Rick Wakeman is nothing if not a trouper.
The legendary progressive-rock keyboardist – best known for his early work with Yes and its 1972 masterpiece album, Close To the Edge – has battled multiple health problems for years. But that hasn’t prevented him from hitting the road for a U.S. tour that brings him to Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Atlantic City on March 31.
“Yeah, I do have some health issues that make life a little bit difficult, but you can do one of two things,” reasoned the 73-year-old during a recent phone call to his home in Suffolk, England. “You either plow through them and go, ‘I’ll deal with it,’ or you don’t deal with it. I like to think of myself as a ‘deal-with-it’ kind of person. I mean, I’ve got arthritis in my hands and in my feet and legs. But the hand arthritis is interesting: After a show, they’re not worse. So it’s not exacerbating the situation.
“I can live with that,” he added. “I know how to deal with that. I wear half-gloves – I wear them to play as well – and they do help.”
Wakeman has his diabetes under control through a combination of medication and diet, and he noted that he’s learned to live with the dramatic fluctuations in weight that can accompany the illness.
“The whole diabetes thing means you have the old ‘yo-yo’ weight,” he explained. “One minute, you’re putting on weight; the next minute it disappears. But you get used to that,” added Wakeman, who said he also has age-related eye problems caused by macular degeneration that are treated with monthly injections.
Wakeman’s litany of physical ailments should not be mistaken for complaints: He made it a point to express his gratitude for, and contentment with, his life today.
“I’m quite happy,” he insisted. “I wake up in the morning, throw the covers back, and boom! If nothing’s dropped off, I go, ‘Hey, another day!’
“Obviously, you deal with life a bit differently when you’re on the road,” Wakeman noted. “But I’ve got a great team. I get nicely driven everywhere. I get fed. I just try and look after myself a little bit better now, because I enjoy playing. I enjoy meeting people. And in order to do that, I’ve got to take a little bit more care of myself than I used to.”
But Wakeman does not kid himself about his conditions and their potential effects on his career. He acknowledged there are no guarantees that those issues won’t ultimately force his retirement from performing.
“If it gets to a stage where I can’t play to the standard that I set myself, then I would have to rethink what I do,” he offered. “Because I never, ever, want to go on stage and have people applaud me for what I used to be.
“That doesn’t interest me at all.”
Wakeman, who has also played with such artists as Cat Stevens and David Bowie – that’s him playing the piano on the iconic Life On Mars? from the 1971 album, Hunky Dory – is as famous in his native England for his sharp sense of humor as he is for his prodigious musical talents. And, he promised, that side of him will be on display at Hard Rock.
The program, he said, is “just me on my own grand piano and some keyboards, because there are some pieces that don’t work as well on piano. They work better on keyboards, and vice-versa.
“And it’s a mixture of music that I’ve been involved with over the years. There’s some Yes, there’s some David Bowie stuff, there’s some Cat Steven stuff. There’s some of my other stuff, and a few little surprises here and there.
“In between the music, I tell completely ludicrous stories, some of which are possibly true.”
Given that “prog-rock” musicians, as a group, tend to be somewhat serious and introspective, how does the man who some consider the greatest prog keyboardist of all time even think of injecting some lighter moments into his performances?
“I love comedy,” he said emphatically and unapologetically. “I think laughter is a great medicine for us all. And I just find so many things in life funny.”
So, how would Wakeman like to be remembered — beyond for the capes he has always worn onstage, that is?
“I’d like to think I’ve made some people happy and put some smiles on faces, and it would be nice if some of the music lives on a little bit,” he said.
“It’s a great honor to be a musician and to leave music behind. And it’d be nice if some of it was remembered fondly. I think it would just be nice to be remembered.”
Showtime is 8 p.m. For tickets, go to www.ticketmaster.com.
KC marks 50 at Bally’s
Those of you who like to put on your dancing shoes will want to be at Bally’s Atlantic City March 25 as disco-era titans KC & The Sunshine Band will get booties shaking.
The Miami-born band who kept the world dancing with such tunes as Shake Your Booty, That’s the Way and Get Down Tonight during its late-1970s heyday is currently on a tour celebrating the 50th anniversary of its founding.
Show time is 8 p.m. For tickets, go to www.ticketweb.com.
