Rick Wakeman: 'David Bowie's advice made me millions'

I worked on the removal lorry for £5 a week when I was 16. Back then I was very tall, 6ft 3in and very thin and I got on great with the guys who were very funny. When you got off the back of the lorry, you’d arch your back and they’d put something on your back to take in. On my very first job, I arched my back and they put a fridge on top and left me there an hour!

Then when I was 18, I worked for my dad’s friend Mr Smith, after he promised my dad he’d find me something to do. I turned up at his office in Chancery Lane, he gave me a massive box of paper clips and said: “I want you to put 50 paper clips in each brown envelope.” I did it for a week and as I left, I saw someone else pour them back into this huge box. My other job was to walk to the bookies, place his £1 bet and collect his winnings later. He always won and at the end of my first week, he paid me a fiver so I copied his bet and lost the lot. I returned crestfallen and Mr Smith said: “Well Richard, I’m guessing you’ve got no wages left. Don’t be a gambler son.” It was a lesson and I’ve not gambled since.

Has there ever been a time when you worried how you were going to pay the bills?

Yes, there have always been times like that. In the late Sixties, when I played at the Top Rank ballroom, being an organist meant carting my organ around to sessions, which cost two thirds of my earnings, on top of running a car, which was when I learnt the word “expenses”.

My rent cost £8 a week and I can remember being really short. In 1970, I was up in London looking for session work and Marc Bolan who was a great mate, gave me a session for Get It On. All I had to do was a glissando on the piano. I said to him afterwards, “You could have done that,” and he replied, “Well, you want your rent money don’t you?” Tough times, but when I joined Yes, I went from £18 a week to £50 a week.

Yes made a fortune, what did you spend it on?

We were all told to go out and buy a nice house, which was an eye-opener because I’d only known a two-up, two-down and a Ford Anglia. Suddenly we were talking five-bed, des-res. I remember looking around one house for sale in Gerrards Cross and the lady said, “This is the breakfast room.” I said: “What, just for breakfast?” because it was just a different world.

Lots of rock stars get ripped off, did you learn any tough lessons?

Yes, everybody in the business did. One thing you start to learn, usually too late, is that being top of the tree doesn’t last forever. You drop down a few branches and find your position but you set yourself a lifestyle that requires “top of the tree” earnings to pay for it. Then of course, you have the unexpected events like a divorce of which I’ve had three.

Suddenly you grow up very quickly and certainly when a problem hits, you back-pedal to try and work out how to sort it out. I was lucky. I had a very good accountant who helped tremendously and I learnt to listen but it took a long time. It probably wasn’t until the turn of the millennium when I found myself in yet another divorce, when the situation seems unbelievable, you really start to listen.

Most bands split up over money, girls or drugs. What was the biggest issue for Yes?

On the drugs side, I’ve never popped a pill in my life because I’m one of those people who does everything to excess. When I smoked, I smoked 30 a day and when I drank, I could have starred in the Olympic drinking team. I can’t even have two keyboards on stage: I have 30 and knew that if I ever got on the drug trail, I wouldn’t be here now. It was fear that kept me away.

I had two fine marriages and one disaster, but I’m unbelievably happily married now and Rachel and I have been together 11 years. It was purely musical differences with Yes. I have very strong principles and if I don’t like the music, then I can’t go out and earn from something I don’t believe in.

Being a top performer requires hard graft and dedication. Did that influence your decision to keep working after you left Yes?

Well I was in and out of Yes six times. Someone once likened it to Liz Taylor and Richard Burton’s marriage where we couldn’t live with or without each other. There’s an element of truth and I last left in 2005.

I’ve been extremely fortunate in the last 15-20 years that I’ve been able to get involved in television with Grumpy Old Men, Countdown and Watchdog and radio plus my books. It’s such a varied life: I’m an early riser at 5.45 every day, in my office before going into the studio and I get most things done by 9am, then steam off to whatever I’m doing. I love work and enjoy every day.

Are you a spender or saver?

I’m not a saver. I’m asset-OK but I’ve never been cash rich. Divorce makes sure you’re never cash rich!

What’s been your most indulgent purchase?

When Rachel and I bought our old mill house in Norfolk in 2005, our garden was just grass and gravel. I’m the veg man and my wife is wonderful in the garden. We had just three flowers in our garden and now we have 8,000 in an acre and a half, including a little wood and meadow. There isn’t a nursery or garden centre in the area that doesn’t know us.

What’s been your best financial move?

Undoubtedly listening to David Bowie who said: “Be your own man and don’t listen to people who don’t know a hatchet from a crotchet and try to fulfil their own ideas through you because they haven’t got any.” I wanted to do Journey to the Centre of the Earth with an orchestra but there wasn’t enough money from the record company. I ended up mortgaging my house, selling everything I owned. I begged, borrowed and stole to do it. But the record company didn’t want it and I faced losing everything because I was so heavily in debt.

Eventually my record company in America loved it, insisted it was released and it sold 15 million copies and that really taught me to be my own man. Spending money I didn’t have was simply my best financial decision because if I hadn’t done it, 40 years on, I wouldn’t be doing my shows now.

Tell us the most rock-and-roll thing you ever did?

I bought a racehorse, Tropical Saint, that belonged to the Queen Mother. I used to go down to Banbury and watch him train but during a televised race, his jockey pulled up and said there was something wrong. They put him in the grass to try and settle him but found him dead in the field. He was three and a half and had the equivalent of stomach ulcers. I was gutted.

If X Factor had been around in your day, would you have been tempted?

Absolutely not a hope in hell!

What’s your favourite charity?

I’m patron of a few including the Grand Order of Water Rats for which I’m King Rat and that’s an important one for me. Sparks is a sporting charity that puts on golf tournaments for sick children and my animal charities include Oldham Cats and Feline Care, a big cat charity close to me in Norfolk. I’m also a Freemason and the money they raise for charity is phenomenal. I have so much fun: I don’t class it as being a “good chap”. It’s just an opportunity to help great causes, meet wonderful people and have a great time.

• Rick Wakeman’s Journey To The Centre of the Earth tours the country until May 10. More info at kililive.com

• Tweet Rick at @GrumpyOldRick

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