Steve Vai admits he was worried about being able to play King Crimson’s guitar parts at his age: “65-year-old Steve Vai taking on Robert Fripp at 25 and at the top of his game?”
Emulating another guitarist’s tone can be challenging – but trying to capture the spirit of Robert Fripp? That’s an entirely different ball game. In fact, when Steve Vai was asked to perform in King Crimson supergroup BEAT back in 2022, he initially didn’t believe his chops were up to the task.
Speaking to Classic Rock, Vai reveals that one of his first thoughts upon joining BEAT was “can I even play this stuff?” While Vai was an accomplished axeman, he doubted whether he could compete with the young, hot-blooded Fripp riffing away on ‘80s King Crimson records. “It’s a sixty-five-year-old Steve Vai taking on Robert Fripp at thirty-five and at the top of his game,” he says.
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Vai, however, isn’t one to back down easily. “I went back to the music and decided to accept the challenge,” he explains. “I worked with Frank Zappa, and then David Lee Roth after Eddie Van Halen. I’m addicted to challenges!”
To fully get to grips with certain tracks, Vai had to make some adjustments. “On about ten per cent of the material I changed the [finger] position to suit my style, but I’m playing the same notes,” he says. “There were pieces that presented problems. One was Three Of A Perfect Pair – you just had to play it the way Fripp played it. I couldn’t cheat, I had to learn it Robert’s way.”
In a 2025 interview with Vintage Guitar, Vai explained that he had somewhat of a Robert Fripp Bootcamp to finesse his King Crimson skills. “I had to study Fripp…” he said. “I got into his disciplinary style.”
However, Vai noted that he had to adjust Fripp’s style to suit his abilities. Despite his skills, Vai insisted that he felt like no spring chicken when tackling Fripp’s guitar parts. “On Frame by Frame [from King Crimson’s 1981 album Discipline], there’s that relentless cross-picking riff that’s simply outside of my wheelhouse, especially at my age,” he said. “I didn’t feel like I could play it consistently every night, so I needed to figure something out. So, I took it into my wheelhouse, which is tapping.”
Despite having to tweak his approach to certain parts, Vai has been given a firm stamp of approval from Fripp himself. In the Vintage Guitar interview, Vai recalled some advice Fripp gave him: “Fripp said, ‘If I were sitting in the audience, I wouldn’t want to see you doing my kind of solo. I wanna see Steve Vai go crazy!’ So, that’s what I do.”
During Sweetwater’s 2025 mini-documentary of BEAT’s tour, Vai revealed that Fripp had been the one to suggest the fix for Fame By Frame. The advice came in an email of constructive feedback and praise. “He was commenting on some of the clips he saw, which was very nice and constructive,” Vai said. “Then he said at the end, ‘Can I make a suggestion for Frame By Frame?’”
“‘Why don’t you do your hammering with the notes, and then take it out? Improvise your hammering and move from one chord to the other’… I did it that night at the show, and it worked beautifully.”
Alongside Steve Vai, BEAT consists of Crimson’s own Adrian Belew and Tony Levin, as well as Tool drummer Danny Carey. The project has proven to be a success amongst King Crimson fans, even recently adding an extra UK date in Wolverhampton to keep up with demand. As it stands, touring isn’t due to end until September 2027, so there’s still plenty of BEAT to go around.
BEAT’s European tour kicks off in Wolverhampton on June 7. For dates and ticket links, visit the BEAT website.
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Source: www.guitar-bass.net
