He has also appeared on albums by King Crimson, Toto, Lawrence Gowan, Tangerine Dream, Iron Butterfly, Milton Nascimento, Battles, Mike Oldfield and Kitaro.

[4] As a youngster, Anderson became a fan of several musicians, including Elvis Presley, Eddie Cochran, the Everly Brothers, and Jon Hendricks.

[7] There, he made a tentative start to a musical career, playing the washboard in Little John's Skiffle Group[8] who performed songs by Lonnie Donegan, among others.

At fifteen, Anderson left school after his father became ill and took up work on a farm, as a lorry driver transporting bricks, and as a milkman to help support the family.

[5] A keen football fan, he tried to pursue a career at Accrington Stanley F.C., but at 5 feet 5 inches (1.65 m) tall,[9] he was turned down because of his frail constitution.

[2] After one of the backing vocalists left the group, Anderson filled in the position, and found music more enjoyable and a better choice for money than manual labour.

[12] After returning to London in March 1968, Anderson met Jack Barrie, owner of the La Chasse drinking club in Soho who befriended the rest of the Warriors after they had relocated to the city.

Anderson helped out by working at La Chasse; during this time he got talking to Paul Korda, a producer for EMI Records who took him on to sing several demos.

Meanwhile, Anderson travelled to the Netherlands to join Les Cruches, a band he met in London, but promptly returned when he found out some of his demos were to be released as singles by Parlophone Records.

[13][14] Released under his pseudonym Hans Christian, the first, an orchestrated cover of "Never My Love" by the Association with "All of the Time" on its B-side, received a positive reception from New Musical Express and Chris Welch for Melody Maker who wrote in March 1968, "A blockbuster of a hit from a young fairy tale teller with an emotion packed voice.

[16] In May 1968, Barrie introduced Anderson to Chris Squire, bassist of the London-based rock band Mabel Greer's Toyshop, which had previously included guitarist Peter Banks.

[20] Although the band had no formal leader, Anderson served as its main motivating force in their early days, doing most of the hustling for gigs and originating most of their songs.

[7] In addition to Yes, Anderson appeared as a guest singer on Lizard by King Crimson for "Prince Rupert Awakes", the first part of their 23-minute title track recorded in 1970.

His proposals for albums based on the Russian-French artist Marc Chagall and the book A True Fairy Tale by Daphne Charters were not enthusiastically received by the label's management, who lost interest and requested their advance back.

[31] The album was also notable for the title track, which was an ode to classic Hollywood gangster films of the 1930s and 1940s with voice impressions of Humphrey Bogart, Peter Lorre and James Stewart which paid homage to The Maltese Falcon (1941).

In early 1983, Anderson was contacted by Phil Carson of Atlantic Records who suggested that he hear a tape of demos that Cinema, a new group formed of Squire, White, Kaye, and guitarist Trevor Rabin, with Horn as producer, had developed for a new album.

[36] His first primarily instrumental album, it displays Anderson performing ambient music with assistance from Steve Katz and Keith Heffner on keyboards and his two daughters on vocals.

[38] The album was meant to be released in 1993 as The Power of Silence, minus the sound effects and narration added later, but it was cancelled following issues with Geffen Records.

[35] On 12 May 1996, Anderson performed an 80-minute set at a Mother's Day concert in Paso Robles, California, formed of Yes, Jon and Vangelis, and solo material.

[41] Development on the project slowed since then; in 2011, he reasoned the delay as it spans up to three hours in length, of which he has written the majority of it, but needs additional time "to figure out how to recreate it correctly".

[47] In 2007, Anderson sang on Culture of Ascent by Glass Hammer, and appeared as part of a vocal ensemble on "Repentance" on Systematic Chaos by Dream Theater.

In May 2008, during plans for a Yes tour to commemorate the band's fortieth anniversary, Anderson suffered an asthma attack, and was diagnosed with respiratory failure.

In October 2011, Anderson released a single-track EP entitled Open, a 20-minute piece with a group of additional musicians including orchestral arrangements and a choir.

He had started it almost 30 years prior and named the album accordingly due to the many musicians that play on it,[65] including Steve Howe, Jean-Luc Ponty, Chick Corea, and Billy Cobham.

[66] On 30 June 2021, Anderson announced a Summer 2021 11-city tour of US theaters with the Paul Green Rock Academy that kicked off 30 July in Patchogue, New York, and wrapped up 20 August in Woonsocket, Rhode Island.

Backed by The Band Geeks, Anderson toured in Spring 2023 under the title "Yes Epics and Classics" with a setlist devoted to early 1970s Yes material.

Composed entirely of tracks from Yes's classic seventies era, it was recorded and filmed with The Band Geeks at the The Arcada Theater, St. Charles, Illinois in May 2023.

"[2][78] Anderson has said elsewhere that his lyrics are designed less with literary intent than to add tone and texture to the music, and his works often make use of assonances and emphasis on open vowels to this effect.

[81][82][83] Deborah is a photographer and sang on her father's solo album Song of Seven (1980), Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe (1989), and Angel Milk (2005) by the French electronica band Télépopmusik.

"[96] Yes' planned summer 2008 tour was subsequently cancelled, with the press release saying, "Jon Anderson was admitted to the hospital last month after suffering a severe asthma attack.