Regardless of the profession, everyone has had at least one terrible boss or colleague in their life. Jethro Tull leader Ian Anderson had some unpleasant experiences with famous Rock stars who built a reputation for not being nice in the business. One of them is Van Morrison, known for being a member of Them and for solo hits such as "Brown Eyed Girl" and "Moondance". Speaking to Classic Album Review in 2025, Anderson described Morrison as “truly bad, like really unpleasantly not nice.” Why Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson hates Van Morrison "I have yet to meet, apart from Chuck Berry, Van Morrison and one other person who escapes me at the moment, who snubbed me. I've yet to meet someone who wasn't actually a nice person and a warmth and a humor about them. All the bad guys in Rock and Roll, some of them are my pals. I mean, the baddest people in Pop and Rock, they turn out to be really nice and fun guys. Even if their exterior (don't show) that." "Ritchie Blackmore (for example), perfect gentleman, nice guy. They don't live up to the bad PR reputation which they have all been blessed and cursed, which obviously maintain their credibility as bad boys. But the only ones who are truly bad, like really unpleasantly not nice (like) Van Morrison... We befriended at a time when he was really down in the dumps in Montreux. My wife cooked dinner for him and his girlfriend because he was really in a depressed state about his career, his future and whatever." He continued: "We were all nice to him and he wasn't exactly fun and joy to be with. But you know, he was ok. But subsequently, he really snubbed me. All it takes is just to say 'Oh, hi' and then you're on your way. He just snubbed me in a not nice way and that happened to me two or three times only in all my musical life. Most of the time all the bad boys turned out to be usually pretty good boys. At least with me, they're always very polite. All of Emerson, Lake & Palmer had terrible reputations, all really nice guys." "(...) (With Chuck Berry) I just went over to say hello to him, it was a festival somewhere. He was sitting in an open top Mercedes, which apparently he had demanded from the promoter. (...) Chuck Berry was sitting in his car having refused to go to a dressing room. He just sat in the car until it was his turn to go on stage and then drove away straight away afterwards. I saw him and just wanted to say hi. 'Hello, Mr. Berry, I'm also playing at the festival and you know, great to see you here. Used to hear your music when I was a teenager and started playing'." Ian Anderson continued: "Whatever I would have said, I didn't get the chance to say because he just gave a cold look and turned away. He didn't react or said anything, just turned away. I think Chuck Berry was pretty unfriendly guy to most people. Van Morrison is unfriendly even to members of his own band. I mean, he's notoriously disgruntled, angry person. He can't help the feel that he's angry with himself or something. There's something weird about Van Morrison. The only time I interact with him back in Montreux, whenever it was back in 73, 74. He seemed (to be) in a state of real depression. I mean, (with a) damaged psyche and yet he was still close to the peak of his acceptance particularly in the USA, where he was a big star." "But something wasn't right and he was a lost soul. Some people are like that and I dare say, before I let you go that I'm sure there are people who could deliver similar stories about me. So I shouldn't forget if somebody approaches me at the wrong moment, at the wrong time, I may not be in a particularly friendly mood to have to do a selfie or shake hands with somebody. I try to tell me to (be nice), it doesn't cost me anything to say: 'Oh hi, nice to see you. Thanks for coming to the show,'" Ian Anderson said (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage). Anderson almost recorded a song with Van Morrison https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpHX44EdD5M&pp=ygUaIHZhbiBtb3JyaXNvbiBtb3VudHJleCAxOTc%3D Ian Anderson said in an interview with My Planet Rocks in 2021 that the Johnny Kid and The Pirates song "Shakin' All Over" was one of his favorites of all time. He recalled that he once tried to record a cover of the track with Van Morrison, but it ultimately did not happen. “It was the first song that really grabbed me out of the three-minute pop song stuff. It sounded a bit angry. I remember many years later persuading Van Morrison, who was at a bit of a loose end. So I said, you know, ‘let’s go and record ‘Shakin’ All Over’ and he said ‘yeah, okay’. So we all rehearsed and got everything together.” “Then for some reason I think he chickened out. We never did do Van Morrison remake of ‘Shakin All Over’. But it would have been great. It was just absolutely the right song for him,” Ian Anderson said (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage). Van Morrison is two years older than Ian Anderson, he was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland and started his career in 1958. He first achieved fame as the frontman of Them, band known for hits like "Gloria", "Baby, Please Don't Go" and "Here Comes The Night". Morrison became even bigger a solo artist with songs like "Brown Eyed Girl", "Into the Mystic" and "Moondance". He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame back in 1993 by The Band's guitarist Robbie Robertson. Over the decades Morrison became a good friend of Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page.
