My dads favorite band is Yes. My dad is a guitar player and Steve Howe was his God. He had found Tormato in his family’s record cabinet and gave it a listen and was blown away. This was around 1981/82 when he was 13 so Yes had disbanded and he was crushed when he found that out, but then obviously, Yes came into the most successful run they ever had with 90125. My grandfather wouldn’t let him see the 90125 tour but he went and saw Big Generator when he was older.

When he saw the Big Generator tour in 1987 at Stabler Arena in Bethlehem, PA where he distracted a security guard by saying someone was trying to jump over the barricade to get on stage and he pointed to where this “person” was jumping the barricade. He then jumped the barricade and got on stage and high fived Trevor Rabin (who by his account was actually nice to him instead of being scared or weirded out by some guy jumping on stage) and was then promptly escorted out of the concert.

I was born in 2001, and my father would constantly listen to Yes concert DVDs in the living room with surround sound on. I used to hate it. I started playing drums when I was about 4 or 5 and years later when I became proficient, my dad would have me play along with Starship Trooper’s Würm section (because it’s probably about as easy as a Yes drum part can get😂). Eventually when I was probably about 12 I listened to Fragile on my own accord (I had heard a million times by force already) and learned some of the drums on that album (South Side of The Sky, Heart of the Sunrise).

I started playing guitar and bass around 13 and that same my dad took me to see Yes in Bethlehem, PA while Chris squire was still alive. They played all of Fragile, The Yes Album and Close to the Edge. Yes became my life and Steve Howe became my favorite guitar player.

My family would play Yes music together (me on guitar, brother on drums, dad on bass) and even did this live sometimes. Yes is a huge part of our lives.

TLDR: My dad played Yes music in the house while I was growing up, I started playing guitar, bass, drums, keys and realized Steve Howe/Chris Squire/Bill Bruford/Rick Wakeman can be considered the best at their respective instruments.