Jethro Tull’s Ian Anderson sat down with Classic Album Review for a new interview and shared his frustration about nosy and disrespectful fans during his shows.
“I want to be free of a feeling that I am in any way having to comply with other people’s wishes and demands. The more demanding an audience are, the less I enjoy it,” he revealed during the chat. “There are occasions where sometimes you get a volatile audience due to the cultural tendencies in particular places. I actually find it incredibly rude, and I really don’t enjoy that.”
He went on to clarify his thoughts on audience behavior. “People think it’s okay to shout and whistle. It’s not okay. I’m trying to concentrate on playing sometimes quite difficult music, and I don’t like to be interfered with. I like to have the flexibility to be able to do that. If the audience set out to manipulate you or influence your way of playing, that’s not good. For me, it is absolutely sufficient just to hear at the end of a song, to see smiles on faces, and somebody applauding at the appropriate time. That means everything to me. I don’t want to be interrupted while I’m performing.”
Anderson also reflected on his long career, explaining how he sees the relationship between performers and audiences. “It happens to all of us. We are controlling, and yet, in a funny kind of way, we’re also being controlled by in a kind of sadomasochistic way. Perhaps we, or at least some of us, might like that. … But since 1969, when I first started playing in theaters in the UK, I take a different tag. I like a respectful, relative silence until we get to the end of a song. Then it’s time to applaud. Some people might find that difficult to understand, or something they don’t particularly like that I would feel that way. But it’s the way I’ve always been, and the way I am.”
He concluded, saying that while some might find his preferences difficult to understand, it’s how he’s always felt. “If I, on the rare occasions, go to a concert, I’m not going to start whistling and shouting, and calling out for songs that I want to hear, or booing. What’s the point in doing that? You might as well just leave the venue.”
Earlier, Anderson shut down the reunion rumors in an interview. “Sadly three members of Jethro Tull are no longer with us and many of those that are still alive are not feeling terribly well at the moment and it’s something you have to keep in mind that these things are not forever,” he told Rock History Music.
Jethro Tull’s next three shows are to take place in Italy from February 17 to 20. They will then visit Finland, Slovakia, France, Austria, Germany, Spain, and more countries before wrapping it up on December 7 in Poland.
