Wakeman: The great thing about being grumpy, as I was advised by Start Prebble, is there's a fine line between being grumpy and angry. Pure grumpy is when somebody moans about something. But people laugh because it's absolutely true, but angry is not funny. And Prebble said it's about things we put up with — we have a moan and then get about with our daily lives.

The Bee: Well, I'm pretty grumpy that we only have a few more minutes to chat, so tell me a little about what fans and friends will see from you when you get to the Ridgefield Playhouse.

Wakeman: Well, it's going to be just me on piano and a couple of other keyboards so I can do some of the organ and synthesizer pieces I've written over the years, "Jane Seymour," and "Judas Iscariot," which I could play on piano, but they work better on a keyboard that plays organ. I'm also putting together some pieces I haven't played before that I'm adapting for piano. So it will be a mix o music — some of which people will know and some they may not know — and some they wish they never knew. They'll me mixed with some very surly stories and some serious ones as well. We've been through a lot these past couple of years, so I hope it will be an evening that gives people something to think about, maybe have a few good laughs, maybe almost bring a tear to the eye, and hopefully sending eveyone home happy and wanting to come again.

The Bee: Do you have an inventory of songs so maybe each stop will be a little different?

Wakeman: It always happens. I do have a set list, and what I call a stepping stone plan for every show — otherwise you fall apart — but what happens, when I arrive, someone at a meet and greet or at the hotel will remind me that the last time I was in town, such and such happened, and I had forgotten about it but start thinking I could use that tonight. And they tell me I'd played a very special piece, and I think maybe I'll throw that in again tonight. That's the great advantage of being out on your own, you're very adaptable versus when you're with a band. The other thing when you do that is you keep the evening fresh.

The Bee: Speaking of keeping things fresh, I read the recent Vanity Fair feature about you and it did present a thrilling prospect to think of you taking the your King Arther (The Myths and Legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table) project out like a medieval musical Ice Capades. Do you believe you can make that happen? I think every show would sell out.

Wakeman: I loved doing it when we did those three nights at the ice stadium in London back in 1975, and the things you could do back then with special effects is nothing like what you could do now. And back then ice skating wasn't popular at all, but I loved it. Those shows were great fun, so when you think of what we could do with that now, it could be just phenomenal. You know I spoke with the Olympic Gold Medalist Robin Cousins and he said I should rally do it. Today we could sculpt the ice, and I would absolutely do it. It would be a dream come true if I could pull it off.

The Bee: You should get in touch with the people from Disney.

Wakeman: I'm not sure the people from Disney would entertain an aging old fart like me.

The Bee: Oh, they like money, Rick.

Wakeman: It would be something, and I think with a clever designer and clever producer it could be a spectacle.

The Bee: On another subject, I also heard you have quite a collection of refugee animals around your house.

Wakeman: We have two rescue dogs from Sarajevo from the war zone, which we love — one's ten and one is seven — and we recently took collection of a little Labrador from China where she was in the meat market. Seriously, she was on her way to the butcher before we got hold of her. And it took us six months to get her here but now she's here and really lovely. I'm just feeding her a little too much. And we have three rescue cats — we tend to take in animals that nobody wants. My wife says she got started when she took me in.

The Bee: I know your latest recording is The Red Planet, but have you had time to begin work on a new project?

Wakeman: The Red Planet was a true and good old prog rock album in every respect, and we wanted to tour it but COVID put a stop to that. We'll probably tour with it next yearbecause the band played fantastically. But I'm working on something now that will be really different. It will probably get finished in November. I'm very interested to see what people make of it.

The Bee: What is its thematic construct?

Wakeman: It's a mixture of very different pieces, some prog rock, some solo piano, there's some practical type songs, but the album is called A Gallery of the Imagination, and what it's about is, I had a piano teacher, the same one from when I was very young. And she used to tell me that when I learn to play music, and once I learned a piece, she wanted me to put the music to one side and play it with my eyes closed. And once my eyes were closed, she said to me 'paint pictures to the music.' So I did that and still do it to this day. People often ask why I spend 90 percent of my time on stage with my eyes closed — and it's because I'm painting pictures.

I often thought how much I enjoyed that, and it occurred to me when I was talking with my engineer whether people hear something and paint the same pictures or different ones. And I believe people do paint different pictures. So the idea behind A Gallery of the Imagination is, and what we're going to do is invite people to paint or create pictures, and we're going to have a special website and various exhibitions where people can go on or hear the music and look at how different people view the various pieces of music.

For more information or to purchase touchless print at home tickets for Rick Wakeman ($80 - $90, Meet & Greet Upgrade $150) go online at ridgefieldplayhouse.org or visit or call the box office: 203-438-5795. The Ridgefield Playhouse is a non-profit performing arts center located at 80 East Ridge, parallel to Main Street, Ridgefield.

Check out the video of Rick Wakeman interpreting The Beatles "Elenor Rigby":

Rick Wakeman performs in this vintage clip showcasing the title track from The Myths and Legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table:

Editor John Voket can be reached at john@thebee.com.