pair (1984) — the three albums that King Crimson made with the quartet of founding guitarist Robert Fripp and drummer Bill Bruford, in addition to Belew and Levin — are widely considered to be high points in the history of the band, and progressive-rock in general.
WES ORSHOSKI
Adrian Belew at The Starland Ballroom in Sayreville in March 2023.
I interviewed Belew, 76, in early September:
Q: How are you doing?
A: I am doing good. You know, I’m getting closer and closer to the next BEAT tour and getting excited about it, of course.
Q: Is it going to be very different this time around?
A: I think it will be different, yes. First of all, we have a different drummer, Terry Bozzio, and Terry is such a unique person and such a unique drummer. I’m sure what he will add to the music … his interpretation of it will change everything throughout the set. But on top of that, I have elected to have us play some material from the ’90s Thrak era, just so we’re not playing exactly the show that people saw last time. And I’ve taken out a few of the songs that I felt like, “OK, we’ve done that enough, let’s put something else in place of that.” So there will be three to four Crimson songs that we’ve never done, and then there’s one surprise song which we’ll play, too. But of course, it won’t be a surprise for long. As soon as we’ve played it once, it’ll be all over the internet! (laughs)
Q: Whose idea was it to bring Terry Bozzio in?
A: Steve Vai and I made a list, and then it was over to me to call these drummers. We had, you know, a reason we put people on a list. First of all, they all had to be famous enough to help bring in audience. That’s really important. We weren’t looking to find somebody that no one knew. And then somebody who maybe had a vested interest in the music, who I knew liked the music. And there are quite a few guys like that.
So every day, throughout the day, for a while, I was calling some of the most famous drummers in the world and having a great time doing it. And they were all very shocked and excited: “I’ve heard all about you guys” and, you know, “I love that stuff.” But all of them had already been committed to something else.
The cover of King Crimson’s 1981 album, “Discipline.”
It was kind of late when we started this process: We didn’t know if Danny was going to do it or not until it was kind of late. And then he said, “Really, guys, I can’t, I’ve got to do this stuff with Tool. We’re writing the next record. I want to be a part of it.” “Understandable. Fantastic, Danny,” and hopefully he’ll be back at some point. But we went down the list and there was one name that we kept coming back to and it was Terry Bozzio. That’s easy to understand, since Steve and I both worked with him — and Tony did, too. The only reason I didn’t start right off the bat with Terry is, I couldn’t figure out where he was.
It turns out he married a Japanese woman and he lives in Japan. So it was pretty weird, you know, like, “Where is this guy? He hasn’t played anywhere, he hasn’t done anything (recently) that I know of.” So that concerned us. But finally, Steve and I talked and I said, “What about Terry? Let’s revisit that idea.” I had just about run out of candidates anyway. And I told Steve that he should call him because Steve and Terry have a longer relationship than I do. They played together for a few years. I only played with Terry for one year with Frank Zappa.
We found out that he lived in Japan but still had an apartment in L.A. And I knew this about Terry: He came to a lot of King Crimson shows in the ’80s. I remember in particular, we played at The Greek Theatre (in Los Angeles) and after the show, he asked me to come back to the apartment that he and Dale Bozzio had. And they said, “We’ve got some music we want you to hear. We want your thoughts on it.” And that was Missing Persons. They asked me, “What do you think? Can we get a record deal with this?” I said, “I think it’s great. I don’t think you should have any problem getting a record deal. Not that it matters what I think!” (laughs)
Q: When you contacted him, did he immediately say, “Yes, I’d like to do it?”
A: He did, yeah. We then had a three-way call with him and went through all the things that we thought he should know and talked through the material and things like that, and left it in his hands. I know that he’s doing the same that Steve did at first — practicing and practicing this material, because you have to do that. I have to do it even though I wrote a lot of it (laughs). It’s not something you can just pick up after not playing it for a while.
WES ORSHOSKI
Adrian Belew at The Starland Ballroom in Sayreville in March 2023.
Q: Yeah, it’s very precise. You can’t just jam on it. It’s got to be perfect.
A: Yeah, exactly. And since BEAT has started, we’ve done over 100 shows, and we’ve gotten to a level … on this last tour of Europe, we played 31 shows in 21 countries, and I felt like it was perfection every night. It was just amazing. There would be different things that would happen every night. One person might play something different and you go, “Wow, that was great.” But as a band, just so high level. It’s really nice to be a part of that.
Q: Did you get feedback from Robert Fripp or Bill Bruford about the shows you’ve done already?
A: A little bit. Bill loved the band. Just flat out loved it. You know, I had asked Bill to join the band, but he wasn’t playing at that time. I figured he wouldn’t be able to do that, but I still wanted to honor him. Then recently, he did start playing again and he joined a jazz trio — The Pete Roth Trio, a very good band — and the last year when I was on the Cruise to the Edge (a prog-rock cruise), they were there as well, and I got to hear them play. And he kind of shyly said to me, “Wow, I guess I missed the boat, so to speak, with BEAT.” And I did call him when Danny couldn’t do this, and he said, “Well, you know, I’ve already got shows to do with Pete Roth, and I’m really happy doing that, so thank you, but no.”
Robert came to the very first show in Wolverhampton, England. And being the first show and we had a new soundman … I won’t say it was the best show we ever did, but he still liked it so much that he did come back. Three or four weeks later, he came with (wife) Toyah (Wilcox) to Estonia, which is pretty out of the way — it’s a place that none of us had ever played — and he saw the show there and just raved about it.
King Crimson (from left, Adrian Belew, Robert Fripp, Bill Bruford and Tony Levin) in a 1982 publicity photo.
He has also struck up a relationship with Steve, because Steve went to him to try to get some help as to what he can do with Robert’s playing. He really can’t play like Robert. No one can. Maybe Robert can’t even (now). It requires a lot of practice every day. But Robert helped him in the sense that he suggested, “Well, instead of trying to play the same fast lines exactly and play them all for four minutes in a row like I did in ‘Frame by Frame’ or something like that, why don’t you do the tapping thing that you’re famous for?” That changed everything for Steve. He was able to play Robert’s parts by tapping, like, you know, shredders do.
Q: Has doing the project made you think back on that part of your career differently? Has revisiting this music shown any new elements to you, or given you any new insights?
A: You know, when I make records, I kind of put them aside, because I’ve moved on to the next thing and it’s all-encompassing. So I really hadn’t heard that music that much (since then). But going back specifically to start from the Discipline record … I was pretty shocked by how good it was and how unlike anything else it was. It didn’t sound like anything before it, and I was really happy about that. Another thought I had is … I was very busy during that time. I was trying to write the songs and perform this very heavy duty material. Too busy to really notice what everyone else was actually doing. So listening to it from that perspective — “What’s Tony Levin doing in this song?” — I was pretty amazed. Sensational stuff.
The other thing about King Crimson … you know, I had played some of their music in my trio over the years: simpler versions of a few of the songs. I had to go back and learn more than half of the material we play. But there came a time … you know, I was in King Crimson for 33 years, on and off. We would take breaks where Robert didn’t want to play anymore. And we’d come back the next time with maybe a slightly different lineup, or whatever. Then suddenly Robert decided to do a different version of the band that didn’t involve me. And they played seven tours, as you might know, with three drummers out front and so forth. Tony was in the band.
I don’t like to talk about this, but I’m just gonna say this: That really hurt me. After a while, I started feeling really left out.
I saw all the tours — they were playing at Radio City Music Hall or Royal Albert Hall or whatever — and I’m thinking, “That’s supposed to be me (laughs). I’m supposed to be playing in that band.” So for a long while, I turned against the whole thing. I didn’t want to hear anything or think of anything about King Crimson. It was not a pleasant place for me anymore. It kind of gnawed at me. And then I kind of got over that, once I engaged in trying to put together BEAT. I thought, “Look, this is something you really have wanted to do. You want to play this music for the audience that would like to hear it now, that didn’t get to hear it then, and for the ones who did hear it then but would like to hear it again. And you should do that.” I wanted to go back and play more of the songs that I wrote and try to present that side of the band. And eventually, after five years, I was able to do that. By that time, I was extremely excited about King Crimson again.
Adrian Belew and David Bowie in a 1990 publicity photo.
Q: You’ve done, obviously, something similar with the Remain in Light tours, and you also did a tour celebrating David Bowie’s music. Is BEAT similar to those experiences, or very different?
A: Well, nothing is similar to the King Crimson thing, because I was involved in writing it all, so those are my words and my melodies and so on. With (Talking Heads’) Remain in Light, I felt like, “Wow, that was an incredible record, and it’s kind of dark times in the world.” You know, coming through COVID and all that. I would see Jerry Harrison every now and then. He’d come to one of my shows or something and I’d say, “You know, the world needs that music again. It’s happy, it’s groovy, people get up and dance and they just have the best time.” So finally, we were able to pull that together, and I really thought that was a good thing for everybody. We played for a lot of very happy audiences.
David Bowie is a different thing for me. David Bowie is a personal thing. I loved him, I knew him very well, I traveled the world with him twice, and his passing was devastating. So I felt the best thing you can do is honor his music. That’s why I did a few of those shows.
I think now in my life, I’m done with that. I’m not trying to look back in the past with everything. BEAT will be finished at the end of this year, for all intents and purposes. We don’t know if we’ll do more or not because next year, no one can do more. So it’ll be a while before we have to decide that. But I think the turn for me to make now is to go back to my music.
I never intended to not be doing my music, but once BEAT got so successful, I had no choice (laughs). I thought BEAT would play 40 shows and be done.
Q: So next year, you’ll be concentrating on your own music?
A: Yeah. The first thing I’m gonna do in January is start recording. I already have material, some of which I’ve started but then put on the back burner, and other new thoughts and ideas that come to me all the time.
The cover of Adrian Belew’s 2022 album, “Elevator.”
Q: And then you’ll be touring with that new music later in the year?
A: At some point I will. I’m not sure when. I would like to have some time to just chill and try to do what I did with the last record that was new, which was called Elevator. That was during COVID, so I had a lot of time to really think through, “What do I want this record to be?” And I could put everything in place in a way so that at the end, I felt like it’s a perfect Adrian Belew record. For what that’s worth! (laughs) And then see about touring.
Q: You’re at an age, obviously, where … other people your age may be slowing down a bit, but you don’t seem to. You always have a lot of projects going on, and new music and everything. What keeps you still so driven and so busy?
A: My love for music, period. But in particular for creating … I just have thoughts all the time. I can’t stop my creative force that I have within me. Sometimes it’s not there for a while, but most of the time it’s something I want to tap into, and there’s no reason for me to stop. I love what I’m doing. I’m in reasonably good physical shape, especially for my age. I don’t feel my age at all. I never think of that. I feel like I’m a kid, honestly. I always have. I’ve never really accepted that I’m a grown-up (laughs). I was like, “No, you’re not a grown-up. Look what you do, you play for a living.”
And then, you know, I love playing for the audiences. That’s another joy: to travel. And working with other people — the collaborative part of it. So I don’t see any reason to stop, and I have a pretty full battery. I think I’ll just go on until I decide, “No, there’s nothing more for me.”
I don’t know if that’ll happen or not. I might end up being one of those old guys that’s still playing one night a week, in a club downtown.
BEAT will perform at Prudential Hall at NJPAC in Newark, Nov. 9 at 8 p.m. Visit ticketmaster.com.
For more on the band, visit beat-official.com.
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