Rick Wakeman Quotes

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Rick Wakeman

Profession : Musician

Birth : May 18, 1949

I read numerous books - loads in fact - and, as I always do when recording a historical project, immersed myself into the subject matter. I spent many hours at Henry's old homes, such as Hampton Court, and visiting the Tower of London. I read no other books during that period.

Rick Wakeman

I like Toronto a lot, it's a good city. The only thing that really annoys me about Toronto is that you're turning Maple Leaf Gardens into a grocery store, which is absolutely nothing short of disgusting.

Rick Wakeman

I always say that it's about breaking the rules. But the secret of breaking rules in a way that works is understanding what the rules are in the first place.

Rick Wakeman

Even the two times that I left, I never really felt like I left the band. It's very bizarre. It's like there's sort of an umbilical cord that stretches between us spiritually.

Rick Wakeman

Country and western is the music of the devil. That's the real truth of the matter. My late Mother, bless her, loved country and western. God, I couldn't handle it.

Rick Wakeman

Coming back to Yes is like never having left. Even when I have not been in the band, I have always felt part of it.

Rick Wakeman

But I'd play on everything from pop records to a lot of the glam stuff to rock stuff to classical stuff. I used to get called to do all those things, it was great.

Rick Wakeman

But I listen to live recordings of things that I did back in the '70s and then how I've done things since. And there's no doubt about it: if I compare the two, it's like chalk and cheese.

Rick Wakeman

As a songwriter, I was influenced by David Bowie - a great writer. A class above everybody in so many ways. Lennon and McCartney, of course. Class stuff. David Cousins was my favorite lyricist.

Rick Wakeman

Actually, I only left twice. I left then, and then rejoined literally two years later for Going For The One.

Rick Wakeman

My dad died in 1980, and I found out afterwards from mum that my piano lessons, which cost £2 a week, took up nearly a third of his income.

Rick Wakeman

I was in and out of Yes six times. Someone once likened it to Liz Taylor and Richard Burton's marriage where we couldn't live with or without each other. There's an element of truth, and I last left in 2005.

Rick Wakeman

I avoid preset sounds wherever possible, and all the sounds I use I have edited.

Rick Wakeman

I joined Yes in July 1971. I had heard Yes live, as Strawbs had supported them at a gig in Hull. I thought they were amazing - incredibly different.

Rick Wakeman

Liszt was a bit of a rock and roller at heart, but he was a bit of a puritan on his sounds.

Rick Wakeman

There must be something wrong with the mirrors in our house because every single one I gaze into makes me appear somewhat overweight.

Rick Wakeman

I was 65 in May, and when I have just shaved, I see my father. I realise that I now have the same facial idiosyncrasies he had: little twitches here and there, mouth and nose movements, even the way he would tilt his head.

Rick Wakeman

My eyes are green, and in one of them there is a splash of brown - apparently it is not a colour, but a freckle! Sometimes I notice that one eyelid droops more than the other.

Rick Wakeman

People always said that I hated punk, and that really wasn't true. It was glossed over for many years that I was the guy who found the Tubes and signed them to A&M. English punk was a revolution.

Rick Wakeman

I had just left Yes and had done a concert at Crystal Palace, South London, with a choir and orchestra playing my solo album 'Journey To The Centre Of The Earth' when I had my heart attack. That day, I hadn't been to bed for four days. I don't remember much. I felt very numb during the day and airy, which is the best way to describe it.

Rick Wakeman