John Wetton, RIP

[Bad link: Invalid Node ID "3167"] has passed away after a lengthy battle with cancer. I had the honor of interviewing him via phone last summer, an interview that will feature prominently in the next edition of the book. Here's the portrait that Plastic Crimewave drew for it and an excerpt from my interview:

John spent the next few years in King Crimson as part of the monster rhythm section with Bill Bruford.
"There wasn’t that many people doing that kind of stuff at that time. It was quite experimental but in fact the more work we did on the road, we turned into a kind of metal rhythm section, that was just crazy. We were much louder than the main instruments and a bit more muscle too. Bill was at the time, and he still is if he wanted to put his mind to it, one of the greatest rock drummers ever. We toured nonstop yet as the mover van toured around, the more people we shed. One guy in the middle of the British tour, then another at the end of an American tour, in the end there was just three of us, but we made a pretty impressive noise for three people!"

These impressive noises can be heard on the excellent 4CD live set The Great Deceiver (Virgin 1992)
“There’s a moment for me, when you get to “Peace – A Theme” played on an acoustic guitar and it leads into “Cat Food”, the bass is just so loud! But why not? At that point it’s a lead instrument. We pretty much turned everything on its head as far as how one perceives a rock band being mixed. It was a great experience and it stopped about 20 years prematurely for my liking. I could have gone on with that a long, long time.“