Adrian Belew in Nashville, November 21, 2017. Photo by Jeff Fasano.

At the end of November 2017, I finished an article for Guitar Aficionado that I was really excited about. The subject was one of my favorite guitarists, Adrian Belew, known for his work with King Crimson, Talking Heads, Nine Inch Nails, and many others, including Gizmodrome, a new supergroup with the Police’s Stewart Copeland. Adrian and I spoke either in person or on the phone six times over the course of three months for the story, which discussed both his extensive guitar collection and something I hadn’t known about previously, his longtime obsession with vintage cars. The final product was supposed to be the cover story of Guitar Aficionado‘s March/April issue.

Then came the bad news: NewBay Media pulled the plug on Guitar Aficionado in December, and that issue will never be published. Next came the slightly better news: An abridged version of my story will appear in the March issue of Guitar Player—a mag that, funnily enough, I’ve never had a byline in before. Unfortunately, I don’t think very much, if any, of the car-related content will make the final cut, and I strongly doubt that you’ll see a photo like the one above by Jeff Fasano, which was one of several from a November shoot in Nashville that was under consideration for the Aficionado cover. That’s Adrian with his iconic beat-to-hell ’69 Fender Strat standing in front of his equally iconic ’59 flamingo pink Ford Thunderbird convertible.

In any case, I look forward to seeing whatever does appear in GP, and I hope that some of the remainder may eventually see the light of day somewhere … maybe even on this site (fingers crossed).

[Update—February 9, 2018: The Belew story did indeed come out in Guitar Player‘s March issue, and as predicted, all the car stuff is gone, but what’s left is still decent. You can see the online version of the piece here.]