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" Apparently I'm well-known for my stories, my raconteur tales, that sort of thing. "
Rick Wakeman
Well-Known
Thing
Tales
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" I'm a Freemason, and we love to celebrate Burns' night: piping in the haggis, the whole lot. "
Rick Wakeman
Whole
Celebrate
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" My mother had never had a day's illness in her life and never thought to have checks. Then, at 78, she discovered she had breast cancer and passed away the next year. But if she'd had a check two years before, they could have done something about it, they could have saved her. "
Rick Wakeman
Day
Thought
She
" Actually, I only left twice. I left then, and then rejoined literally two years later for Going For The One. "
Rick Wakeman
Going
Left
Only
" Since the 1980s, I've been known more for my TV work, I used to host 'Live at Jongleurs' and of course 'Grumpy Old Men,' and so it's really all come from there. It's been a funny career really, there are people that know me now as a TV person, a comedian, an interviewer - I've had people genuinely gobsmacked to find out I am a musician. "
Rick Wakeman
Work
Funny
I Am
" I cut out bread, I don't eat after 6 P.M., and I go on walks, and it's had a great effect. "
Rick Wakeman
Eat
Great
Out
" I'm hugely fond of Scotland. My daughter, Jemma, was born in the Simpson Memorial Maternity Hospital in Edinburgh, and it always tickled me that she was so vexed she didn't have a Scottish accent even though she was brought up down south. "
Rick Wakeman
Hospital
Me
Born
" 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
Rock
Everything
Great
" Touring with Yes was generally great fun, and I got on well with the rest of the guys, but we were like chalk and cheese in many respects. I was unique in the band as a card-carrying Conservative. "
Rick Wakeman
Unique
Great
Fun
" I bought a racehorse, Tropical Saint, that belonged to the Queen Mother. I used to go down to Banbury and watch him train, but during a televised race, his jockey pulled up and said there was something wrong. They put him in the grass to try and settle him but found him dead in the field. "
Rick Wakeman
Race
Train
Queen
" To play music, you have to understand it. I didn't understand 'Topographic Oceans.' That's why I hardly played on it. It frustrated me no end - and playing the whole thing on tour, I got farther and farther away from it. "
Rick Wakeman
Music
You
Play
" I would have loved to record with Paul McCartney on some of his early solo recordings, wonderful music. Playing some lovely organ, perhaps. I would have loved to record with John Lennon. He was a dear friend. I had lunch with him just two days before he died. "
Rick Wakeman
Two
Early
Friend
" 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
Mouth
See
Way
" I've got an overactive brain. I enjoy work, I enjoy life, and I'm not good at relaxing. I've also never slept very much due to this overactive imagination and my brain constantly thinking. "
Rick Wakeman
Good
Brain
Enjoy Life
" There are people who think the film 'This Is Spinal Tap' is simply a very funny 'mockumentary.' Well, with Yes, we lived it. Take the hilarious scene in the film in which the bass player is trapped in a giant pod - that actually happened to Alan one night. "
Rick Wakeman
Funny
Night
People
" I avoid preset sounds wherever possible, and all the sounds I use I have edited. "
Rick Wakeman
Possible
Wherever
Use
" 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
Great
Writer
Cousins
" 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
Live
Thought
Different
" 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
God
Devil
Truth
" 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
City
You
Short
" I had joined Yes in 1971. I was a classically trained musician who had worked with numerous artists as a session musician. I played on David Bowie's 'Life On Mars,' Cat Stevens's 'Morning Has Broken' and even on some Des O'Connor records, though I kept that quiet. "
Rick Wakeman
Cat
Broken
Life
" I've been married three times and divorced three times. "
Rick Wakeman
Married
Times
Been
" 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
Cheese
Back
Done
" I was born in 1949 - which seems like a long time ago... Actually, it is a long time ago, when I think about it. "
Rick Wakeman
Long Time
Born
Like
" 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
Us
Band
Never
" People like Frank Zappa were amazing for us Brits. "
Rick Wakeman
Frank
Were
Amazing
" 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
London
Project
Myself
" There's a fine line between angry and grumpy. Angry isn't nice, but grumpy is funny. "
Rick Wakeman
Angry
Nice
Line
" My earliest professional musical experiences were really as a session player, and every day was an adventure. Three sessions a day, every day, and you never knew who you would be working with until you arrived at the studio. "
Rick Wakeman
Professional
Three
You
" When I die, I'll probably climb out of the coffin and play the organ at my own funeral! "
Rick Wakeman
Play
Die
Climb
" I didn't enjoy 'Topographic Oceans' at all. It was a double album, and the truth is it was padded out, and I didn't like that. But I was a fan of Yes - still am - and as such, I'm entitled to say what I think. "
Rick Wakeman
Think
Truth
Enjoy