Robert Fripp Still Searching for Answers After Hospital Staff Shaved Him Without Explanation

Robert Fripp turned 80 last week. He is back to deadlifting 120 kilograms and bench pressing 75. Last month he gave his first live performance since the heart attack that nearly killed him, playing at the Church of Sant’Alessandro Martire in Italy. The recovery, by all accounts, has been remarkable. One detail still bothers him.

In a new interview with Uncut, the King Crimson founder described waking up in an Italian hospital to discover that someone had shaved his groin. Nobody ever explained why. “The man shaving my balls didn’t tell me,” Fripp said. “Very few of the staff spoke English, which led to one or two funny moments, like me taking my pants down for inspection by a matronly nurse, who was actually asking what I wanted for lunch.”

He first raised the question in a vlog with his wife, Toyah Willcox, who was laughing beside him as he recounted the story. “You’re concerned with my heart, fine. What are you doing shaving my balls?” Willcox offered a practical theory about clearing the body of anything that could harbor germs before heart surgery. Reasonable enough. But nobody on the medical staff confirmed it at the time, and nobody has since.

Fripp told Uncut he now sees the heart attack as “a benevolent redirection” of his life. He goes to the gym regularly. He stretches, balances, does yoga. He performed again. The mystery of the shaved balls, however, remains unsolved.