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Guitar World
Guitar World
Entertainment
Andrew Daly

“Adrian and I connected on everything – we even went to the Whisky and paid $5 to see Van Halen play in a one-third full room”: Cult guitar hero Rob Fetters on his friendship with Adrian Belew – and the time they raced home to try tapping after seeing EVH

Rob Fetters.

Growing up in Ohio, Rob Fetters wasn’t even sure he liked music. And although he was playing guitar by his mid-teens, it wasn’t his planned career path. “I went to college to be a journalist,” he tells Guitar World. “But in my first semester, I dropped a hit of really good LSD and saw the light. I called my dad and said, ‘You’re wasting your money!’”

Fetters took his beloved Les Paul Gold Top around the Ohio area with his band, The Raisins, meeting fellow Mid-Western guitarist Adrian Belew along the way and forming a lifelong friendship.

The pair saw early Van Halen shows on the Sunset Strip, which, along with love for The Beatles, left Fetters with a strong opinion about playing. “I’ve always been more impressed by melodic guitar than blinding, speedy stuff,” he says.

“I’ve fallen prey to speedy stuff,” he admits. “When I look back at The Raisins, I think, ‘Why was I sprinting when I should have been more of a long-distance runner?’ But I guess that just happens if you’re a guitar player, right?”

Post-Raisins, he and Belew formed The Bears, chopping it up on stage and in the studio before transitioning to commercial work with everyone from Disney and Nickelodeon to Microsoft. But he’s gotten back into making his own music, leaving the “repetitive” world of jingles.

He hopes a regrouped Raisins will perform in 2025. He has no plans to reform The Bears with Belew – though he acknowledges that their friendship is stronger than ever. “I’m a studio rat,” he says. “I love to hole up and spend long hours.”

“I’ve learned so much from that. And with Adrian, I feel like I’ve been mentored by arguably one of the greatest all-around musicians in the world. I’m very lucky that way.”

Where did your love for guitar come from?

“I didn’t even know if I liked music when I was young, because I went to a Methodist church, and there were these horrible hymns that had like six verses. My mom and dad liked jazz, so I heard some good music at home. When I saw The Beatles on Ed Sullivan I thought, ‘Wow, those adults are having a lot of fun.’ It eventually appealed to me.”

(Image credit: Press)

Do you remember your first guitar?

“My sister had a little Stella acoustic that she didn’t want to play. I got that and took a couple of lessons. Then my parents bought me a Fender Musicmaster, and I took more lessons, probably to be like a Beatle! But I was actually thinking of being a classical player.

“I saw the Jimi Hendrix Experience in the spring of ’68, and it changed everything. I went kind of crazy and did what most guitar players did – I spent every waking moment with it.”

You eventually formed The Raisins. What gear did you have?

“The early Raisins were like a boogie-woogie cover band. I loved that because all I had to do was play guitar. I started with a Les Paul Gold Top from 1969 that my parents bought me for my 15th birthday. I think every other guitar player in Sylvania, Ohio, despised me for having such a great instrument!

“It was a sweet guitar; I just played the thing to death. It was gold, but it turned green from my sweat. Then I had a Fender Quad Reverb, which was like a Twin with four speakers. It was so fucking loud. I was living at home, and with all the money I was making, I didn’t really have anywhere to spend it, so I brought home interesting things.”

(Image credit: Press)

The Raisins did a lot of Beatles covers.

“I just liked the sound of The Beatles’ guitars. I’d assumed they were using Rickenbackers and Gretch guitars, but I found out that John Lennon and George Harrison had been given a couple of matching Strats by Fender that they simultaneously played to get those wonderful double-tracked sounds on Revolver, and, I think, Rubber Soul.

“How do you get that with one guitar player? You can’t! But occasionally The Raisins would have another player, and we’d do the double parts. I don’t ever remember thinking it was challenging, but it was fun to figure out how to get the tones. I learned that John and George weren’t playing fast but very melodically. I’ve always been more impressed by that.”

Frank Zappa invited us up for enchiladas and coffee. I was too nervous to eat, though I did drink coffee

After The Raisins, you formed The Bears with Adrian Belew. How did you two meet?

“Adrian was living in an apartment in Nashville before Frank Zappa heard him. He’s originally from Covington, Kentucky, across the river from Cincinnati, so he’d come to see The Raisins – he was a fan before I knew him, and before he was a rock star.

“Adrian was in a really good cover band called Sweetheart. We were playing the same circuit and had the same manager booking us, although I didn’t know Adrian yet. When he was doing demos the manager would say, ‘Hey, can Adrian borrow your flanger?’ I’d say, ‘Yeah, sure.’ So I knew the name and started to know the guitar player.”

(Image credit: Michael Wilson)

“The thing that really sealed the bond was when he got the gig with Frank. While that was going on, I had a terrible crush on a young woman who was singing in a lounge act in LA. I went out to see her in the summer of 1977 or ’78, when Adrian started rehearsing with Frank.

“After about four hours I realized the love affair wasn’t going to go anywhere, but I was in LA for a week. I called my manager, and he told me Adrian was out here too. He said, ‘He’s rehearsing with Frank Zappa.’ I was a fan of Frank 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. It was a great band! I watched them play, and then I was going to give Adrian a ride back to his little apartment, when Frank stuck his head out and said, ‘Hey, can you give me a ride home?’

A car ride with Adrian Belew and Frank Zappa must have been memorable!

“Frank’s in the back seat, Adrian’s in the front – we’re pushing paper bags and empty beer cans around and out of the way for Frank to sit! He invited us up to have enchiladas and coffee. I was too nervous to eat, though I did drink coffee.

(Image credit: Michael Wilson)

“It was an idyllic week for me. Adrian and I connected on everything and even went to the Whisky and paid $5 to see Van Halen play in a one-third full room.

That would have been a very early Van Halen show. Did you and Adrian have a sense that you were witnessing greatness?

“In our minds it was like, ‘Yes, this is amazing.’ And Eddie was so much fun to watch, and always had a smile on his face. Adrian and I have always said, ‘Why would you go on stage with a grim look on your face?’

Everybody was trying hammer-ons… after seeing Eddie provide us with a masterclass, we went to work

“That band was having a blast. They didn’t give a rat’s ass about how many people were in the room – they were going to have fun no matter what. That’s the way you want to perform. Don’t take your work so damn seriously.

“We thought, ‘Well, you’re in Hollywood; you’re in the right place. This is going to go somewhere.’ It was no surprise that, within a year, everybody was crazy about Van Halen. It was mind-blowing.”

(Image credit: Press)

Did you and Adrian attempt any of what you saw?

“We hurried back to the apartment, where Adrian had a Stratocaster plugged into a Pignose amp. It must have been in the air – everybody was trying to do hammer-on notes and things like that. We’d been doing that too, but after seeing Eddie provide us with a masterclass, we went to work.”

What led to you and Adrian forming The Bears?

“Adrian’s star rose, and he became famous for his guitar playing and songwriting. He decided to record The Raisins, which led to us making a record and having our only hit, Fear is Never Boring. But when The Raisins didn’t get a major record deal, and because the members were going in different directions, I quit. When I told Adrian he got quiet, and said, ‘Are you sure?’ I said, ‘I’m sure,’ and he said, ‘Let’s start a band.’

What gear did you bring into The Bears?

“I moved over with my patched-together Raisins equipment! I had a Mesa Boogie amp that I tore the speaker out of, and I just used the power amp and plugged it into an efficient Marshall cab with 25-watt Greenbacks. Apparently, that’s some kind of Holy Grail amp, but it was beat up then and even more beat up now.”

What was the trick to sharing space with Adrian in a band?

“I guess I was more traditional, even though, at times, I was a wild-ass guitar player. But I wasn’t doing that then. There was no conflict and I love to play a supporting role. It’s fun to create a foundation. I assumed I’d be doing that with The Bears, but Adrian said he wanted two lead guitarists.

(Image credit: Press)

“We’d both studied The Beatles long enough to know that if you’ve got two-part harmonies, you’re doing great. Adrian was more of the rock star, but he’d force me to take a solo. But on tour, I’d be playing a solo, and the light guy would have the spotlight on Adrian! Adrian would say, ‘Hey, Rob’s over there!’ There was never any jealousy – we always had fun.”

What was the biggest lesson you learned from Adrian?

“I would always tell a younger person: ‘If you can get in a band with people who have more experience than you and run circles around your playing, do it, because it lifts your game.’ That’s how you learn. You learn a lot faster when playing with people that pull you up. Adrian has always been that way to me. He’s always been very generous and open with me about saying, ‘This is how we did it. This is what happened.’”

You’ve got some things happening with The Raisins, but are there plans for you and Adrian to work together again?

I can’t take it off the table that Adrian and I might record a song or two together

“I’m back to making my own records – which barely make it into the black – and performing, which I always loved doing. I’m dearly hoping that The Raisins play a few more shows, although we’ve all got different things going on.

“But as far as playing with Adrian, we’ve lost our drummer, so I don’t know if The Bears will play again. We have talked about it, and obviously, there’s other drummers that could do it. But I don’t know if we have the match.

“I can’t take it off the table that Adrian and I might record a song or two together. He’s been on my solo records, so I can’t say yes or no for sure. All I know is we’re still really good friends, and I’m lucky to have a friend like that who’s got my back.”

  • Fetters’ latest album, Mother, is out now.
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