Nice nod to the Moody Blues, but Ian is a brilliant, insanely hard working songwriter and performer - legend

For a man of Ian's talents he is very modest.......he always give a credit where credit is due.....his acoustic guitar skills are way underrated......he is a great musician an incredible songwriter and performer etc. Etc.......

The renaissance sound of Jethro Tull is what always kind of appealed to me.

I enjoy listening to a person of genius. His speech illustrates that.

Both Ian Anderson and Ray Thomas were the two biggest influences when I learned to play the flute in grade school! I learned all their songs in highschool and could play them all by ear. Their methods of playing and flute artistry are what drew me in; I was hooked! Where would rock and roll be without some of these flute tooting magicians? JT and the Moodies are my favorite bands. ❤

And yet, his fantastic guitar playing and his beautiful melody's influence me to play guitar in my 60's.

His respectful attitude is refreshing

Anderson is the most complete musician ever. My hats off to you Ian

What a humble classy interview. My most memorable concert was Jethro Tull in 1980 at the St. Paul Civic Center (Minnesota). During Bungle in the Jungle my best friend and I ran to the very front of the stage. Ian playing 3-6 feet away. That was awesome.

Ian is always a great listen! Honest, and sincere without falsely being humble. There is always thought behind his answers in interviews. A most intelligent and interesting legend! Thanks for the post!

I would listen to “Songs From the Wood” over anything Clapton has ever done-he could never write songs as rich and with the melodic eloquence as Ian.

Marshal Tucker Band is another great band that uses the flute in their music.

y'know a lot of people go on and on about ian's flute work, but as much as i love that, i've always been more impressed his way of playing acoustic guitar. he has a very good instinct towards strum patterns.

Ian has come into his own. I've always been a huge fan even from his earliest days, but back then he was just this gangly kid with that crazed insane look in his eyes, but now age has mellowed him and he's like the old godfather of folk rock. Like a fine wine, he just keeps getting better and better.

Jethro tull and gentle giant..1972...the greatest show on earth.. Seeing over 200 bands throughout the years..still a concert stamped in my memory..awesome

Master writer. His lyrics are so deep and meaningful. The music and rythems touch the soul . #1 in my book.

First time I’ve heard Ian be humble and give praise to other of his piers 👍🏻 Nice 👍🏻

Bungle in the Jungle is one of the best song I have ever heard. And Thick as a Brick is in my top 5 albums of all time.

Great interview. Always love hearing him speak.

I was at the Fillmore West SF, in 69 Jethro Tull Concert and watching Ian Anderson playing the flute standing and dancing around on one leg, a good Trip it was.

He looks really good! I love Anderson!😍 My Fav JT tune? "Living In the Past"... Great interview and very endearing words for Ray & Moody's!

Great interview.. I've always been very much into both bands. When I saw the Moody Blues many years ago, many young people in the audience were saying: "They did *that?"*

My brother listened to JT in the 70's when were in middle school. That was me first introduction to them. I loved many bands and solo artists. Ian didn't need to worry about not having guitar be the lead instrument in a band and I'm glad he chucked the idea of getting rid of it; had he chosen guitar to be like everyone else we couldn't have all those great songs playing his flute. He was meant to play the flute. Look at all the songs he did that we wouldn't have if he hadn't picked up that magical musical wand creating alot of masterpieces that no one else could do. I love the Moody Blues too for a little over 45 years. Both groups incredibly gifted bands that created some of the best music of my era. Aren't you glad they chose to be musicians and not lawyers or car salesmen? I am!!!

I would love to be as good a failed guitarist as Ian is.

This is the man WHO wanted to be in moody blues

I have to hand it to Ian, during my musically formative years ... teenage to young adult that man was out there putting out consistently great albums with all good songs at a rate of more than 1 per year for over a decade. I loved going to the record store ... yes, vinyl records, and seeing a new Jethro Tull album cover that I had never seen before and snatching it right up. There was no internet, or magazines for me anyway, that is how I found out about a new album, or occasionally I would hear a song on the radio and know it was something off the new Jethro Tull. Something different and interesting all the time.

When you are that great, you can give the proper nods. His talent speaks for itself.

The Moody Blues and Jethro Tull were the best of flute music in rock in the 1960's and 1970's

Been watching and listening to Ian play with Gary Brooker " A whiter Shade of Pale. I've always loved this song, but with Ian's flute, can't stop listening now😘😘😘😘😘😘😘😘😘😘

Anderson is very humble. The music he created in the early 70's is as wonderful as anything recorded in that era. Benefit, Thick as a Brick, and Aqualung are among the best albums ever released.

Ian Anderson is so much bigger than what was expected. Thank You for what you did. You made Windwoods soooo freaking coooool.

The flute was Ray Thomas' signature and was essentially to so many of the Moody Blues' compositions; but when I first heard Jethro Tull's "Living in the Past" I was just floored -- not just the flute as an integral lead instrument in a rock song but a flute in a rock song with a 5:4 time signature. Just sheer genius and I still think it was Jethro Tull's best work -- maybe not their magnum opus but without question their most imaginative and magnificent composition, arrangement and performance.

Ian was by far the best rock flute player ever. No one today could match that or his style from way back in the 60's and 70's.

Extremely knowledgeable musician and amazing songwriter.....seems very humble for a living legend..

HOW NOBLE OF HIM TO MENTION THE GREAT LATE RAY THOMAS.....😇💝🙏

Let's go living in the past...great song. I remember the wild-eyed, crazed looks of the past. He looks calm here.

Ian Anderson is and was the greatest artist of Rock and Roll.. If you ask me.

Annie Wilson of Heart is still out there. Enjoyed this interview a lot.

Forty-Seven years ago I got into two groups. A to Z. Anderson and Zappa. Get to see Dweezil next week in Dallas and hopefully Ian again sometime this year. The two greatest composers of last century. And Ian's guitar playing is alright to me.

I remember my bartender was playing a cd back in 92 and every song had me saying, "I remember this song too." I was reconizing every song being played. When I asked my bartender who it was, he said "Sweet." I was like, I remember that band.

This guy was the King of rock flute and we all know it ! But he got disappointed that Justin didn’t call him after Ray passed away.

Anderson is a brilliant acoustic guitar player. Also, wrote almost all of Tull songs on guitar. He is one of the brightest artists of our times.

Ian Anderson is such a wonderful, beautiful, thoughtful, intelligent person, and a real gentleman. I wonder what he thinks of the french horn in Lucifer's Friend?

Say what he wants, Ian is still one of the best acoustic guitar players there ever was.

Love Ray Thomas,rip, and the Moody Blues.

Peter Gabriel didn't just pose with a flute, he was an accomplished player who played flute on other's albums as well as his own.

How in the world is this band not in the Rock n roll hall of fame?

The flute in Dear Diary by The Moodies is chef's kiss.

My sister was awesome with the flute; I have always loved JT and the Moody Blues. I have also come to really appreciate the Native American Flute as Russ Freeman (the Rippingtons, along with the sound of an Eagle) turned me on to. I totally understand what Ian is saying about the lack of the flute in more music...it really adds a new layer to music

Would love to know how to play a flute. Ian was a great musician, acrobat and stage presence, just awesome!

How happy I am to hear Ian mention Ray Thomas, also a nice nod to The Moody Blues!

I was glad to hear that he did not claim to 'invent' using the vocalizations with playing flute, & acknowledge that it was already being done in jazz & in particular Roland Kirk, who I had heard in the past was supposedly an influence on Ian.

"I set about it because Eric Clapton didn't play the flute" LOL

Very gracious comments from Ian . A true gent . But what set the Moodies apart from everyone else , is their acid experiences and guidance therein ! When you were REALLY tripped out and far out there , there were none ! who could take you up there , show you the sights , and then bring you back home , down to earth , as safely and lovingly as the Moodies . Gawd bless you lads , for being there with us , and all the fun loving you showed us . Amen .

One and only Ian Anderson.

Thank you very much for posting this. As usual Ian gives clear answers to questions. And he is modest too. Actually perhaps a bit too modest. Then again I am sure he knows better.

Don't forget the Incredible String Band. Both Mike and Robin were master of many instruments.

Ian I would rather listen to your picking on thick as a brick than Layla any day!

I remember reading a book about music in which Anderson was described as one of the best acoustic guitar players of his era.

So glad he mentioned Focus.

His style of guitar suited me just fine....

I’m a lot like that, hearing tunes and going “I didn’t know that was so and so”. Thanks to XM radio for song details on my computer!

He mentions, but only in passing, the Dutch band Focus. Thijs van Leer and new Focus line ups are still going in 2018. Brilliant usage of flute in rock. Ian seems to have ignored their greatness.

I'd love to hoist a pint or two with Mr. Anderson. Life in the rearview mirror has a clarity that looking out the side window at the scenery rushing by does not.

JT is the only folk rock band I will listen to as I have for the last 45 years.

Hi Ian I just want to pay tribute to the best and most significant musician and human being I have followed through time. Unfortunately, my record collection was stolen a few years ago, and will be very expensive to get back. Wish You all Well

I think he’s so cool! 😎

Just to clarify, Peter Gabriel most certainly did play the flute on record and live (Supper's Ready, I Know What I Like, Battle of Epping Forest, Firth of Fifth).

I think Ian plays a 'nice' flute, as well. Just check out his flute in the performance with J. Hayward in 'Nights'. Or Reason for Waiting. So elegant and wistful.

".....a burst of flute-y flavor....." lol

I love you Ian

I have been Tull fan since long time ago but recognize that really was Roland Kirk who first played the flute that way before anybody.......

A class act.

To answer Ian - Why no player has used the flute as a lead instrument in rock - They would always be compared to you! BTW, I'm a big Jethro Tull fan (mostly the early stuff).

He actually plays very nicely on Elegy off Stormwatch.

I loved his self-effacing approach to this interview, but I'm surprised he completely overlooked one other of the old boys of flute playing, namely the late great Ian McDonald of King Crimson who made a feature of the flute. Listen to 'I Talk to the WInd' on 'In the Court of the Crimson King'. It's the loveliest and most proficient exemplar of the flute one could hope to hear. Speaking of King Crimson, a slightly later manifestation of the group included Mel Collins on flute.

Ian did a guest appearance (flute) on the first Blackmore's Night album in 1997. It was the title track if I remember correctly.

Great answers. To unknown questions. 2 mics next time Buckeroo

It would have been awesome for Ian A and Ray Thomas to have played together. Tull was right up there with the Moodies.

In those golden days any instrument that worked counted!

Nice nod to Focus. There's also a Small Faces record called The Autumn Stone that has a lovely flute solo, but I don't know who played it.

I saw JT at Massey Hall; my ears haven't stopped bleeding since then.

I hope Ian wouldn’t be disappointed to hear that the flute, per se, was not nearly so important as the groundbreaking music of which it was a part. Jethro Tull was a welcome relief from the cult of personality so prevalent in rock music at the time. They were an ensemble, performing superb arrangements of very compelling music. It was eye-opening then and remains so to this day.

He's a funny bastard ... as well as being intelligent, modest and bloody talented.

He would have been a perfect replacement for Ray Thomas

I too gave up my amateurish attempts (age 16) to play guitar when I heard Eric Clapton! I thought "who needs me when the world has EC".

Others in rock had used the flute before, but nobody did it to the extent that Anderson did.

I always thought a clarinet in a rock band would be exciting. I was laughed at & I knew some clarinet players who would've given it a shot. But none of the other musicians took it seriously. That is until I heard Italian rock singer Eugenio Finardi inject a clarinet solo into a Chuck Berry subdued type rock song he wrote called "Corinna," back in the mid-'80s. (His all-English LP "Secret Streets"). Wow...it worked, made the song have atmosphere. But only a European artist would think in these musical terms. I did feel somewhat justified. (The song is on KZfaq).

Let's not forget Marshall Tucker Band.

To have thought, wrote, & sung Like ''The Tull'' well now... ''There are artists who'll wrest us up & place us into themselves; into their works. These are the very One's who'll continue wresting us up... Far and beyond their appointed rests in peace; period!'' -gilpin 42621

Going Up The Country, Orange Skies and California Dreamin' have some nice flute on them. Caravan's Love Song With Flute also.

Guitar player here ,but I actually played flute for a time,learned his solos.but had to return it.

I always thought he was a very good guitar player, especially using the French Parlor style guitar.

Heh--"dinky-donky music" Peter Gabriel did indeed play the damn thing (flute) when he was in Genesis. By the 80s, it was gone (seemingly he hung it up after moving from playing for audiences who did nothing but clap politely to those who cheered as well), but in the early days of Genesis in the 60s and early 70s, he certainly played it...

Pan Dance was beautifully classically played.

Ian Anderson is clearly a decent human being!

One flute player he forgot to mention was none other than Martin Barre, the long-time Tull guitarist. Ian says of himself that he couldn't play "nicely", that's why they had Barre play flute on the tune "Reasons for Waiting" on the Stand Up album--"nice", melodic playing on a ballad. I think Ian also downplays the Roland Kirk influence on his playing. He says that singing along with a solo was "as old as the hills" but Kirk was the one who developed singing into a flute and Ian's early playing sounds a lot like Kirk--there's even a Roland Kirk song ("Serenade to a Cuckoo") on the group's first album, "This Was". Ian developed his own style of doing it as he went along, but I don't see anything wrong with acknowledging Kirk's innovations and influence.

Tull and curved air in Baltimore 5 stars for both bands. Listen to jimmy hastings fromm caravan.

Yes Ian , Peter Gabriel did indeed play flute in Genesis.

To old to rocknroll to young to die ❤