Interview with former Yes front man Jon Anderson (Part Two)

Jon Anderson is one of the founding members of the seminal British progressive rock group Yes. The singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist fronted the group throughout the 1970s for a string of commercially successful and musically adventurous albums that included The Yes Album, Fragile (which contained the group's signature song "Roundabout"), Close to the Edge and Tales From Topographic Oceans.

Anderson departed the group for Drama, but returned to Yes in 1983 and led the group back to the top of the charts with 90125 and its smash single "Owner of a Lonely Heart." He served another two-decade stint with Yes until health problems forced him to re-evaluate his extensive touring schedule a few years ago, at which point the band replaced him with a singer from a YouTube tribute group and moved on.

Jon recently released a new album with former Yes keyboardist Rick Wakeman entitled The Living Tree. In this second and final installment of a two-part interview, he spoke to Examiner.com about the Internet, his health, relationships in bands, solo shows, the role he played in Yes, and whether he would ever consider re-joining the group.

The following are some excerpts from Part Two of the interview. You can listen to the entire audio of Part Two by clicking on the video at left.

Also check out Part One.

Thanks once again to Jon Anderson, and special thanks to Heather Burgett for arranging this interview.

Jon Anderson on the Internet

If you want to become a rock star, well . . . hurry. That was in the Seventies and Eighties, and the rest is all sort of a game of chance out there to become rich and famous. There are different ways to become rich and famous, and necessity is the mother of invention. So we're going through this incredible experience with the Internet, and I'm jumping in the deep end.

On his health

I'm great now. I had one year of really going through difficult times. Thankfully I'm born again, and I'm stronger than ever. I have to watch over myself. I'm not a thirty-year-old rock and roller, on tour forever like Yes. I can't do that.

I can tour, actually. I've been on tour with my solo show, and I sing probably twice as much as I ever did with Yes. I'm doing a show that's nearly two hours, and I'm talking and singing all the time. But I don't have to contend with, "Turn the bass down!" (Laughs).  And the constant problems of, why doesn't everyone get on?

Over years, you get to a stage where bands stay together because it's business. When I got sick, I just couldn't continue. I was really ill, and the guys didn't understand it. And what's to say why they didn't understand it. I don't know. But that's life. You know, you get on with my next thing. So my health is very strong, and my dreams are stronger than ever. And more to come.

On the role he played in Yes

I'm still writing Yes music, even though I'm not in the band. Because that's what I do. It's part of my DNA.

I'd write the songs, I'd come up with ideas for the structure . . .  I pushed them up the mountain every time. When we did Close to the Edge, Topographic, "Gates of Delirium" [and] "Awaken" are my favorite pieces. I pushed them up the mountain. They wouldn't have gone there without me. It was my dream. I had this idea of, we're talented musicians. Why don't we expand music and make it something different, rather than chase the charts?

On whether he would re-join Yes if the opportunity came

That's a difficult question, obviously. Because they decided to do what they want to do. They just disappointed me totally, and a lot of fans. But who cares? Fans, people in live music, they don't care what the problems are within a band. And they decided they wanted to go and get a guy that sounded like me and looked like me.

I'm not a pushover. I have a good, strong spirit, and I'm doing what I believe to be the right thing by just getting on with music, rather than worrying about the band. I know they're out there, they're making an album. Good luck to them.

It should have been done in a more gentlemanly way. We should have talked a little more about it. But they needed to make money. They were broke, and they needed to get on the road. And they like doing that. They like being journeymen. I've got a great life. I'm in love, I have a happy, wonderful, beautiful time with my marriage, and I have a beautiful home. I want to spend time here working and creating. Some people just want to be out on the road all the time. That's just the way it goes.