KING CRIMSON’s Legendary ROBERT FRIPP On DAVE MUSTAINE: "He's A Serious Player"

Robert Fripp – founding and only consistent member of King Crimson – has been at the forefront of progressive rock for over 50 years. With the arrival of lockdown in 2020, Fripp launched his Sunday Lunch video series, reinterpreting famous tracks by other artists with his wife, the singer/actress Toyah Willcox. Along the way the 77-year-old guitarist ended-up covering Metallica, Korn, Rammstein and Megadeth.

In a recent interview with Guitar World, Fripp spoke about his respect for Megadeth guitarist Dave Mustaine. "He's a serious player," Fripp said. "He thinks musically in a different way to me, but there are similarities too. I can tell this from researching his playing: he seems to work in patterns – developing and introducing variations within those patterns, which I do myself."

"I don't know him personally. The closest I came to meeting him was being in the same hotel as him in Albany last November. I was told Megadeth were there as they'd been seen working out in the gym, but because I was isolating I couldn't introduce myself and pay my respects."

"Going into 'Holy Wars… The Punishment Due', was a challenge for me. Playing it properly would have taken me three months, with roughly four to eight hours a day woodshedding, as it's called. It would have taken a lot of focus. But if you're doing 90 seconds, you still need to work as hard as you possibly can. He's definitely someone I wasn't too familiar with prior, but ended up respecting greatly."