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" I am a Yes fan, ultimately. I've been a member of the band, but I was always a fan of the band first. "
Rick Wakeman
Yes
Always
Fan
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" My life revolves around music and always will. I need to be a part of music and not an observer. "
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" 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. "
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" People like Frank Zappa were amazing for us Brits. "
Rick Wakeman
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" There's a fine line between angry and grumpy. Angry isn't nice, but grumpy is funny. "
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Line
" I was in and out of Yes six times. Someone once likened it to Liz Taylor and Richard Burton's marriage where we couldn't live with or without each other. There's an element of truth, and I last left in 2005. "
Rick Wakeman
Yes
Marriage
Out
" 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
" 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
" 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
" 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
" 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
" 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
" 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
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Journey
" 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
" 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
" 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 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
" 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
" My eyes are green, and in one of them there is a splash of brown - apparently it is not a colour, but a freckle! Sometimes I notice that one eyelid droops more than the other. "
Rick Wakeman
Sometimes
Colour
Eyes
" 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 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
" I am a very extreme sort of character, as I don't do things by halves. "
Rick Wakeman
Am
Things
I Am
" '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
" 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. "
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Cost
Out
Piano
" 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. "
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Funny
Night
People
" Apparently I'm well-known for my stories, my raconteur tales, that sort of thing. "
Rick Wakeman
Well-Known
Thing
Tales
" There must be something wrong with the mirrors in our house because every single one I gaze into makes me appear somewhat overweight. "
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Me
Wrong
Gaze
" 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
" 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