Jon Anderson Reveals His Final Message to Chris Squire
The relationship between Jon Anderson and his former bandmates in Yes has been less than ideal since they parted ways in 2008, but time heals all wounds — and before founding bassist Chris Squire died in 2015, Anderson was able to reach out and assure him of their unbreakable bond.
"I emailed him, but he couldn’t speak at that time," Anderson told Newsweek. "I said, 'I want to thank you for your life, your music, without you and wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing, and I’m so blessed to have had you in my life.'"
As Anderson went on to explain, though he and Squire were musical opposites, the combination worked in ways he's found it difficult to work without during life after the band. "We were the yin and yang of the band. Like we would joke: I was Obi-Wan Kenobi, and he was Darth Vader," he continued. "And the beauty of it was, I would be singing ideas, and his bass would reflect my song, my lyric, my everything. So when we do concerts with any Yes music, I always say, 'There’s certain things you have to play that Chris played because without those notes, the voice doesn’t sing correctly.'"
Anderson is currently touring with fellow Yes vets Rick Wakeman and Trevor Rabin as ARW, performing sets he describes as "a celebration of Yes music across the years" — which is appropriate, because even though he's been out of the lineup for nearly a decade, he still hears what he does as Yes music.
"I never left Yes, they left me," said Anderson. "And I’m still creating Yes music in my heart. I worked with Jean-Luc Ponty a few months ago on tour, and I feel like I’m in Yes, because we do some Yes songs — 'Long Distance Runaround,' 'Roundabout' — that the audience want to hear, and it just feels like it’s never gonna leave me, my love of Yes. What they do is what they want to do."
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