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player ready...Nothing gets in the way of a Rick Wakeman solo. Not even a world famous surrealist.
“I was playing with (English rock band) Strawbs and I was just about to do a keyboard solo. This was April 1970. And he wandered on stage. I could only see him from behind. And he was waving his stick and doing all sorts of things,” Wakeman recalled.
“He completely ruined our little musical set the Strawbs were doing and I thought somebody was coming, shall we say, to ask him to go. But they didn’t so I went on and did and pushed him off the stage.”
And that is how artist Salvador Dalí, considered the master of surrealism, was ejected from the stage during the folk/progressive rock band’s performance during a rock circus in Paris.
“I’m very fond of Salvador Dalí and his work but I’m not fond of him walking on stage while I’m in the middle of a piano solo,” Wakeman said. “It was a silly thing, a fun thing. And he wasn’t hurt.”
Musician, comedian and professor Rick Wakeman, CBE, will share songs and stories from his long career when “The Even Grumpier Old Rock Star Tour” stops at the Des Plaines Theatre in Des Plaines at 7 p.m. March 5. A preshow meet and greet is available for $150, which must be purchased separately from the concert ticket.
In a phone interview from Seattle where his tour kicked off at the end of February, Wakeman said he was looking forward to returning to the Chicago area, “home of my beloved Chicago Cubs.”
“I’ve been a massive Cub fan since 1985,” he said. “And I was lucky enough to be in Chicago the day after the fantastic winning of the (World) Series, which was just brilliant. And I bought two suitcases full of memorabilia to take back to England.”
The “Even Grumpier” concert features Wakeman on piano performing a mix of some of his solo works (he has released 90 solo albums during his 50-plus year career), songs from his long tenure with progressive rock band Yes, music he did as a session player with David Bowie and Cat Stevens, “and a couple of other surprises thrown in,” he said.
“I take a keyboard along as well to do a couple of things so I sort of race between the two. And in between those I tell particularly ludicrous stories, some of which bear a tiny resemblance to the truth, about what’s gone on in my life and people I’ve been involved with,” he said. “It’s fun. I try to think of it as if I was having a load of friends round at home, sitting at the piano and just generally telling silly stories. I try to think of it as an enlarged version of that.”
The “Even Grumpier” tour is a follow up on his 2019 sold out “The Grumpy Old Rock Star Tour.”
“I was grumpy before, but with all the lockdowns and the tour being canceled … I moved from grumpy to even grumpier,” Wakeman said. “I like meeting people. So to have that taken away for two plus years was not good for me.”
Looking back, Wakeman, who was nominated for a Grammy for his acclaimed solo work “Journey to the Centre of the Earth,” had to make what could perhaps be considered one of the most difficult decisions in rock music. In 1971, he was asked to join Yes as its keyboardist. At the same time, Bowie asked him to join his band, The Spiders from Mars.
“David Bowie. I loved David. I loved working with him and I love playing his music. And he’s by far the most influential person I’ve ever worked with,” Wakeman said. “I thought working with David would be fantastic, but it will always be David’s music and there will be ceiling as to far I can work and what I can do. And with Yes I’ll have a chance at having some serious input music-wise, composition wise and direction of how the music goes.”
So he chose Yes.
“It certainly wasn’t for financial reasons because it was half the money that David was offering,” Wakeman said.
“And the irony was that David and I became neighbors shorty afterward in Switzerland.”
Bowie told him he changes his musicians a lot according to the music he was doing, “‘so who knows what would’ve happened.” I would’ve loved to have the opportunity to do some shows with him, but you can’t be greedy and have everything.”
Asked which of his solo albums is his favorite, Wakeman said he doesn’t have one but “there’s something about the spectacle of ‘King Arthur’ that is remarkable. I don’t know what it is, you just get engrossed in it. It’s got everything. It’s got romance, it’s got battles, it’s got everything you would want from the legend King Arthur.”
His 1975 album, “The Myths and Legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table,” lends itself to the big extravaganza concerts that Wakeman enjoys, complete with orchestra, band, choir, actors and special effects. When the album was released, Wakeman did “King Arthur” on ice.
“I would love to do that again because you can do so much more with the ice these days. I would love to do that again. That would be wonderful,” he said. “It just needs a promoter who can see that it will work and put it on. We know how to do it because we’ve done it before and it was highly successful. So we just need someone who’ll believe in it to do it again. And better.”
Now that COVID restrictions are being lifted, Wakeman plans to get back to work on the follow up to his 2020 release, “The Red Planet.” The new album was put on hold during lockdowns, but he hopes to have it finished by the end of the year. He also hopes to resume working on a musical with Tim Rice, as well as finish a children’s project for schools, he said.
For all of his contributions to the arts, Queen Elizabeth II, who recently named him a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in her Birthday Honours, will honor Wakeman.
“That was totally unexpected. I go Windsor Castle on April the 5th to officially receive the medal from the Queen and/or Prince Charles or both. Ironically I was meant to go collect it on the 22nd of February which impossible because I’m playing Seattle that night,” he said.
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“I don’t think I could have tempted the Queen to hop on a plane and fly to Seattle to give me my medal and fly back again. I think that would have been slightly ungracious on my part. But they were very good and moved the date to April the 5th for me.”
Wakeman said when he was younger he never imagined he would one day be honored by the Queen.
“My life’s taken me to some very interesting places,” he said.
Rick Wakeman ‘The Even Grumpier Old Rock Star Tour’
When: 7 p.m. March 5
Where: Des Plaines Theatre, 1476 Miner St., Des Plaines
Tickets: $49-89
Information: 630-962-7000; desplainestheatre.com
Kathy Cichon is freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.