'My gut feeling is that drugs do not help the creative process...' Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson explains anti-drugs stance
Jethro Tull frontman Ian Anderson has revealed that he has never experimented with drugs to help him make music and he thinks being intoxicated actually hinders the creative process.
Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson has never taken drugs to inspire his music.
The 77-year-old musician has been the sole constant member of the rock band since 1967 and has spent a lifetime on the road and in the studio, however, unlike many rock stars from the 1970s and 1980s he never turned to substances for inspiration, and instead believes that alcohol and drugs hinder the creative process.
In an interview with Contact Music conducted at The Victoria pub in London, he said: “My gut feeling is that drinking and drugs do not help the creative process. People are a bit hung up or lacking in confidence or just become hit by writers’ block. Maybe it’s like a dam-buster’s bomb, opening the dam, a flood of creativity.
“Perhaps that works for some people, but I don’t have a problem needing anything to set my mind going in the creative way, writing lyrics or music. When the time feels right to do it, it comes in a rush and it builds momentum and it’s unstoppable.”
Anderson - who is the flautist and vocalist for Jethro Tull - accepts his anti-drugs stance could have earned him a reputation as a "stick in the mud" but he insists he just didn't want to indulge in the partying side of the music business.
He said: “I probably came across to some other artists that we worked with as a bit of a stick in the mud and detached and unfriendly. But it wasn’t that, I had huge respect and admiration for them as musicians. I just didn’t want to do the off-duty side of rock and roll.”
Jethro Tull have just released new album 'Curious Ruminant' - the band's 24th studio LP which contains Ian's most personal collection of songs - and Anderson insists he couldn’t imagine trying to work as a producer with an artist high on drugs.
Referring to his late friend George Martin - who worked with The Beatles on all of their albums - Anderson mused: “I could imagine George probably found it rather difficult being in a studio with The Beatles, whether it was just smoking joints or later on LSD or whatever. I imagine he found it a bit frustrating, because he, like me, was a straight-laced character.”
He also mentioned rock star Frank Zappa as another musician who never dabbled with drugs.
Anderson said: “He’s the only other person I know of, other than me, who I can be pretty sure, anecdotally, that he never took what’s popularly called drugs. He smoked like a chimney, though, and so did I.
As for having ever been tempted to try drugs, Anderson says “not so far" as he's “quite happy to wait until” he needs them.
He said: “I’ve always thought one day, I’m not going to mess about, I’m going straight to morphine. There’s a 50 per cent chance I will spend my final moments in this life under the ameliorative effect of a class-A drug to remove or soften the pain of terminal cancer.
“If it’s as good as people say drugs are, maybe I’ll try and write a song, see if it works out. I rather think it won’t.”
Jethro Tull's 'Curious Ruminant' is out now.
The band head out on their European tour in April with shows scheduled until December.
Go to Jethrotull.com for more information and tickets.
Click here to read the full interview with Ian Anderson.
