So what exactly is all this about? What does Ian Anderson (the singer/flautist/leader of Jethro Tull) have to do with "The Epic of Gilgamesh" and insignificant little Tony Garone? Read on...

On September 11th, 2003, I received a rather cryptic email from my close friend John Sergio (who played bass and Tin whistle on "Utnapishtim and the Great Flood"). It was entitled, "DO THIS". Its only content was this link:

http://www.j-tull.com/news/rubelbowsguest.cfm

Knowing Serge as long as I had, I went to the site immediately. It was a link to Ian Anderson's "Rubbing Elbows" musical guest page, part of his "USA Rubbing Elbows tour". This page gave information on how an undiscovered local artist could send his or her CD in to be selected to be Ian's musical guest for that city. The band would learn a song from the artists CD (selected by Ian) and perform the song live with the musical guest.

"Wow!" I thought to myself - "What an opportunity - but they'll never pick Gilgamesh!"

I couldn't have been more surprised when three weeks later there was a message on my answering machine from non other than Ian himself! That began the most surreal week of my life.

The following five days were filled with excitement, anticipation and bouts of the most nervous condition I'd ever experienced! The most surreal event was receiving a call from Ian on my cell phone at work. Ian was very gracious and the band was incredibly supportive. The following links will bring you to photos taken from video of the rehearsal and performance of "We Are All One". It was an event I will never forget.

The Rehearsal

The Performance

After the show images

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