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" 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
Back
Always
Like
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" 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
" 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
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Night
People
" I am a very extreme sort of character, as I don't do things by halves. "
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Things
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" 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
" 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'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
" There's a fine line between angry and grumpy. Angry isn't nice, but grumpy is funny. "
Rick Wakeman
Angry
Nice
Line
" 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
" Sparks is a sporting charity that puts on golf tournaments for sick children, and my animal charities include Oldham Cats and Feline Care, a big cat charity close to me in Norfolk. I'm also a Freemason and the money they raise for charity is phenomenal. "
Rick Wakeman
Children
Me
Money
" 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 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
Best
Heart
Journey
" When I die, I'll probably climb out of the coffin and play the organ at my own funeral! "
Rick Wakeman
Play
Die
Climb
" 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
" 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
Cost
Out
Piano
" 'Tales From Topographic Oceans' is like a woman's padded bra. The cover looks good, but when you peel off the padding, there's not a lot there. "
Rick Wakeman
Woman
Good
You
" Apparently I'm well-known for my stories, my raconteur tales, that sort of thing. "
Rick Wakeman
Well-Known
Thing
Tales
" 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
Understanding
Place
Say
" 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
" My life revolves around music and always will. I need to be a part of music and not an observer. "
Rick Wakeman
Need
Will
Always
" 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
" 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
True
Said
Revolution
" 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
" 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
" My faith is very private to me. It plays an important part in my life, but I do not try and throw my beliefs at others. I have tremendous respect for all faiths and beliefs, but have a deep concern that religion and faith are currently a long way apart from each other. "
Rick Wakeman
Respect
Deep
Faith
" 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've been married three times and divorced three times. "
Rick Wakeman
Married
Times
Been
" 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
" 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 avoid preset sounds wherever possible, and all the sounds I use I have edited. "
Rick Wakeman
Possible
Wherever
Use