Credit: Lee WilkinsonEx-Yes keyboardist Rick Wakeman says he’s decided to take part in this year’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony in April after all.
Shortly after the Rock Hall announced last month that Yes had been chosen for induction, Wakeman declared in an online post that he wasn’t going to attend the event. Wakeman was upset about how long it had taken for the band to be recognized with the honor, noting that founding bassist Chris Squire had died before the group was voted in.
But now, in a new message posted on his official website, Wakeman explains that his change of heart is due to a special honor that Rock Hall officials plan to bestow on Squire, who died of cancer in June 2015. The keyboardist writes, “I am very pleased to announce that as the Hall of Fame have now agreed to present Chris Squire’s wife with a posthumous award acknowledging his massive contribution to Yes, I have agreed to attend the Induction ceremony.”
Wakeman explains that at the event he will “stand proudly” with fellow former Yes members Jon Anderson and Trevor Rabin, with whom he currently is playing in the spinoff group ARW, and will “watch Chris’s wife Scottie collect this well-deserved award on his behalf.”
The 67-year-old musician adds, “I also hope that this move to acknowledge members of bands who sadly did not live to receive their own honour, means they can get them posthumously in the future.”
As previously reported, a total of eight musicians who have played in Yes will be welcomed into the Rock Hall when the band is inducted — Squire, Wakeman, Anderson and Rabin, as well as current and longtime guitarist Steve Howe and drummer Alan White, and founding keyboardist Tony Kaye and drummer Bill Bruford.
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