Steve Howe Talks Summer Prog Supertour With Yes and Asia

When Rolling Stone discovered Yes would be teaming with Asia for a summer trek that would have members of King Crimson, Emerson Lake and Palmer and the singer of a Yes cover band onstage, we promptly proclaimed it the proggiest tour of all time. Ian Drew grabbed a few moments with the man pulling double-duty in both bands, Steve Howe, to find out how he’ll split his time, who’s heading to the studio and how he narrows down his most embarrassing wardrobe moment.
How did you decide to do this double tour?
I had this summer pretty much booked up [with Asia], and Yes were disappointed about not getting a chance to play this summer, so I put my thinking cap on. I feel strongly that Asia is going to be very good opening act for Yes and it is a very unusual situation that someone like me would be in both groups — I feel that in itself says quite a lot.
During the show, what can we really expect?
Well obviously we’re fortunate that a lot of our music from our albums is greatly enjoyed, like for Asia, “Sole Survivor” and “Wildest Dreams,” and of course “Only Time Will Tell” and “Heat Of the Moment.” And then with Yes we have our rich material from Close to the Edge, Fragile and those albums, and of course “Roundabout” is incredibly popular, and so is “Owner of a Lonely Heart,” and we put in a good selection from the early years.
Do you get into a different frame of mind for each band?
I use different guitars in the groups, I use 175 Gibson models in Yes mainly, or I’ll play a 345 and I play Statocaster, but in Asia I mainly do all my work on a guitar called a Gibson exhaust system, […]

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