Hollywood, California – Ian Anderson never became an actor, director, film producer, TV reality show star, or any of that.  True, he did run a quite successful salmon fishery and production facility in Scotland at one point, but he’s always been, first and foremost, a musician.

The leader of Jethro Tull is currently touring the U.S. playing acoustic-oriented shows featuring classic songs, never-before-played bits and even some newish material as well.  So one can expect some staples, such as “Aqualung” and “Locomotive Breath” which are part of classic rock history and can even be found in an edition of the Rock Band game, but those hoping for the lesser-heard numbers or even rarities can look forward to surprises.  The November West Coast swing will bring him to Southern California for concerts November 5th at the Grove in Anaheim and November 6th at the Wiltern.

Anderson, now 62, spoke to Buzzine over the phone from Switzerland, where he was enjoying a couple of days with his wife before heading back to the UK and then flying to Phoenix.  The singer, acoustic guitar player, and most famous flute in popular music, talked about the current tour, his approach to performing and some of his other global concerns as well.

“For 41 years, I’ve been the ‘unplugged’ guy in Jethro Tull, playing acoustic instruments. Songs like ‘Aqualung,’ ‘My God’ and ‘Locomotive Breath’ began as acoustic pieces, so we’re going back to those songs in their original, rather undeveloped state,” he said.

The set will also include some tunes from albums and even EPs that have never been heard live, as well as longtime Tull acoustic favorites from over the decades, such as the 1974 global warming parable before its time, “Skating Away,” and quite lovely and contemplative “Dun’ringhill” from ‘79 (but don’t look here for full set-list spoilers).  For Anderson, the goal is to advance and explore in music.

Just as Tull began as a blues-based band then added greater rock dynamics, also looking to British folk traditions, Celtic music and even Indian motifs, it’s a fusion of different musical cultures he still pursues now.

Anderson’s latest touring band represents the mix:  There’s bassist David Goodier and keyboardist John O’Hara, who are part of the latest edition of Tull along with mainstays Anderson, guitarist Martin Barre and American drummer Doane Perry.  With Barre in Germany doing a Celtic rock opera (now there’s a contrast) and Perry involved in L.A. session work and such, the rest of the road outfit right now includes drummer Mark Mondesir, primarily a jazz drummer who plays with guitarist John McLaughlin, German guitarist Florian Ophanle, and Meen Bhasin on viola — a change from Anderson/Tull’s past outings with young women on violin.

“When working with other musicians from different musical cultures, you start out trying to find that common musical ground, which is how you find areas in which you have musical differences. That’s really important, as it puts the spice…the edge into it,” Anderson said. “I like the idea of celebrating the commonality between us – backgrounds, faiths — also bringing out the differences; they are what makes what we are. I don’t like it all smooth, cozy — a comfort blanket. I like a little musical danger in there, head-butting between things.  We have a black jazz drummer, white jazz bassist, a Persian-American [and female] violist, a Bavarian-German right-wing guitar player, and a rather staid and boring English classically trained musician.  It’s an ethnic and cultural mix when we’re onstage together, bringing it together, keeping alive the idea that we do come from different traditions.

With more than two dozen assorted releases to draw from, a balanced set is always a challenge, as Anderson wants to match the obvious with the unexpected.

“Ask anybody — not just me — trying to put together 40-odd years of music for a two-hour show is not going to please everybody all the time,” he said.  “It’s going to be, ‘Wow, that was just terrific; I kind of liked that; I didn’t like when they played that.’  You find a way to present people what you’re thinking is going to be interesting, rewarding and challenging.

“You have to present yourself with musical challenges,” he continued, “and those may turn out to be ‘heavy hitters.’  Once upon a time, we played ‘My God’ for audiences long before it was released, and some audiences were a little bemused by it, so you never really know. It’s a goof way of trying out things — play them live on stage, not in a recording studio or some Holiday Inn room in Kansas.”

New arrangements of old material and playing little-heard or even new songs can be satisfying for not just the audience but the player.

“It reminds you of how it was you first started, with material untried, untested,” Anderson said.  “You had to win people over, and it’s a reminder that testing can make your music.”

EMI just released an archival, somewhat historic Tull show at Madison Square Garden as a DVD/CD package.  The DVD features audio-only performances and live footage of that 1978 concert broadcast from the U.S. back to the UK in what was then a global first.

Photo by Nick Harrison

Looking back 31 years, it was just another day at the office, so to speak, for Anderson, who points out the set isn’t that different from Tull’s live album, Bursting Out, from the same tour period.  However, a close listen will find differences, including a long and, in a way, more intense “Thick As a Brick,” a vibrant “Heavy Horses,” and charged “My God/Cross-Eyed Mary” medley among the numbers, even with old Blackpool musician pal Tony Williams filling in for a then-ailing bassist John Glascock, who, sadly, would soon pass away, so young, from a heart ailment.

There aren’t many archival live recordings left in the vaults, and this one is quite welcome, but Tull fans globally are still waiting for more FM broadcasts over the years – King Biscuit, Supergroups in Concert and such – to become official. For years, it was assumed the BBC had the rights to the Madison Square Garden tapes, and then it turned out EMI could indeed issue the fabled performance.

“I’m not comfortable to keep punching out these things rather than replicating material already available, and there’s not much of it left,” Anderson said. “It was the first satellite broadcast of a contemporary music concert with a landmark position in history, but to put it in context, for us on the road, it was just another gig that night.”

The conversation took a personal turn for me and my battle against colon cancer as we talked about Anderson’s friendship with the late Tony Snow, former Bush administration White House press secretary, who died at 53 last year from colon cancer, a genetic problem in his family.  Snow was a Tull fan, and he and Anderson became quite close, despite their political divisions, even poking fun at that and also convincing Anderson that regular colonoscopy checks are vital when men reach a certain age (generally 50 and up).

Curiously, there was a time when many music writers would call Anderson a conservative because of a longtime anti-drug stance, opposition to things hippie-dippy, and his own eclectic nature (living as UK country gentleman and such).  Nothing could be more erroneous, and Anderson not only spoke against many of the Bush (and Blair Downing Street) actions in Iraq, but has been a proponent for ending famine in Africa, lashed out about Wall Street and worldwide banking excess in the face of those who have little or nothing at all, and also addressed global warming and overpopulation.  It’s not a black-and-white case of political agendas, left and right, but rather doing what is right as we leave carbon footprints and hand off to the children of the future.

Getting back to music, what about a new studio album from Tull?  The band’s last was its fine, enduring, always-great-for-the-holiday-season Christmas album earlier this decade. A tune or two have surfaced during some tours, but so far, nothing is planned…yet.

“There are about two albums worth of material partly recorded, or written, not recorded,” Anderson said. “As always, it’s trying to get people in same place. With the guys in the band, they all do other stuff and come back after being in faraway places to family, children, e-mails; it’s a lot of pressure to get all of this to happen. Long gone are the days lived more or less in the same place to come into Long to make a record. We live all over the place; Doane in Los Angeles, Martin in the deep southwest of England… It’s literally frustrating, as a music writer.

As much as Anderson would like to record and release a new album or two, he’s come to realize that even he thrives most on stage, connecting with what’s now a multi-generational audience that draws college-agers as well as those soon looking a the retirement-age demographic.  And this musician’s musician has no plans to retire.

“I’d rather be out there playing a gig while still alive and kicking and die with my boots on,” he said. “That’s what I signed up to do and, fortunately, I don’t have the life of a sports star; it doesn’t come to an end at 30. I struggle on into the 60s and 70s – it’s a wishful thing.”

Ian Anderson remaining November tour dates:

5th The Grove of Anaheim, California - tickets
6th Los Angeles, California – The Wiltern - tickets
7th San Luis Obispo, California – Christopher Cohan Performing Arts Center – Harmon Hall - tickets
8th Modesto, California Gallo Center for the Arts – Mary Stuart Rogers - tickets
9th San Francisco, California – The Warfield Theatre - tickets
10th Santa Rosa, California – Wells Fargo Center for the Arts - tickets
13th Portland, Oregon – Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall - tickets
14th Seattle, Washington – Moore Theatre - tickets
15th Spokane, Washington – Martin Woldson Theater at the Fox - tickets

JethroTull.com