DAVID BRYAN
Bon Jovi’s keyboard player-turned-composer of musicals loves every little thing about Yes.
“I remember hearing Roundabout on the radio in the 70s and I loved it. I was just a kid and I thought,‘Wow, that’s amazing! I gotta get this record.’ Rick Wakeman’s such an amazing keyboard player. Being a classical guy, he had the [same] background that I had so it was wonderful to hear it and try to learn that solo, like every other keyboard player in the world!
I started my first band when I was 13 and we were jamming out everything that we liked. We tried Roundabout and we made a valiant attempt [laughs]. We didn’t have computers then where you could slow things down, you just had to listen to it a million times, mimic it and figure it out. You have to be really good to play that solo though. It was a great sound.
I started learning classical piano when I was seven so I’d played for many years before I was a teenager, but Rick was 100 percent original. What a virtuoso. His playing came out of his training and he was putting that into his vibe. I remember when he did the solo album, Journey To The Centre Of The Earth. I went to Madison Square
Garden to see him do it but it wasn’t just the keyboards I enjoyed, it was the musicality of it.
I bought so many records [during my youth]; whatever I could get my hands on, but my favourite album was Yessongs. I just really liked all the songs; I still listen to them and I’m still a fan. Even in the 80s, Yes were more complicated than a regular rock band with chord progressions and timings that were very complicated. I loved Owner Of A Lonely Heart, that was cool. And I love other prog stuff, like Jellyfish too. I’m a fan of music so I’m always listening to see what’s new, what’s coming out.
For the last 18 years, I’ve been working on musicals and I get to write songs that challenge my brain. We have a new one out on Princess Diana and it’s been fun giving the Royals ‘voices’. I love it because it’s so complicated. All the Yes stuff and all the really complicated music – ELP and all the stuff I’ve ever listened to – fits into that melting pot.” NRS
Diana The Musical is playing now at California’s La Jolla Playhouse. Bon Jovi’s UK tour starts in June. See www.bonjovi.com.