Adrian Belew is one of the most inventive guitarists ever. Don’t take my word for it, just ask anyone who has ever seen him play. Way back when, he toured with Frank Zappa and David Bowie. He was a member of King Crimson. He’s also played with everyone from Talking Heads to Nine Inch Nails to Paul Simon, and put out several solo albums, as well as albums with the brilliant but overlooked power-pop group The Bears.

Adrian Belew is also one of the nicest rock stars I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting. He’s from Covington, Kentucky, just across the river from Cincinnati, and back in the early 90s when I worked at 97X in Oxford, Ohio, our paths crossed quite a bit. My friends and fellow DJs Ric and Dave agreed that his nickname should be “The Nicest Guy in Rock.”

Last night, Pixar’s Piper won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short (it really won, there was no confusion), and Adrian Belew did the score for it… his first movie score ever. Nice to see a nice guy finish first for a change.

You can read more about Adrian’s work on the movie, as well as his contributions to Bowie and Zappa tributes, here. Another interesting interview is here.