Jon Anderson has spoken about the failure of YES to replicate the success of 90125 in the 1980s, his hopes for a new YES 'Union', and his disappointment that an album from YES featuring ARW never materialized. The Rock And Roll Hall Of Famer made the comments while speaking to eonmusic about his new album, 1000 Hands.

On the commercial disappointment of 1987's Big Generator, the follow-up to mega-hit 90125: "When we got around to doing another album, my brain was; ok, let's extend the musicianship and the music of this band. Now we have a bigger audience, why don’t we try something more adventurous?”

But that didn’t happen: "Trevor Horne, who was producing it, basically didn’t want that. I was asked to stay away from rehearsals for two months, and it wasn’t very good energy at all, so we sort of scrambled to make the album. It never really had a direction. There was a lot of talk, and just general, searching for that hit record. There were some good songs, but it was just not meant to be."

On his hopes to reunite with YES: "Getting so many good musicians on a stage at one time is fantastic. That’s why in my heart of hearts, if we all did it together, and ‘kumbaya’ - which is not easy - but if we did it, the fans of the world would feel really, well, thank god we’re still alive. You know, get a hologram of Chris! God, it would be a fun-filled tour!"

On his disappointment that YES featuring ARW (Anderson with Trevor Rabin and Rick Wakeman) never recorded an album: "Well, the problem was, when you have a group together like that, if you have outside influences, things change, you know? We’d sit together and talk about doing this and doing that, and outside influences would say whatever they say - managers sort of thing. And it got to a silly point where we were supposed to record, and I was talking to my brother in Accrington, and he asked me what am I doing, and I said; 'oh, we’re going to record in L.A. next month', and he said; 'well, Rick’s touring here next month', and I said; 'really?! He never told me!' So that didn’t work. No matter how hard you force things together, outside influences change things."

Read the entire interview at eonmusic, here.

Anderson's new solo album, 1000 Hands, is available via his new partnership with Blue Élan Records. The album is available digitally as well as on CD and a deluxe 180-gram double vinyl package, and can be ordered here.

Tracklisting:

"Now"
"Ramalama"
"First Born Leaders"
"Activate"
"Makes Me Happy"
"Now Variations"
"I Found Myself"
"Twice In A Lifetime"
"WDMCF"
"1000 Hands (Come Up)"
"Now And Again"

"First Born Leaders":

"WDMCF" video:

(Photo - Joe Kleon)