Well, I got a chance to meet Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull after the concert tonight, thanks to a review (which Tull management liked) I wrote of Ian’s Chicago show in November 2012.
This was pretty incredible for me. I have been a Jethro Tull fan since 1986. I have seen Ian or Tull dozens of times since then. All these years later I am still in awe of the extraordinary music he has written and performed.
We chatted a bit about politics (he had been briefed a bit about my work), but lots of things came up. I told him that we’d tried to get him on the Peter Schiff Show but that the tour had gotten in the way, and mentioned that my first question was going to be not why he plays the flute or why the band’s name was Jethro Tull, but this: Thick as a Brick, a single 45-minute song, hit #1 on the album charts in the U.S. in 1972. Such a thing would never happen today. What changed?
He had some interesting things to say about Keith Emerson and Steve Howe, but I should probably not blab them.
He’s already done the demos for his 2014 album, but the recording won’t start until December, and the album should be released around Easter.
Thanks to my wife for the photos, and for bringing my 1987 tour shirt!