“Shake my left hand man, it’s closer to my heart!”: Robert Fripp recalls what happened when he met Jimi Hendrix

King Crimson mastermind Robert Fripp has opened up about a heartwarming moment he once shared with guitar legend Jimi Hendrix.

Appearing on the music reaction channel Rob Squad Reactions alongside his wife Toyah Willcox, Fripp shares how the late rocker had sung praises of King Crimson after watching their set back in the day.

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“This is the hand shaken by the hand of Jimi Hendrix,” Fripp delightly reveals, gesturing to his left hand.

“[Hendrix] came to see the band and came to see us after the first set,” he says. “He was apparently upstairs saying ‘this is the best band in the world’ and he came down to see us.”

“And he came up to me and said ‘shake my left hand man, it’s closer to my heart!’”

The pair had met at London’s Revolution club in 1969, a meeting Fripp once described as “one of the best calling cards any working musician is ever likely to be able to present”.

Elsewhere in the chat, Fripp also dives into the making of King Crimson’s 1981 album Discipline, saying: “the band met and wrote all the material in three weeks. We took it on the road in Europe for three weeks, and then we recorded it in three weeks.”

Of the track Frame by Frame, Fripp states that he plays around “nine notes per second in the fast parts”.

Beside him, Toyah chimes in: “As someone who has listened to Robert play for 38 years within our house, the intensity of the fingers and the speed of the fingers — sometimes Robert’s playing 11 notes a second. He practises for four hours a day. And I can tell you sometimes it can be hell. Other times, it’s an absolute inspiration because he can do it for a long time.”

Watch the full interview below.