Beginning of solo career (1981)

By now Belew's rising profile had gained him a solo record contract with Island Records. During the recording of the debut Tom Tom Club album, members of GaGa had joined Belew in Compass Point and backed him on a set of parallel sessions which would result in Belew's first solo album Lone Rhino (released in 1982). The album provided a home for various GaGa songs and blended various elements of Belew's work over the past decade, including snappy and noisy Zappa/Byrne-influenced songs, dabblings in world music, opportunities for animal/mechanical sounds on guitar, and sonic experiments reminiscent of Jimi Hendrix or The Beatles. It also included an instrumental duet between Belew and his four-year-old daughter Audie (the latter improvising on acoustic piano, with Belew adding a processed guitar counterpoint).

King Crimson (1981–2013)

Adrian Belew was the singer, guitarist and frontman (as well as occasional drummer) for King Crimson from 1981 to 2009, one of the longest tenures in King Crimson by anyone other than founder Robert Fripp. He maintained this position despite several splits or hiatuses in group activity, and notwithstanding a brief period in the early 1990s when Fripp unsuccessfully invited singer David Sylvian to front a possible new version of the band.^[7]
Belew's involvement with the band began while he was still involved with Talking Heads. Having been impressed by Belew's work with GaGa and David Bowie, Fripp asked Belew to join his new four-piece band (at that time called Discipline) as singer and second guitarist. At the time Belew was busy not just with Talking Heads but also with the imminent Tom Tom Club sessions and the recording of his debut solo album. However, he was realising that Talking Heads' internal politics would eventually either sideline or obstruct him (coupled with the fact that the band looked as if it would be on hiatus for a while). Belew opted to uncouple himself from Talking Heads and join Fripp, with whom he would have more opportunities to develop and express himself. One of his conditions for joining the new band was that he would be allowed time to continue and develop his new solo career, to which Fripp agreed.^[8]
The Discipline lineup was completed by the former King Crimson drummer Bill Bruford and the New York session ace Tony Levin on bass guitar and Chapman Stick. During initial touring, the members of the band discussed the possibility of renaming themselves King Crimson. This had not been the original intention for the band, but all members generally agreed that this would be both appropriate and useful. This made Belew the first guitarist to formally play alongside Fripp within King Crimson on an equal footing (although both Ian McDonald and John Wetton had very occasionally contributed extra guitar to previous King Crimson recordings)^{[citation needed]}. He was also the first King Crimson singer to write all of his own lyrics.
The renamed band released and toured the well-received Discipline album later in 1981, bringing Belew further notoriety and acclaim. The follow-up, 1982's Beat, proved harder to record. Finding himself responsible for the bulk of the band's songwriting and dealing with the extra pressures of being the frontman in a high-level group, Belew squabbled with Fripp over group approach and sound. Disagreements were mostly resolved and the band continued to find success as a live act. However, 1984's Three of a Perfect Pair proved tortuous to write, and although King Crimson eventually created another successful album (including some Belew experiments with fretless guitar), Fripp opted to split the band in 1984. The live album Absent Lovers: Live in Montreal (originally a radio broadcast, released as an album in 1998) captured the band in full force on their last gig.
Despite the disagreements of the time, the members of the 1981–1984 King Crimson maintained enough camaraderie and mutual respect to reunite in 1994 (adding second drummer Pat Mastellotto and Warr Guitarist Trey Gunn) with Belew continuing as the band's singer, guitarist and frontman. The six-piece King Crimson toured successfully and lasted until 1997, releasing the THRAK album and several live recordings. From 1997 onwards, Belew participated in several of the ProjeKcts, a series of instrumental and experimental King Crimson side projects active during band hiatuses, in which he predominantly played electronic drums.
Belew was a member of the slimmed-down quartet version of King Crimson (minus Bruford and Levin) which played and recorded between 2000 and 2004, releasing the construKction of light and The Power to Believe (in addition to several live albums and EPs), as well as touring as an opening act for Tool during 2001. After a further four-year hiatus, the band returned to active work in 2008 as a five-piece (with the addition of Porcupine Tree drummer Gavin Harrison, and Levin returning to replace Gunn). From 2000 through 2008, King Crimson used Belew's studio at his home outside Mount Juliet, Tennessee, for rehearsals and recording.
In September 2013, following yet another four-year band hiatus, Fripp announced the formation of a new seven-piece King Crimson which did not include Belew. Belew stated on his Facebook page that Fripp had told him that he "would not be right" for what Fripp had in mind for the new version of the band.