Jon Anderson has revealed that he’s no longer “hurt” about being replaced in Yes, prog icons he co-founded more than 55 years ago.
In a new interview in the current issue of Classic Rock, Anderson – who recently released his 16th solo album, True – addresses his departure from Yes in 2008, and his current relationship with long-standing Yes guitarist Steve Howe.
The singer was replaced by Canadian singer Benoît David, after being hospitalised with respiratory failure following a severe asthma attack.
“I didn’t leave the band, they got a new singer,” says Anderson. “So I said to my wife Jane, I’m going to go onstage with my guitar and tell stories, and we’re going to travel the world together.’ And we did that for two years. It was unbelievable. Yes got a singer and carried on going that way, and it’s never been the same.”
Asked what he’d say if Howe called him and asked him to rejoin Yes, the singer insists he wouldn’t currently be interested in the offer.
“No. Not right now. I actually contacted him and got very little back, But think of the song Still A Friend Of Mine [from True]. So many people I’ve met, it didn’t quite work out, and eventually you say, ‘Okay, I’ve got to move on, you’ve got to move on, do your own thing, it’s okay. But you’re still a friend of mine because we went through so much together at a certain time.’ Me and Steve, we wrote [Yes classic] Close To The Edge.”
Anderson worked on True with his current backing group The Band Geeks, who he discovered after hearing them cover Yes classic Heart Of The Sunrise online.
“It’s like a gift from the heavens,” says the singer. “Making this album was one of the most wonderful experiences of my life. It was effortless.”
Asked if being replaced in Yes still hurts, he replies: “No, because I’ve got the Yes that I wanted.”
In the same interview, the singer also addresses Anderson, Rabin And Wakeman, the band he formed with fellow former Yes alumni Rick Wakeman and Trevor Rabin. Formed in 2016, ARW released a live album, Live At The Apollo, in 2018. But despite rumours they were working on new songs together, a studio album never materialised and the band split in 2020.
“It’s very simple - it was just bad management,” Anderson says of what went wrong with ARW. “People outside making noise. Outside influences made it impossible to continue. Life goes on.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Anderson talks about getting stoned with Jimi Hendrix in Germany in the 60s, discovering Joe Cocker at a gig in Sheffield and almost forming a three-man supergroup with Rick Wakeman and fellow keyboard player Keith Emerson.
Read the full interview with Jon Anderson in the brand new issue of Classic Rock, featuring Thin Lizzy on the cover and on sale now. Order it online and have it delivered straight to your door.
