YES Rock Legend Jon Anderson Changed His Name in The 70s

Jon Anderson is best known as the front man of the band YES but he's also put out 15 solo albums. The Rock and Roll Hall of Famer is still going strong in 2024 despite being 80 years old.

Get our free mobile app

Jon Anderson & The Band Geeks recently put out a new record called "True" and debuted the 10-minute single "Counties and Countries." We spoke to Jon Anderson on the Friday (08/23/24) edition of the I-95 Morning Show to learn more about the band, the song and his amazing career. These were some of our favorite moments from that chat.

Lou: This morning the boys and I listened to the new single "Counties and Countries" it's really great stuff and the message is so hopeful, can you talk about that?

Jon: "Well, I wrote the song ten years ago and when I got together with The Band Geeks, out of the blue I met this band who were playing music so well. They actually sent me a video of them playing Heart of the Sunrise so we were instant friends and I sent them, Richie the bass player, I sent him a couple of songs and one of them was one that I wrote over ten years ago called Counties and Countries. It was just me with a guitar and about a week later, what you just heard was sent to me and it freaked me out. I said Richie, you're a great producer, this sounds amazing. He said yes, it sounds like YES and I said yes it does. I'm very proud of it, it's one of the best things I've ever done."

Lou: I'm so curious about something, I read that you were born John, J-O-H-N and you dropped the H and went with Jon in 1970, like Jon Voight. What was behind the decision to alter your name?

Jon: "In England, there is sort of a, in the north of England they are known as crazy people, anything north of Manchester and that is where I lived, where I was born. They talk a little different language and they drop their H's. That is a big thing about southern English people, people that live around London and south of London they say all those guys up north, they always drop their H's and I said that is what I am going to do, I'm going to take out the H from my name so it's just J-O-N."

You can check our our complete chat with Jon Anderson below. We learned that Jon is in the process of completing his autobiography.