Creativity Quote by Rick Wakeman

Leaving a band is supposed to be a clean break: you pack up your gear, your name comes off the poster, the story moves on. Rick Wakeman refuses that mythology. By calling his departures from Yes "bizarre" and reaching for the image of an "umbilical cord", he frames the relationship less like employment and more like kinship - intimate, involuntary, and a little uncomfortable to admit in a business that pretends everything is contractual.

The intent is quietly self-protective. Wakeman isn’t litigating who was right or wrong in the breakups; he’s reclaiming continuity. For fans, lineup changes can feel like betrayal. For musicians, they can be survival. This metaphor offers a third option: separation without severance, conflict without exile. "Spiritually" does a lot of work here, softening the hard edges of ego, money, and creative control that usually drive rock-band schisms. It says: whatever happened, it wasn’t reducible to a disagreement over songs or schedules.

The subtext is also about identity. In progressive rock, the band isn’t just a brand; it’s an ecosystem of parts that only make sense together. Wakeman’s flamboyant keyboard persona was never simply his own - it was shaped by the specific chemistry, expectations, and even the excess of Yes. An umbilical cord implies nourishment both ways: the group fed his myth, and he fed theirs.

Context matters: Yes is practically defined by exits and returns, a long-running argument about what "the real band" is. Wakeman’s line sidesteps purity tests and turns the whole saga into something messier and more human: you can leave, but you can’t quite stop belonging.