Wizards, alien invasions, jazz metal, Grammy awards and jazz trios: Adam Wakeman can do it all – just. He tells Prog why it’s so important to work with his dad Rick, what’s happening with his Damian Wilson collaborations, and the biggest project of his already-busy next two years.
When your father is one of the most famous names in progressive rock, it can mean carrying a considerable weight of expectation. Or it can mean people trying to wrap you in capes. “Every time I see Kelly Osbourne, she says she’s either seen a cape somewhere or nearly bought one for me,” says Adam Wakeman. “She’s desperate to get me in a cape! One day – who knows? All the time my dad’s out there doing shows, he’s the only one who can pull the cape off.”
From working with Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath to pop stars Tony Hadley and Annie Lennox, Wakeman has forged a career both admirably successful and stylistically diverse. His role in Yungblud’s performance of Changes at last year’s Back To The Beginning concert earned him a Grammy, and he’s continued interpreting Sabbath’s catalogue with his jazz trio and symphony orchestra.
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Your Jazz Sabbath project has really taken off. Who’s coming to the shows?
Originally, I thought it was going to be 90% metalheads coming out of curiosity and 10% jazz fans, and I’ve found it’s the other way around. I didn’t expect that, and I didn’t expect it to be so well received by the jazz community. There’s some snobbery in all genres of music – there are some jazz venues and promoters who won’t have anything to do with us. They don’t see it as being legitimate enough as a jazz project, which to me is silly. Music is music and you either enjoy it or you don’t enjoy it.
It has the same reaction everywhere we go. I’ve taken Jazz Sabbath to Australia, we’ve been around Europe, we’ve been to Canada; we have a lot more planned in the next couple of years with an American tour. We’ve just licensed an album for Japan, which means we can support that in Asia. Because Sabbath was such a huge band, it’s popular everywhere.
Next year you’re heading out with your dad and his English Rock Ensemble for The Wizard Of Prog tour. What will you be playing?
On the last two big tours we did Journey To The Centre Of The Earth and Yes catalogue, then King Arthur and The Six Wives Of Henry VIII. So this is a “best of” tour. It’s going to be great. It’s always lovely working with my dad. We’ve worked together since I was 18. We’ve made a lot of albums together.
Selfishly, it’s just a great excuse to hang out with him because life gets in the way – one year rolls into the next and you realise you’ve hardly seen each other.
It’s the same with most people and their parents. When you’re both in the same industry and rarely on the same continent, you’ve got to grab the opportunities to spend time together when you can. I’m just lucky that I can do that on the road.
Is it a different headspace playing progressive rock versus jazz?
I don’t see it as having to be approached differently; it’s just a different show. It doesn’t feel like one is more natural than the other. It all comes under that umbrella of music. What I find difficult is jumping from one to the other. Last year where I was doing Tony Hadley’s Big Band Swing tour, that was all Frank Sinatra, Rat Pack-type songs, but I was learning stuff to do my dad’s tour, which was all the prog – Six Wives and King Arthur.
I’ve always done lots of different types of music and worked with lots of artists. I’m quite used to jumping from one to the next
I was also learning songs for Bruno Mars, Brandi Carlile, Slash and Duff from Guns N’ Roses, and I was doing Jazz Sabbath shows and Christmas shows with Damian Wilson. Your brain just can’t hold any other information, so my poor wife Terri can send me to the shops to get milk, and I’ll come back with a handbag!
My brain is just too full. It’s just the nature of how the last 30 years have been. I’ve always done lots of different types of music and worked with lots of artists, so I’m quite used to jumping from one to the next.
What else is keeping you busy?
I’m musical director for the War Of The Worlds theatre tour and I was given the job of rearranging the music for the theatre as opposed to the arena – a smaller orchestra, and choosing the band and the cast. That’s been great; and Damian is the first person to narrate War Of The Worlds live as well as singing.
It’s great to be spending time with him working on something completely different that isn’t Wilson & Wakeman or Headspace. It’s putting him into a completely different role. Damian and I have worked together for such a long time. It’s always great.
Any plans for more Headspace or Wilson & Wakeman projects?
The problem with both is we have to fit them around our other commitments. Jazz Sabbath has become more successful so it’s taking up more time in my diary. But I also have another project I’ve been working on for about four years with Sharon Osbourne – my orchestration of Black Sabbath music for a symphony orchestra. That’s being taken on the road in 2027 and 28. That takes priority over everything because it’s such a big-scale show. It’s going to be quite an immersive audio and visual experience.
With Damian, we can always pick stuff up where we left off. If I suddenly find I’ve got six weeks where I’m not on the road and Damian is in the country, we can get together and write an album or put some shows together. We’ll always be working together, although there’s nothing scheduled at the moment.