Chris Squire Says Anderson Reunion Possible
Yes bassist says Anderson's current exclusion partly down to money
In a particularly revealing new interview with Rolling Stone Magazine, Squire has spoken about ditching both Jon Anderson and his replacement Benoit David in the past few years.
Anderson was fairly unceremoniously removed from Yes four years ago when he fell ill on tour with respiratory failure. Last year he told Rolling Stone "People get into that place where they don't care about people. To them, it's just business."
Squire responds to that accusation by saying:
"I don't think Jon has anything to be bitter about. We cancelled a whole tour in 2008 when his respiratory problems came back. Touring is a tough business. One of the main reasons we aren't working with him now is that he's only able to do a certain amount of shows a week. It would limit our ability to move and make money, really. After we canceled the 2008 tour, the rest of us wanted to work. We all enjoy playing and we wanted to feed the fans' needs – their Yes injections."
Earlier this year, Anderson's replacement in the band, and former Yes tribute act frontman, Benoit David was also ditched fairly ruthlessly (he claims that he found out about his sacking via a magazine interview).
Squire explains that following the band's tour with Styx last year in support of their latest album, Fly From Here, David started to sound a little "off."
"At that point, he started to get a little wobbly onstage," says Squire. "I thought he was having a cold or had gotten sick on the road. That happens all the time, but in Benoît's case it seemed to not be getting better. We toured Europe after that, and once again he started to go a little soft. But it was more than that. He just seemed to not want to carry on doing the job. I assumed that after the Christmas break he'd feel differently, but he didn't. We figured it was time to change partners."
The band's new frontman is Jon Davison, frontman of prog outfit Glass Hammer, and he actually landed the gig via a recommendation to Squire from Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins.
But despite the fact that "everything is happy again in the Yes realm" there is talk of a multi-date 'Yes On Broadway' show which will see several former members of Yes reunite with the band.
"It would reflect the history of Yes. It requires the collaboration not only with Jon Anderson, but also other ex-members, including keyboard players like Patrick Moraz and obviously Rick Wakeman would be looked at as well. Of course, it would have to depend on if there's any interest from that side as well. It's something that's brewing, but it's very much on the backburner."
You can read the full interview with Squire HERE