What does it take to play guitar in Jethro Tull? It’s a fair question, so we put it to the man in charge: Ian Anderson, the band’s frontman, flautist and occasional guitarist, who also happens to own some rather rare vintage Martin acoustic guitars.
Anderson, 79, has a pretty clear idea of what he wants from a guitarist. For starters, he tells Guitar Player, “I don’t think I would want to have a guitar player whose sole interest and influence was Black, American folk music.”
That’s an interesting perspective from the songwriter behind “Aqualung” and “Locomotive Breath,” on which he handled much of the guitar work himself, playing a Les Paul. But the band’s earliest recordings, particularly those featuring original guitarist Mick Abrahams, who later formed the blues-oriented Blodwyn Pig, leaned more heavily on the blues. Anderson and Abrahams, however, had different ideas about the band’s musical direction.
“You might call it the blues,” Anderson says. “But to me, it’s cultural misappropriation.”
He explains: “I am not Black. I am not of the cultural background or experience of a Black American. I love to listen, and still do today, occasionally listen to some of the great Black American blues artists that I grew up with as a teenager; it was an opening of the door for me.”
Anderson wanted to take Jethro Tull somewhere else. After Abrahams’ departure, Tony Iommi briefly joined the band before returning to Birmingham and the group that would become Black Sabbath. Martin Barre subsequently took over on guitar, helping establish the sound that would define Tull for decades.
“Musically speaking, I used the blues to open doors into the music business and to be able to get an audience … and a record deal,” Anderson says. “I never felt that’s what I wanted to do with my life. So, the guitar influence in Jethro Tull went toward European classical music, and obviously, English, Scottish, and Irish folk music. That’s the way I saw the band from 1969 onward.”
Anderson’s feelings about Tull’s place in the musical landscape extend to the band’s induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
“For Jethro Tull to be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is missing the point, really, because that’s the celebration of all the great music in America,” he says. “I don’t feel we’re really that way. Not much of what we’ve done is influenced by American music.”
That distinct musical identity has also shaped Anderson’s relationship with the guitarists who have passed through the band. In recent years, that has included Florian Opahle, Joe Parrish and now Jack Clark. Anderson remains closely involved in how their parts develop, although he doesn’t necessarily dictate every note.
Asked whether he tells his guitarists what to play, Anderson says, “Well, they’re not writing the songs. They’re coming up with parts and some improvised solos based on what I outline to them.”
The outline, he explains, is a starting point rather than a finished instruction. “The outline might be a starting point for their approach. As a record producer, I have to draw from something that is cohesive and works with the song.”
He continues: “So, I will give them, in varying degrees, some input to help them along the way. Maybe I’ll show them something in rehearsal, or they’ll send me a demo as an email attachment, and I listen to what they’re thinking, and we fine-tune it to get the right result.”
In Clark’s case, Anderson says, there’s generally very little to change.
“Ninety-five percent of what Jack does straight away is usable, and the right thing,” he says. “It’s usually the right thing for the record and the way that I think it should be.”
Given Anderson’s involvement in the band’s arrangements, not to mention his own considerable songwriting contributions, it’s reasonable to wonder why he doesn’t handle more of the guitar work himself. As it turns out, he does play a significant amount of guitar on Jethro Tull’s latest album, 2025’s Curious Ruminant, as he has throughout the band’s history.
“The guitar is obviously a very important instrument in the band,” he says, “alongside the instrument I’m most well-known for, which is the flute! That interaction between the very, perhaps, shrill, bird-like quality of the flute and more sonorous, full-on chordal guitar stuff is the starting point for how people see our songs.”
Anderson says much of the band’s acoustic guitar work is his own. “I would probably describe our music as ‘acoustic music,’ which is nearly always me. Whether it’s Thick as a Brick or this new album, if it’s an acoustic guitar, it’s me playing it.”
That doesn’t mean he’s looking to take over the lead-guitar role. “I think of myself as a guitar player,” he says. “But I’m not a soloist. I’m not an upfront, flashy player. I am there when I need to play a part, sometimes, in an acoustic context.”
“It’s just me and the guitar,” he adds. “Though sometimes, it’s me, my guitar, and the rest of the band being well-behaved and not too noisy. [laughs] That’s the way it works.”
The guitar Anderson tends to reach for is something special: a C.F. Martin dating to around 1880.
“It’s a small-bodied, nylon-string guitar,” he says. “I take a lot of pleasure in having an instrument that’s that old and letting it have a voice in something that’s from the new millennium.”
