Tony Kaye reveals new 9/11 album, complicated YES relationship

He's performed with YES, David Bowie, Badfinger, and now Tony Kaye, who retired from music in 1996, was so moved by the events of September 11, 2001, that he has committed his thoughts and feelings to a heartfelt a new album called "End of Innocence" due out September 10.

I spoke with Kaye about the album.

"Of course it's a very specific event that we had and it brought me out of retirement. I had actually retired and it brought me out of retirement that day after it happened. I unpacked my keyboards, settled in the garage and I really didn't have that much recording equipment but started playing and it all started happening."

We're talking an album 20 years in the making. What took so long Tony?

"There were a lot of other things going on at the time and I started working with Bill Sherwood who's now the bass player with Yes and we put together a band called 'CIRCA' and I moved and one thing led to another and gradually time went by."

Kaye says he had no real intentions of putting the album out but then,

"It recently just occurred because I just started playing with the band again for the 50th anniversary which was a few years ago. It was getting back involved with the band and management and they persuaded me to think about bringing it out and then COVID happened and suddenly I had plenty of time."

Speaking of the band. I asked Kaye about his relationship with some of the YES members starting with the late Chris Squire, which he described as "complicated."

"We had been friends for so long, we'd lived together, I lived with him, I almost married his daughter, there are a lot of connections. He moved to Los Angeles and I was living there next door to each other almost. There was a lot of family connections with Chris. It was a very sad time when he got sick."

Despite the "complications" Kaye says they were okay in the end.

"We'd gone through family dramas and things had gone down the pike, we'd known each other for so long, you look at some of the pictures from the early days we were twenty years old."

As for lead singer Jon Anderson, Kaye says,

"I don't see Jon anymore. We haven't really communicated in a long time. Jon's on his own wavelength."

We also talked about; Kaye's experiences with YES in Philadelphia, how he came to join the band, leave it and come back again, the story behind "Yours Is No Disgrace" and the reuniting for the "Cruise To The Edge Tour."

Listen to the podcast here.

The post above reflects the thoughts and observations of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Steve Trevelise. Any opinions expressed are Steve's own. Steve Trevelise is on New Jersey 101.5 Monday-Thursday from 7pm-11pm. Follow him on Twitter @realstevetrev.