Rick Wakeman prepares to return to North America in February for another leg of his Even Grumpier Old Rock Star on Solo Tour, but the old Yes The keyboardist also says he’s making progress on a new concept album he’s been working on for a while.

As he told ABC Audio late last year, the project is called A Gallery of the Imagination. Explaining the concept, the 72-year-old Rock & Roll Hall of Famer noted, “[I]If you walk into an art gallery, you’ll see all kinds of paintings… from surrealist paintings to Renaissance paintings to modern art… So I wanted to have an album that was a gallery of all kinds of music.

In a recent article on his website, Rick said of the project, “I’m really happy with how it’s going and now I’m going to be spending some time playing around with the song melodies and lyrics ready to be sent to [singer/sax player] Hayley [Sanderson] and also some more work on my part is [needed] regarding the keyboard arrangements for the instrumentals.

Wakeman told ABC Audio that in conjunction with the album, he plans to encourage fans to create artwork inspired by each track, and then “we want to collect them all and… get our hands on a big gallery. somewhere… and have these pictures [displayed].”

Rick envisions people visiting the gallery putting on headphones and listening to the songs on the album while looking at the corresponding artwork inspired by the tracks.

He added: “I guess [it’s] the next step of being interactive with the public.

Wakeman’s The Even Grumpier Old Rock Star 2022 tour kicks off Feb. 22 in Seattle and takes place as part of a show March 14 in Toronto.

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