Yes: Jon Anderson Offered To Return To Yes

Jon Anderson was offered to return to Yes after they sacked his replacement last month – but he says the band don’t want to know.

And he’s lambasted the prog rock outfit he co-founded for letting fans down in favour of the pursuit of money, adding they’re not interested in making new music.

Yes sacked Anderson in 2008 and he maintains they did it because he was too ill to tour. Tribute artist Benoit David took his place – but in February he revealed he’d been dismissed without being told, also because he was ill.

Anderson tells the Dallas Observer: “I’ve told them that since I an healthy again that I would get back with them.

“I told them that i wanted to create new music, but they don’t want to do that. They just want to go on the road and make money. They don’t care for the integrity of the band.

“I feel they have let a lot of fans down – they’re just in it for the money.”

Anderson says he nearly died during the health episode that left him in hospital, and also lost him his role in Yes. “I nearly died a couple of times,” he reports. “It was a very tough time for me. Several things were happening at the same time. I ended up having seven or eight operations over a period of six months. But after they were all finished I felt like I had been to Jiffy Lube and I had a much better engine.”

David recently told fans how he was replaced by current singer Jon Davidson after being ordered not to tour: “I subsequently learned from a band member’s interview that I had officially left Yes and my departure was permanent. As this is the situation, everyone should know that I will be eternally grateful for the opportunity I was given.”