![\"Robert](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Robert-Fripp-Guitarist-Musician-King-Crimson-2024-Far-Out-Magazine-1140x855.jpg\")
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(Credits: Raph Pour-Hashemi)<\/p>\n
Tue 11 November 2025 19:30, UK <\/p>\n
While most people tend to get more cantankerous as they age, it seems to be the case that Robert Fripp<\/a> has done this in reverse, living out his most irascible period early on and mellowing with age.<\/p>\n Now perhaps best known for dressing up in the kitchen with his wife, Toyah Willcox<\/a>, and choosing to perform outlandish and sickeningly sexually-charged covers of well-known pop songs, this is far from the trajectory that most would have predicted the po-faced King Crimson bandleader to have taken in his later years, considering how difficult many of his former bandmates have suggested he was to deal with in his prime. <\/p>\n Forever demanding more than the musicians around him were capable of, and testing them to their limits, his belligerent attitude and staunch perfectionism made him one of the most feared performers in the progressive rock scene during the 1970s. While this ultimately helped King Crimson<\/a> write some of the best music in the genre, and even within the wider rock world, a lot of people would probably describe Fripp as the biggest taskmaster they\u2019ve ever worked alongside, and that, despite the success they garnered with the band, he was a nightmarish individual to collaborate with.<\/p>\n However, it\u2019s not just his own bandmates who were on the receiving end of his ire, and being the contrarian he was known to be, he would frequently hold others to the same high standards, admonishing those who didn\u2019t meet his expectations when it came to pushing the boundaries of rock music. It\u2019s all very well having this stance in your own band and wanting the very best from them, but to berate others who weren\u2019t quite up to speed with making adventurous and expansive records might be a touch too far.<\/p>\n