Jon Anderson will appear with his former bandmates in Yes when they are inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on April 7.
The group will be inducted by Rush members Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson. Anderson had previously said Lee would be joining the band to perform their hit “Roundabout” to fill in for bassist Chris Squire, who died in 2015. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame later clarified that the Rush members “were only confirmed to do the induction speech for one of their favorite bands and not perform.”
Members from several incarnations of Yes will be honored at the ceremony, including current members Steve Howe and Alan White, and alumni Rick Wakeman, Bill Bruford, Tony Kaye, Trevor Rabin and Squire. This was the same group of then-current and former Yes members who toured behind the group’s 1991 album, Union.
The Hall of Fame performance will mark Anderson’s first appearance with Yes since he was ousted in 2008 after suffering acute respiratory failure.
“It’s a family; there’s always animosity,” Anderson tells Billboard. “People that you love you don’t always like, and there’s always going to be that. But when you’re celebrating who you truly are, you forget about all that and just get on with meeting each other and seeing each other, and it’s just one of those things. It’s not a problem; We’ll just get together and have fun. Music is a healing force on every level.”
Squire, the only Yes member to never depart the band, will be represented at the ceremony by his widow.
“He always believed that we should have been in the Hall of Fame,” Anderson says. “It wasn’t high on my agenda. ‘It happens when it happens’ was my mantra. But we know Chris will be there in spirit, in energy. I loved the guy very much. Without him I wouldn’t be here, that’s for sure.”
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Anderson says that in addition to performing “Roundabout,” Yes are thinking of playing “I’ve Seen All Good People” and “Owner of a Lonely Heart,” their 1983 Number One hit. Anderson is currently touring with Rick Wakeman and Trevor Rabin as ARW and have announced they are working on an album.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony will be broadcast on HBO on April 29.
The clip below shows the classic Yes lineup of Anderson, Howe, Squire, Wakeman and White performing “Yours Is No Disgrace” at the Rainbow Theater in December 1972.
Christopher Scapelliti is editor-in-chief of Guitar Player magazine, the world’s longest-running guitar magazine, founded in 1967. In his extensive career, he has authored in-depth interviews with such guitarists as Pete Townshend, Slash, Billy Corgan, Jack White, Elvis Costello and Todd Rundgren, and audio professionals including Beatles engineers Geoff Emerick and Ken Scott. He is the co-author of Guitar Aficionado: The Collections: The Most Famous, Rare, and Valuable Guitars in the World, a founding editor of Guitar Aficionado magazine, and a former editor with Guitar World, Guitar for the Practicing Musician and Maximum Guitar. Apart from guitars, he maintains a collection of more than 30 vintage analog synthesizers.
