I first learned about Fripp through early King Crimson, collabs with Andy Summers and Brian Eno, and of course the outstanding work on Bowie recordings. In addition to the 80s King Crimson, I really liked the Eno/Fripp records and his solo record League of Gentleman. It was pretty cutting edge stuff for 1981, and you can hear burbles of the newer KC in it.
I explored his playing and music philosophy, approaches to practice, and his New Standard Tuning for a bit, just to see what it was about. I thought it was interesting, some of it made a lot of sense. As I had done with other players, I followed the old adage, "Throw the sh--against the wall, take what sticks and leave what falls."
Then in college, I met some players who were really into him and frequently attended Fripp's Guitar Craft seminars. They seemed a lot more into it than I was, and one guy dogmatically evangelized the entire Fripp approach to any guitar player who would listen. He even shaved his head and got tiny glasses. One time at an open stage with his back to the crowd, he played syncopated scales for about 10 minutes straight. Yikes! I noped my way out of there after the first two minutes.
I still love Fripp's playing, and I was lucky enough to see the new King Crimson on a couple of tours. So incredible! I hope they come this way again sometime soon.
I just stumbled across this cover of Bowie's "Heroes" from 2016.