Martin Barre is best known from his decades in Jethro Tull. The iconic progressive rock band disbanded in 2011, leaving Barre and fellow frontman Ian Anderson to go their own ways. Now in his 70s, Barre is still a committed road warrior, touring often and preparing to write a new solo album.
Barre is due to appear Friday in Bloomington for a one-nighter at the Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts. It’s a blend of solo and Tull repertoire, plus a few creative covers, in a tour titled A Brief History of Tull. In an interview for WGLT’s Sound Ideas, Barre said he has no hesitation revisiting the music he played for nearly 50 years.
“I played on every one of those albums and I wrote a lot of guitar parts,” he said. “I wrote a little bit of the music and I played every gig that Jethro Tull ever played.”
Barre was the longest-serving member of Jethro Tull apart from Anderson, joining a few months after the band formed in 1967. Barre and Anderson parted ways in 2011, essentially agreeing that Jethro Tull was done, however Anderson began releasing music under the name following a 50th anniversary tour. Barre said he left the door open, but was not invited to play.
“I do have a great sense of belonging, which is why it’s very natural for me to go out and play the music,” Barre said. He compiled a few retrospective celebrations, with a 50th anniversary tour of his own and an Aqualung revival on that landmark album’s golden anniversary.
“I don’t know how Ian’s career is lying or what his plans are,” said Barre. “I don’t know, and it wouldn’t influence me. I thought many years ago I need to make my own way in my career as it is now and have no influence from outside. It would be wrong to look at what he’s doing and try to avoid it; I just do what I think works for me.”
Barre maintains that the real magic of Jethro Tull was the dynamic he and Anderson had as a creative duo.
“I had to make my own peace with it. I couldn’t let it destroy me,” he said. “I’m just a very determined person,” he said. “I love music. I love playing. I love my guitars. I even love my flutes. Nobody can take that away from me.”
But that doesn’t mean it’s been easy to rebuild his career.
“There’s me—I guess I would have been in my late 60s when Tull finished—there’s me holding the guitar at the door. And then next to me there’s a young kid, 18,” said Barre. “I know who they’re going to pick. People look towards new talent, fresh talent, that vitality. It didn’t help at all, and I literally went back to zero.”
Barre’s iconoclastic sound has been marked by stubborn individualism, refusing to let much outside influence enter his consciousness. Jethro Tull’s singular and ever-evolving sound benefitted. What began firmly in the blues quickly veered toward progressive rock once Barre joined the band. Jethro Tull continually chased something new. They wrote concept albums and peddled folk rock in the 1970s, and, in the ‘80s, took a sharp departure toward electronic rock. Barre said if he hadn’t been in the band, he’s not sure he would have liked the music. But the point was to continually push toward something new and original.
“From an early time in music when I first started playing in the mid-1960s, I just saw people trying to clone what other people were doing,” he said. “I never saw the point of it. To me, the natural thing is to follow your own path. It might not be the best, but at least it’s yours.”
Martin Barre of Jethro Tull plays at 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 18, at the Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts, 600 N. East St., Bloomington. Tickets are $45-$89 at 309-434-2777 and artsblooming.org.
