Ian Anderson Quotes & Sayings

“When I was a teenager, I really didn't like loud rock music. I listened to jazz and blues and folk music. I've always preferred acoustic music. And it was only, I suppose, by the time Jethro Tull was getting underway that we did let the music begin to have a harder edge, in particular with the electric guitar being alongside the flute.”

“It's only the giving that makes you what you are.”

“I'm very motivated by the occasional creative payoff that comes when something goes really well, be it a song, a recording or performance. The payoff is enormous - when you get it. Most of the time, though, I'm filled with self-loathing and general frustration at the limitations I have as a musician.”

“If Jesus Christ came back today, He and I would get into our brown corduroys and go to the nearest jean store and overturn the racks of blue denim.”

“I can never make up my mind if I'm happy being a flute player, or if I wish I were Eric Clapton.”

“A lot of pop music is about stealing pocket money from children.”

“I was not a great guitarist, so I sold my 1960 Fender Stratocaster in exchange for a Shure Microphone, made in Chicago, and a flute.”

“The flute was an alternative to being a small fish in an increasingly bigger pool filled with a number of great guitar players.”

“I think we always view people who make us feel uncomfortable and appear to intrude on our middle-class cozy space, we view them with, if not hostility, at least suspicion, discomfort, embarrassment.”

“As a musician, life is not over just because you are getting older, and so I find retirement a very frightening and dark thought.”