Ex-Yes vocalist Jon Anderson says his former bandmate Chris Squire visited him in a dream after his death, en route to Heaven: "It was an incredible moment"

Jon Anderson and Chris Squire
(Image credit: Jon Anderson - Scott Dudelson/Getty Images / Chris Squire - Samir Hussein/Getty Images)

Former Yes vocalist Jon Anderson says that he was visited by his estranged bandmate Chris Squire in a dream after the bassist's death, in what he has interpreted as a reconciliation of sorts. 

Anderson discusses his time in and out of Yes in an extensive new issue with Rolling Stone, arranged to promote his upcoming US tour, which launches on April 14. The interview naturally touches upon his exit from Yes in 2009, after illness forced him to back out of a planned 40th anniversary tour with the band. Squire, Steve Howe and Alan White subsequently continued as Yes without Anderson, who later put together ARW with former Yes colleagues Trevor Rabin and Rick Wakeman to play Yes songs. 

In the course of the interview, Anderson is asked if he had the opportunity to "make peace" with Squire before the bassist's passing in 2015. 

"He came and visited me when he passed away," Anderson replies. "I was in Maui with my wife Jane on holiday. I had this beautiful dream. There were a lot of people around in my dream. To my left, I could see this one lady standing there with robes. She looked like an angel, and she probably was. She pointed up the ski and there was Chris smiling with tears coming down his eyes and face.

I woke up from the dream and told my wife. I said, 'I just saw Chris. He was heading towards the light of Heaven.' She said, 'He loved you.' I said, 'Yeah. We were brothers. It was an incredible moment."

Anderson then continues, to say: "A couple of months later, I was doing a show in Phoenix. I met Chris’ widow, Scotland, and I told her the story. She said to me, 'He kept saying before he passed away that he wanted to go to Maui.' There you go."

Writer Andy Greene then asks, But you didn’t actually speak with him before he died?

"Didn’t need to," Anderson replies. "He had his life to live, and I had my life. I actually had a great dream about Alan White [ who passed away on May 26 last year]  last night. It was a lovely dream. He was with all the guys in the band … Not just one or two, but everybody who has been in the band. They were up there doing some gig or something." 

Elsewhere in the interview, Anderson is asked if he could ever envisage getting back together with Steve Howe as Yes: the singer replies, "You never know in this life." In 2020 Steve Howe told Rolling Stone that the idea of a reunion was "completely unthinkable."

The full Rolling Stone interview with Jon Anderson can be accessed here.

Paul Brannigan
Contributing Editor, Louder

A music writer since 1993, formerly Editor of Kerrang! and Planet Rock magazine (RIP), Paul Brannigan is a Contributing Editor to Louder. Having previously written books on Lemmy, Dave Grohl (the Sunday Times best-seller This Is A Call) and Metallica (Birth School Metallica Death, co-authored with Ian Winwood), his Eddie Van Halen biography (Eruption in the UK, Unchained in the US) emerged in 2021. He has written for Rolling Stone, Mojo and Q, hung out with Fugazi at Dischord House, flown on Ozzy Osbourne's private jet, played Angus Young's Gibson SG, and interviewed everyone from Aerosmith and Beastie Boys to Young Gods and ZZ Top. Born in the North of Ireland, Brannigan lives in North London and supports The Arsenal.