Jon Anderson said he’s open to a reunion with his former Yes bandmates Steve Howe and Rick Wakeman. In a new interview with Mojo, the singer said he still considers himself a part of his old band, even though he left Yes in 2008.
“I was talking to [my touring band] the Band Geeks and said, Hopefully, we can play in London, and Steve will get up and do a couple of songs with us, maybe Rick, too,” Anderson recalled. “It just means talking. When I’m out there singing on my own, I still think I’m part of Yes. They still feel like my songs.”
Anderson was onstage with his former bandmates when Yes was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2017, his first time performing with the band since 2004. Anderson and Wakeman had toured together in 2010 and 2017, but, aside from the Rock Hall date, the singer and guitarist haven’t worked together since the band’s 35th-anniversary tour in 2004.
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“We’re still friends but we’re not connected,” Anderson said. “The first time I realized it wasn’t going to continue was when I discovered you could send MP3s on the computer. So I emailed Steve and Chris [Squire], saying, Why don’t we send music to each other – we’re on the same planet? And they never replied. Maybe they never got the email.”
Squire died in 2015. Anderson noted last year that he had a “beautiful dream” about his former bandmate. “I could see this one lady standing there with robes – she looked like an angel, and she probably was,” he said at the time. “She pointed up … and there was Chris smiling with tears coming down his eyes and face.” He told his wife about the dream. “I said, I just saw Chris. He was heading towards the light of heaven. She said, ‘He loved you.’ I said, ‘Yeah. We were brothers.’ It was an incredible moment.”
When Did Jon Anderson Leave Yes?
Anderson last appeared with Yes on record on 2001’s Magnification. After touring with the band through 2004, he left a few years later to work on his solo career. Yes’ next album, 2011’s Fly From Here, was with singer Benoit David. He was replaced by the time of Yes’ next album, 2021’s The Quest, which included Howe, Geoff Downes, Billy Sherwood, Alan White and new singer Jon Davison. (Drummer White died in 2022.) Their latest record is last year’s Mirror to the Sky; the band also toured in late 2023.
In 2016, Anderson, Wakeman and former Yes guitarist Trevor Rabin formed a new group that completed two tours, but no studio album, before their 2020 split. Anderson’s last solo album arrived in 2019; he’s now working on new projects after completing a tour with the Band Geeks in 2023.
Earlier this week, Wakeman announced his last solo tour, which he said will feature new Yes-based music. Howe, for his part, isn’t as enthusiastic about working with his former bandmates. Last summer he said he was “absolutely resistant” to any sort of reunion and has repeatedly noted that the 2017 Rock Hall performance was “hellish.”
Still, Anderson told Mojo he’d be open to working with the two classic-era Yes members again, though he recognizes the hurdles. “Life is full of experiences and meeting people, and you look back and think, I used to know him so well,” he explained. “But not anymore.”
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