Ian Anderson Quotes

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Ian Anderson

Profession : Musician

Birth : August 10, 1947

I make up my own mind in light of available facts, with my own experience and a sense of personal ethics.

Ian Anderson

I feel the audience has a right to know if some of the money they're spending is going to a certain cause, and reassuring them the money is going to where it's supposed to be going.

Ian Anderson

I'm really terrible with small children; they're small, noisy, irritating, damp and soggy.

Ian Anderson

In most cases, my favorite Jethro Tull songs will be determined by how I feel about them as live performance songs, not by the recorded identity.

Ian Anderson

There seems to be an inclination among rock musicians to be very carefree with money, but I negotiate the best flight and hotel deals on our tours to maximise the band's income - I don't want too see too much taken off the top line.

Ian Anderson

I'm not one for Sudoku or crosswords - the thing that fires my little brain is doing tour budgets.

Ian Anderson

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

Ian Anderson

In writing lyrics - well, for me, anyway - it's about getting into character, you know? 'Who is writing this?' In the case of the original 'Thick As A Brick,' supposedly a precocious, very young child who's fantasizing about his future and the context of all the confusing elements to which school boys are subjected at that time.

Ian Anderson

I don't really set out to please anybody, and I don't think I ever have. I have occasionally been encouraged to try to write something specifically for the purpose of releasing it as a single to get radio play. Those are not my best songs, as a rule.

Ian Anderson

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.

Ian Anderson

'Aqualung' marks the point at which I had the confidence as a songwriter and as a guitar player to actually pick up and play the guitar and be at the forefront of the band. It's also the album on which I began to address religious issues in my music, and I think that happened simply because the time was right for it.

Ian Anderson