Jethro Tull’s enigmatic bandleader Ian Anderson has never quite fit the archetype of a rock star — and his reaction to an invitation to play the legendary Woodstock proves it.
Named after an 18th-century British agriculturist, the band emerged from the late-1960s British blues boom but quickly veered off course, weaving folk and, later, progressive rock into a defiantly left-field sound.
By the summer of 1969, Tull had just released their second album, Stand Up. The record marked the studio debut of guitarist Martin Barre, who had survived what he later described as a “terrifying” baptism by fire touring with his heroes after predecessor Mick Abrahams departed over musical differences.
The album’s success helped land the band an invitation to Woodstock, where they would have appeared alongside the likes of Jimi Hendrix, the Who and Creedence Clearwater Revival.
We would have been stereotyped as a Woodstock band.”
— Ian Anderson
But when Anderson reflected on the offer in an interview with the British newspaper The i, he said his first reaction was less than enthusiastic.
“Are there going to be any naked women running around?” he asked the organizers.
They told him there probably would be — and Anderson was not impressed. After all, this was a festival where the counterculture ran free. Just ask Carlos Santana, whose famous performance came under the influence of a potent dose of LSD.
“I don’t do drugs, and I don’t do naked hippies,” Anderson said. “I prefer not to do hippies even with their clothes on.”
And so Jethro Tull — which briefly counted a young Tony Iommi among its ranks that year — stayed home instead of heading to Bethel, New York, while the party raged on without them.
Given Woodstock’s towering legacy, skipping the festival might seem like a missed opportunity. But Anderson has long argued the decision worked in the band’s favor.
“We would have been stereotyped as a Woodstock band,” he said.
Not long afterward, Anderson crossed paths with members of Ten Years After, who had played the festival’s Sunday lineup between Country Joe and the Fish and The Band before Joe Cocker took the stage.
When he did, he got a firsthand glimpse of Woodstock’s enduring impact.
“I ran into their bass player [Leo Lyons] at a show in Europe,” Anderson recalled. “I recognized some familiar songs on the setlist stuck to his guitar. He said, ‘Yeah, that’s been taped there since 1969.’”
One of those songs was almost certainly “I'm Going Home.” Ten Years After’s ferocious performance of the track remains one of Woodstock’s defining moments, rivaling Hendrix’s immortal rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner’ as a festival highlight. Nearly six decades later, it still stands as a landmark in blues-rock history.
In that light, Tull’s anti-hippie stance may have been a blessing in disguise. The band hardly suffered from skipping Woodstock. In fact, they remain active today, releasing their 24th studio album, The Curious Ruminant, last year, with Anderson welcoming his latest guitarist under one strict rule when it comes to solos.
