"If you have a sixteen-bar guitar solo, please don't turn into Yngwie Malmsteen or Joe Satriani": Ian Anderson on Jethro Tull, the right kind of guitarist, and forgetting what he's done

Ian Anderson headshot.

After 24 studio albums and almost 60 years with Jethro Tull, Ian Anderson’s legacy looks safe even before you factor in his not inconsiderable solo output. Tull’s latest album, Curious Ruminant, fulfils the contractual stipulations of their three-album deal with German prog label InsideOutMusic. But, unlike 2022’s The Zealot Gene and 2023’s RökFlöte, it’s not a concept album and feels weightier, closer to home.

“This is a record where you’ll see the words ‘I’ and ‘me’ more often than is usual in Jethro Tull lyrics,” Anderson confirms. “It’s not entirely introspective, but it is a more personal set of views, observations and feelings about various topics. I wanted to be a little more heart-on-sleeve.”