“I shuffled into this big open room, and Tina was there and she was very upset. She said to me, ‘If we get rid of David, would you join the band?’”: Adrian Belew insists he was asked to replace David Byrne in Talking Heads

Adrian Belew has had an interesting career that’s taken in session work with everyone from David Bowie to King Crimson to Nine Inch Nails, as well as a long tenure in King Crimson. And in a new interview with Vulture, he’s discussed some of the classic records he’s played on.

One of those was Talking Heads’ Remain In Light, which, as fans of the band will know, had a difficult gestation that led to arguments over credits between Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz on one side and David Byrne and producer Brian Eno on the other.

And Belew found himself dragged into these ructions. “I was caught right in the middle of all of that band drama,” he reflects. “I was buddies with David and we liked each other a lot, but he’s an unusual character.

"I played on (Bryne’s solo) The Catherine Wheel record and observed what happened right after Remain In Light. It was just this crazy battle over who gets credit for what, including Eno. I thought it was very unfortunate.”

He continues: “We went on tour. Everybody was having a good time, but Tina, in particular, was really upset with what they figured Eno and David had done, which was taking over the songwriting and not giving them the credit that they thought they deserved.

"We were checking into a hotel in Italy right next to La Scala. I shuffled into this big open room, and Tina was there and she was very upset. She said to me, ‘If we get rid of David, would you join the band?’”

It seems the guitarist took that as an off-the-cuff comment that revealed Weymouth and Frantz’s frustrations rather than a definite plan to oust their lead singer.

Chris Frantz, in his memoir Remain In Love, has denied the offer was ever made. Belew though insists it was: “They’ve now tried to course-correct and say, ‘No, that wasn’t said.’ It was said to me. I heard it — there just wasn’t anybody else around to hear it.

"I understood it to be out of anger and desperation, so I knew it wasn’t really an offer. Even if it had been, I would’ve had to say no immediately. You don’t want to do that, and I don’t want to do that.”

“But it’s not a big deal because, when you’re on tour, you’re in a little bubble. If anything isn’t going right about something, it amplifies.”

Instead, Belew ended up mixing session work with a solo career and that long stint in King Crimson, longer indeed than anyone other than Robert Fripp.