Ian Anderson Wants Fans to Stop Following Him to Hotels

In a new post on Jethro Tull's Facebook page, frontman Ian Anderson asked fans to keep their distance.

"To the pursuit-jockeys," he writes. "Please don’t follow me back to hotels after shows. There have been a few threats of physical violence towards me in recent times, and my first assumption is that someone following me in a car after a show and jumping out when I pull into a hotel is up to no good."

Anderson is quick to note that some fans simply want an autograph, "whether for yourself or Mr. eBay." But he said that's not the issue here. "My hotel is my sanctuary," he continues. "You frighten my wife and put me under pressure to react to potential violence. Stop and think: If you were on your way home from work, late at night, and you became aware of a car or two following you to your home in the dark, you would get worried and understandably probably lock your car doors and call the cops."

Overzealous fans aggressively tracking down the flute-playing minstrel has obviously ruffled Anderson, and understandably so. Fan replies to his comments range from the sympathetic ("When all is said and done, the artist is still a person entitled to their private life!") to the sarcastic ("You will get beat by a flute!").

In closing, Anderson emphatically states, "PLEASE DON’T DO THIS. I won’t be in a good mood, and I won’t sign your albums, in spite of your arguments and protestations. You will get angry, call me names and I will get even angrier than you ... Not a nice way for any of us to end the otherwise pleasurable evening."

So keep that in mind as Anderson makes his way across the U.S. on his current tour, and when he heads over to Europe and Australia to end the year.