Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson Says Legendary Rocker, 82, Never Had Great Vocal Skills

Mick Jagger might be one of the biggest rock stars of all time, but Jethro Tull’s lead singer Ian Anderson doesn’t consider his vocal skills to be the most impressive.“It depends what you do,” Anderson told Now Spinning Magazine, referencing how he still performs at his age. “You can be physically animated, but there’s a degree to which you can only do so much if you’re playing a flute. If you are Mick Jagger and you’re just running around with sort of shout-out vocals, then yeah – no disrespect, but Mick Jagger didn’t set the bar very high in terms of vocal skills right from the very beginning.”He continued, “He’s a shouter, and he doesn’t have to really hit the notes or necessarily be terribly great on intonation or phrasing or anything. He runs around in a very animated way, and that’s great for someone who’s — whatever — a couple of years older than me, or three years older than me. That’s fine. But it’s not that easy if you’re trying to play a flute … There is a limit to what you can do. And it tends to be that if I’m not playing the flute, I’m singing.”Anderson, who turns 78 in August, didn’t hold back about the pitfalls of aging as a performer and compared a Jethro Tull concert to two hours of high-intensity aerobics. While he admitted that his asthma, a condition he was diagnosed with later in life, is under control, he still deals with knee pain and some of the other typical wear and tear issues that come with getting older.RELATED: Rock Legend, 82, Throws Wild Birthday Bash That Ends With Police Outside the Venue“You've gotta face reality. I'll be 78 in a couple of weeks' time. And that's bringing with it a few issues,” Anderson explained. “If there's something that doesn't look right, then you've got a better chance of dealing with it if you catch it early. And so far, I've been lucky. Other than the inconvenience of a needle stuck into a vein, other than that, or an occasional finger in the bottom, I don't have any downside to doing that. Of course, you get a little tense and a little bit concerned about the results, but so far I've been lucky. But it doesn't stop me from doing it.”🎬 SIGN UP for Parade's Daily newsletter to get the latest pop culture news & celebrity interviews delivered right to your inbox 🎬
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