“I started my first band at 13. We tried Yes’ Roundabout… it was a valiant attempt!”: Long before David Bryan joined Bon Jovi, he was trying to play like Rick Wakeman

Yes and David Bryan — (Image credit: Getty Images)

In 2018 Bon Jovi keyboardist David Bryan told Prog how much Yes – and in particular, Rick Wakeman – means to him, and where you’ll find their influence in his musical output.

“I remember hearing Roundabout on the radio in the 70s – I was just a kid and I thought, ‘Wow, that’s amazing! I gotta get this record!’

Rick Wakeman’s such an amazing keyboard player. Being a classical guy, he had the same background I had. So it was wonderful to hear Roundabout and try to learn that solo, like every other keyboard player in the world.

I started my first band when I was 13 and we were jamming out everything we liked. We tried Roundabout… we made a valiant attempt! We didn’t have computers then, where you could slow things down; you just had to listen to it a million times, mimic it and figure it out.

You have to be really good to play that solo, though. It was a great sound. I started learning classical piano when I was seven, so I’d played for many years before I was a teenager. But Rick was 100 percent original. What a virtuoso. His playing came out of his training and he was putting that into his vibe.

YesSongs #7: YES - Roundabout - YouTube

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I remember when he did Journey To The Centre Of The Earth. I went to Madison Square Garden to see him do it. But it wasn’t just the keyboards I enjoyed – it was the musicality of it.

I bought so many records when I was young; whatever I could get my hands on. But my favourite album was Yessongs. I just really liked all the tracks; I still listen to them and I’m still a fan.

Even in the 80s, Yes were more complicated than a regular rock band, with chord progressions and timings that were very complicated. I loved Owner Of A Lonely Heart – that was cool.

I love other prog stuff, like Jellyfish. I’m a fan of music so I’m always listening to find out what’s new.

Since 2000 I’ve been working on musicals where I get to write songs that challenge my brain. We did one on Princess Diana and was been fun giving the Royals ‘voices.’ I love it because it’s so complicated.

All the Yes stuff and all the really complicated music – ELP and all the stuff I’ve ever listened to – fits into that melting pot.”

YES - Owner of a Lonely Heart (Official Music Video) - YouTube

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Artists

Contributing to Prog since the very first issue, writer and broadcaster Natasha Scharf was the magazine’s News Editor before she took up her current role of Deputy Editor, and has interviewed some of the best-known acts in the progressive music world from ELP, Yes and Marillion to Nightwish, Dream Theater and TesseracT. Starting young, she set up her first music fanzine in the late 80s and became a regular contributor to local newspapers and magazines over the next decade. The 00s would see her running the dark music magazine, Meltdown, as well as contributing to Metal Hammer, Classic Rock, Terrorizer and Artrocker. Author of music subculture books The Art Of Gothic and Worldwide Gothic, she’s since written album sleeve notes for Cherry Red, and also co-wrote Tarja Turunen’s memoirs, Singing In My Blood. Beyond the written word, Natasha has spent several decades as a club DJ, spinning tunes at aftershow parties for Metallica, Motörhead and Nine Inch Nails. She’s currently the only member of the Prog team to have appeared on the magazine’s cover.