Genesis Guitarist Reacts to Robert Fripp Requesting Him as His Replacement in King Crimson, Talks Genesis Buying King Crimson’s Mellotron

Genesis Guitarist Reacts to Robert Fripp Requesting Him as His Replacement in King Crimson, Talks Genesis Buying King Crimson’s Mellotron

 

That was meeting Robert for the first time,” Steve Hackett said.*

 

During a conversation with UCR, classic Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett commented on Robert Fripp’s request from 1974 that he should replace him in KC as the group’s guitarist.

 

The request came as Fripp decided to abandon the group, and the suggestion was declined by the management, leading to the end of KC at the time.

 

“I had absolutely no awareness of that at the time. He [Fripp] and I knew each other and spent time together.

 

I had, you know, nothing but admiration for the way he basically led that band.

 

At a time when most bands were doing material that was blues-based, this was much more organized…

 

Hell, we bought our first Mellotron off them because they had spares! That was meeting Robert for the first time.

 

[Genesis keyboardist] Tony Banks and I went down to a place where they were rehearsing in the bowels of the Earth, below this cafe. It was a very dark and dank place.

 

You wouldn’t imagine that such colorful music came out of such a humble place. But nonetheless, it served its purpose.

 

We as Genesis were the poor cousins at that point. We had a King Crimson hand-me-down. But there we are – it was certainly worth it. In the wake of The Beatles, of course, the MK II Mellotron had a lot to answer for.

 

“It really helped Genesis a lot. I was very keen on Genesis expanding the keyboard arsenal as much as possible so that we had a big wide range of sounds to put across the stories of what we now call ‘progressive rock.