From the S&S archives:
Jethro Tull: A quarter-century and still learning

There are only a few things in life that Jethro Tull frontman Ian Anderson says he's never tried.

Water-skiing and bungee-jumping. Marijuana and cocaine.

Nor has he ever danced in the popular disco style that he describes as "mindless repetition."

And — until recently, anyway — he never bothered to learn to properly play the flute, an instrument that helped make him famous.

But it was a critique of his technical ability by his 14year-old daughter, who was taking a compulsory music class at school, that finally prompted him into formal flute training.

"She was delighted with the fact that she pointed it out to me," Anderson said last weekend at his hotel in Stuttgart, Germany. Dressed casually in a dark gray, unbuttoned silk shirt, T-shirt, black pants and cowboy boots, the thoughtful Anderson said he has been working on the proper technique for about two months.

As a child, Anderson simply picked up a flute and developed through "trial and error" an unorthodox technique for determining which fingers should work which keys. When the music was off-tune, Anderson blamed the flute. "I always thought it had more to do with the flute than me. I just thought that all flutes sound like that," he said.

Not so, his daughter informed him. While on a promotional tour in India, Anderson had someone fax him a fingering chart for the flute and he went right to work teaching himself the proper technique.

Anderson admits that it's not going to revolutionize his playing. "But it's certainly going to allow me to sound more convincing to a proper flute player who would instantly recognize my lack of technique and lack of skill. I'm working toward sounding OK,'' he said.

After just eight weeks of training, Anderson said he has acquired more range and versatility with the flute.

In his 25 years with Jethro Tull, Anderson, 45, has made his flute a part of rock 'n' roll history. He's been captivating audiences worldwide not only with the odd collaboration of his flute and the trademark riffs of lead guitarist Martin Barre, but also with his outlandish theatrical poses while performing live.

For Anderson, who disdains the thought of dancing, the unusual movements are his way of responding to music.

"In the absence of (dancing), I have my own idiosyncratic way of combining physical movement with music," Anderson said. "But it's not dancing. It's just a response to music and musical highlights. It's a physical punctuation to what" Jethro Tull is playing.

"What I do on stage is, I just try to be me," he said. "I just do what I feel like at the moment. I don't plan it or choreograph it."

Ian Anderson also has not attempted to choreograph the success of Jethro Tull. He says he doesn't know why the group has remained so popular — 4,000 packed the Freilichtbühne Killesberg in Stuttgart last week at their first German stop on the current European tour.

Jethro Tull has succeeded with its live music and studio albums; only twice has it hit the American pop singles chart with the melodic Living in the Past and Bungle in the Jungle.

The former remains a Tull standard, but Bungle in the Jungle was dropped from the concert lineup long ago in favor of more classic lull rock songs: Aqualung, Thick As a Brick, and Too Old To Rock 'n' Roll, Too Young To Die!

Anderson said he isn't interested in understanding the reasons for the band's enduring success.

"All those aspects as to why people find (us) popular, pleasant to watch, listen to, I don't really know the answer to that. if I start thinking in those terms, I might start thinking about what I really ought to be doing in order to become more popular, to sell more records, to sell more concert tickets," Anderson said.

"That would become far too deliberate, especially for a bunch of old guys like us. ... Why, as Dave Pegg would say, break the habits of a lifetime?"

Unless, of course, your daughter is your critic.