Former Jethro Tull Frontman Pays Respect To Jethro Tull

Ian Anderson visited Jethro Tull’s grave today at St. Bartholomew’s Church in England but ignored his life story for years finding it ‘awkward and embarrassing.’ After his new project, Jethro Tull: A Rock Opera featuring songs from the band’s back catalogue and reading his biography, Anderson discovered many of the songs were ‘an easy fit’ with what’s known about Tull’s life. Known for agricultural reform, he invented the seed drill and the horse-drawn hoe and died in 1741. Jethro Tull: A Rock Opera reimagines the agriculturist’s life in the near future.

‘I thought it would be a lot more relevant to bring it up to date' Anderson told Uber Rock ‘and cast our original Jethro Tull not as some 18th-century guy in that particular sort of long wig and the garb of the era, making his first seed drill out of the cobbled together bits of wood from the foot pedals of his church organ, but as a present day biochemist working on developments of new technologies to employ genetic modification and cloning and other ways of bringing about increased production to satisfy the needs of an ever-expanding planetary population.'

The following is from Jethro Tull's Facebook page:

'At 11 am on Wednesday 2nd September, Ian Anderson, founding member of prog-rock band Jethro Tull will be at St Bartholomew’s Church in Lower Basildon to visit the memorial of the band’s namesake.

The 18th century agriculturalist, Jethro Tull, is famous for perfecting the horse drawn seed drill in 1701 and is the subject of Ian Anderson’s new project, Jethro Tull: A Rock Opera. Featuring songs from the band’s back catalogue, the rock opera reimagines the agriculturist’s life in the near future.

St Bartholomew’s Church is cared for by The Churches Conservation Trust, the national charity protecting historic churches at risk. Chief Executive of the Trust, Crispin Truman, explains:

Each of the 347 churches that The Churches Conservation Trust cares for has their own story to tell and I’m delighted to welcome Ian Anderson to St Bartholomew’s to be part of the story of this striking 700 year old church. Jethro Tull revolutionised modern agriculture and it’s great to see his life commemorated in such an exciting way.

Press and the public are invited to meet Ian Anderson as he visits Jethro Tull’s burial place at St Bartholomew’s Church in Lower Basildon at 11am on Wednesday 2nd September. He will be available for photographs and short interviews.'