Ian Anderson swapped his electric guitar for a flute and built Jethro Tull
Convinced he would never match Eric Clapton, a young Ian Anderson traded in his electric guitar for a flute. He had been playing it only a few months when Jethro Tull cut its first album. That odd choice, plus a habit of performing on one leg, became the signature of one of rock's most distinctive bands.
Anderson was born in Dunfermline, Fife, on 10 August 1947, the youngest of three brothers, to a Scottish father who ran a boiler-fluid business and an English mother; he calls himself a product of that union. The family moved to Edinburgh when he was three, and in 1959 to Blackpool. His father's big band and jazz records shaped him, though he found the showbiz gloss of early American rock stars off-putting. He says he was asked to leave Blackpool Grammar School for refusing corporal punishment, and between 1964 and 1966 he studied fine art at the town's art college, working shop and news-stand jobs along the way.
In 1963 he formed The Blades, a soul and blues band of school friends, singing and playing guitar and harmonica. That group evolved into Jethro Tull by 1967. Late that year he was still cleaning the Ritz Cinema in Luton each morning, toilets included, a job that he said swallowed half his day.
The flute solved two problems at once: an unusual instrument made it easier to stand out, and it was far easier to carry to gigs than guitar gear. He kept playing acoustic guitar as a rhythmic and melodic tool, and over the years added mandolin, soprano saxophone, bouzouki, balalaika and more. On stage he wore a big overcoat in the early days and struck his famous one-legged pose. From the second album, Stand Up, in 1969, he increasingly took creative charge, writing most of the material and steering the band through changes of style, including the progressive rock it became known for. He is the only member who has been there throughout.
A solo career began in 1983 with Walk Into Light, and later records included Thick as a Brick 2 in 2012. Away from music, he owned several salmon farms from the 1980s into the early 2000s. He was made an MBE in 2008 for services to music.
Source: Ian Anderson
