Rick Wakeman

Equally important is the strong song and melodic influence on the album, with eight unconventional vocal tracks, with Rick's distinctive descriptive music ...

And he said, “liven it up Rick, for heaven’s sake.” And I said, “I can’t do it.” He said “go on, go on, go on” [laughs]. And for me, the general rule in music is you have one idea, you write one song, you have two ideas, you write two songs and so on. And I think people always ask you about your acceptance speech at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and that was awesome by the way. And they do a bit of good at the end of the day because it points a few things out and we can get on to do it. And “The Eyes Of A Child” is a message to your grandkids in a way. And I said, “why?” He said, “because often or not people will have a march, they’ll calm down and they’ll end up having parties and concerts at the end of it, they get it out, they’ll have a lovely time and then they go home.” And nothing gets done, nothing changes. And that’s when David Bowie and I became really good friends and he said, “listen, you’re a piano player, would you come and do some piano for me?” I said “yeah!” And that was the start of the friendship. And then he said, “and the first one I thought, I’ll have to get Rick on this because he’s grumpy.” And it’s very true. I didn’t paint anything, but I listened to “A Mirage in the Clouds” with my daughter, and she loved it too. That’s a 90’s track.” No, it’s a piece of music and you either like it or you don’t. You’ll be painting pictures to music” and “I want you to, after you’ve learned a piece, you’ve read the music, you’ve learned it, close your eyes and paint pictures.” And I did that, and I still do that to this day. And they know what they like and they like it done properly and they like it done well.