The Jethro Tull album that Geddy Lee said is his favorite one

The Canadian singer, bassist and keyboardist Geddy Lee grew up being influenced by many different kinds of Rock and Roll music but everything changed for him after he discovered Progressive Rock. The British bands that appeared in the late 60s were the ones that influenced the most and one of his favorites is Jethro Tull.

Led by the multi-instrumentalist and singer Ian Anderson, the group has been for almost six decades one of the most successful Prog Rock bands of all time. They have released 23 studio albums and have sold an estimated amount of more than 60 million records worldwide.

Lee continues to be a huge fan of the band and praises them every time he has the opportunity. The musician even revealed which is his favorite album of them.

The Jethro Tull album that Geddy Lee said is his favorite one

The North American market has always been huge for British bands and was a big focus for them especially in the 60s. So everytime they were promoting a new record they scheduled many tour dates in the United States and Canada. So Geddy Lee had the opportunity to see many incredible groups playing live when he was young and Rush was still starting. One of the bands he had the chance to see was Jethro Tull and he recalled that experience in an interview with The Quietus in 2012. During the same conversation he revealed that his favorite Jethro Tull album is “Thick As a Brick” released in 1972.

“My favorite Jethro Tull album. I know it is partly a send up of the idea of ‘concept’, but it is delivered to perfection. I was a massive Tull fan from very young. They are one of the bands that I saw live in Toronto. Yes, we were lucky to see so many incredible concerts when we were very young. I hope, that too reflects in Rush.”

“I was mesmerized by Ian Anderson. His presentation was simply magical and he delivered it with such a sense of humor and great style. There really wasn’t anyone else who looked or sounded quite like them and that holds true to this day. We saw it as a huge challenge to try and create something that can seem so dynamic onstage.”

He continued:

“They are probably best regarded as a live band although their series of albums around that period were exceptional. This still sounds fresh and it is great to see that interest in Tull is still growing,” Geddy Lee said.

He said that Jethro Tull was the best band he had seen live

The Rush frontman loves Jethro Tull so much that he even said in an interview with Classic Rock in 2023 that they were the best band that he had ever seen live. He said that the best thing about them is that they combined incredible musicianship with complex songwriting.

But besides that, they were also funny, so those were three elements that inspired Geddy for his career with Rush. Because it has always been important to him to take his music seriously but not to take himself seriously.

He thinks Jethro Tull deserves to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

During his spoken-word to promote his autobiography “My Effin’ Life”, Geddy Lee answered many fan questions. In his appearance in Cleveland, Ohio in December, 2023, the musician said that Jethro Tull deserves to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

“(Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage) There are a lot of bands that come to mind but the first band of course is Jethro Tull. I mean, I love Jethro Tull so much. They were so inspirational to me and I talk about this in the book. About how our careers were elongated and we had another chance after Neil‘s tragedies to come back on the road.”

“So much loosened up about our stage show and we started to become more comfortable with ourselves. (Starting to) bring more of our sense of humor into the films we produced and etc. A lot of that was inspired by when I used to go see Jethro Tull play because they were really funny.”

“I mean, their staging was elaborate, their music was complicated and they had a great sense of humor. They would interrupt a song to read the news, you know. They had all kinds of Monty Python episodes on their shows,” Geddy Lee said. During the same conversation the musician said that they should have been inducted long before Rush.