“He stuck his head out and said, ‘Can you give me a ride home?’ Next thing I know, I’m driving Frank Zappa to Laurel Canyon”: When cult guitar hero Rob Fetters went to pick Adrian Belew up from a Zappa rehearsal – and ended up giving his idol a lift

Through various stints with power pop outfits The Raisins, The Bears and psychodots, Rob Fetters – who has also navigated a successful solo career – has crossed paths with a number of A-list electric guitar heroes.

Some of his closest confidants, including Adrian Belew – with whom he formed The Bears in the mid 1980s – came as a natural side effect of swimming in similar sonic circles. Other interactions, such as the time he first met Frank Zappa, occurred completely by random.

In a new interview with Guitar World, Fetters looks back on his relationship with Belew, and recalls the time he managed to meet one of his heroes after the soon-to-be King Crimson guitarist successfully auditioned to join Zappa’s band.

It wasn’t your average meeting, though. Instead, it proved to be far more memorable.

“The thing that really sealed the bond between Adrian and me was when he auditioned and got the gig with Frank,” Fetters says. “I was in LA for a week. I called my manager, and he told me that Adrian was out here rehearsing.

“I said, ‘What’s Adrian doing out here?’ He said, ‘He’s rehearsing with Frank Zappa.’” he continues. “I was a fan of Frank Zappa, so I called Adrian. He had me pick him up in a borrowed, beat-up, green Ford Falcon station wagon, and we went to the Warner Brothers lot where the band was rehearsing.

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“It was a great band, and I thought, ‘Oh, man, what a fantastic version of Frank Zappa’s band.’ I watched them play and was going to give Adrian a ride back to the little apartment he was renting, and Frank stuck his head out and said, ‘Hey, can you give me a ride home?’”

Frank Zappa asking for a lift home wouldn’t have been an every-day occurrence, and Fetters was all too aware of this. As such, he did what any Zappa fan would have done in his situation: he invited Zappa into his car.

“Next thing I know, I’m driving Frank Zappa home to Laurel Canyon! He’s in the backseat, Adrian’s in the front, and we’re pushing paper bags and empty beer cans around and out of the way for Frank to sit.

“I drove him back, and he invited us up to have enchiladas and coffee – but I was too nervous to eat, though I did drink coffee. It was an idyllic week for me.”

As far as first meets go, giving Frank Zappa a lift home after rehearsals wouldn’t have been half-bad.

The full interview with Rob Fetters will be published in the coming weeks.