Photo: Redferns
King Crimson guitarist/founder Robert Fripp is downplaying the likelihood of another tour with his influential progressive music collective.
Fripp stopped short of completely ruling out more King Crimson shows, but said in a new Rolling Stone interview that the band's 2021 tour made him particularly wary of hitting the road again.
Presently, there are "no plans at all" for a follow-up.
"I think we have to view the reality of the age of the people involved," Fripp added. "Two of us [bassist Tony Levin and I] are 76, and shortly three will be. So going out for eight weeks to do performances of three hours and 20 minutes is a very big ask. It takes me six months to get ready as a player. King Crimson guitar parts for me are the Olympics of guitar playing. And being asked to do athletic feats that I was doing 40 or 50 years ago, that's also a big ask."
He added that the band's mid-pandemic tour last year could have easily ruined it. King Crimson was required to pay a $2 million advance to cover its costs before visiting the U.S. Had the band lost any shows due to COVID — which many touring acts did — the partnership would have been bankrupted.
"It was that much on an edge," he added.
While touring overseas with a band is out of the question right now, Fripp plans to come back to the U.S. this year on a spoken-word tour with his manager David Singleton.
The tour is affectionately dubbed, 'An Evening With That Awful Man and His Manager.' Go here for the tour dates.
Fripp is also making plans to release the career-spanning documentary, In the Court of the Crimson King.