The Hit Parader Interview
By Lisa Robinson
December 1974RICK WAKEMAN
[Part Two]
HP: The reaction in England when you left was amazing - it was page one on all the music papers. It really was like The Beatles breaking up or something ...
Rick: Yeah, it was actually funny. Because I had some doubts about being in the band before, as I mentioned - when "Tales" happened, and for months people used to ask me about leaving the band. Guaranteed every week, in one paper or another - there was a column item at least about my leaving Yes. I thought by the time it happened, it would be a bloody joke. People have read it for so many weeks that who really cares, you know? So what, he finally left. It did put us in sort of a turmoil - how to handle the press. Because we have the same manager, the same lawyer, the same accountant, naturally - and there always are these terrible sort of legal and financial hassles involved.
So we just put out this story that I left and the band was on holiday - and we wouldn't talk to anyone there about it. We had to put out some announcement though, because in London word gets out so bloody fast - that if I were to start rehearsing another band everyone would instantly know - word would get out and it would be wrong. But anyway - they really handled it like it was such a big story, but nicely - like there would now be two important musical branches coming out of the split. Not like a split. Not like a split, really, more like a different musical idea.
HP: Do you think they'll have trouble replacing you? (Note: At press time, there was no replacement for Rick Wakeman in Yes.)
Rick: No - because Yes has always been a music band - it's always existed on music rather than individuals. Sort of like if someone said "Mozart" to you - you wouldn't think of a little white haired old man at the piano - you'd think of symphonies and concertos and things. In the same way I would hope that people who think about Yes don't think about the individuals but rather think about "Close to the Edge" or "Roundabout" ...
HP: How have you reacted to the critical acclaim that your work has received?
Rick: Well - you know, one thing you couldn't ever really do would be to hear either my music or Yes music for the first time. It takes such a long time for the music to build up and you certainly couldn't go out into the audience and hear how it sounded. It makes it very difficult, but you really do almost have to be guided by people who write things about you and your music and people in the audience. After a concert I really like to go out there and talk to people who were there and find out exactly what they thought - the whys and wherefores. Because they saw things that you can't see and they often see the silliest things that you might miss but might be important. Then you think, 'Christ, yeah...'...
Even if it doesn't have anything to do with the music. A classic example is when we got a nice review in Hartford, but the bloke said that I looked very clumsy moving from keyboard to keyboard and wasn't it a pity that I wasn't wearing some fabulous coat to cover up the moves so the people would be more interested in the music and less in the movement. It was funny - we had two nights there and the second night the DJ came onstage wearing a black cape, and I asked him where he got it. He said he paid two hundred dollars for it, - he had had it made - and I said it really meant alot to me to have a cape. So he sold it to me and I've been wearing capes ever since. And that's the sort of thing - it has nothing to do with the music really - but it's the kind of thing that people can see that you always can't.
HP: I read something once about your having problems with your health. How are you?
Rick: That was funny too. I hadn't seen Tony Tyler (Note: of the New Musical Express in London) in about a year and a half and the time previous to that I had been in the best of health. Up until last year I was always good anyway. Right before the "Journey" concert we started rehearsing for that - 24 hours a day literally. And after the last tour I had found out that I had ulcers or something like that - then Tony came down to the rehearsals, and we had equipment problems - no one had slept for about 48 hours, a tooth of mine started breaking and affecting my nerves and they had to rush me to the dentist and remove the nerves or whatever.
I was in terrible shape after some 30,000 injections and then I had a box of pills to take - first for the ulcer, and then for the teeth. And he had come in and seen me - popping pills, halfway through I just fell asleep - nodded out right during one of the narractions! There were only five days left til the concert - and then after the concert I was so sick I didn't remember anything - I just woke up in bed the next morning ... I was bad like that for about three months, and then we did the American tour! Anyway ... ulcers can be really bad when you're on the road and eating badly and all ... After awhile I just said, 'see you, no more of this' ... and that had something to do with my leaving the band and all. You just can't try and do two things in one go. I'm fine now, though.
