------------------------------------------------------- APRIL 20, 2004 ------------------------------------------------------- Source: Las Vegas Review-Journal http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2004/Apr-20-Tue-2004/living/23614263.html Yes singer finds Vegas spiritual experience By Doug Elfman In 1975, the band Yes played the Las Vegas Convention Center Rotunda. Afterward, the group went to see Frank Sinatra at Caesars Palace. While waiting to meet Sinatra, singer Jon Anderson first came into contact with angels, he says. But first, Anderson had to deal with a three-headed dragon. Anderson tells this story in an interview to promote his progressive-rock band's concert at Mandalay Bay Events Center on Wednesday. Let's start with the three-headed dragon. It was just a stage prop on June 19, 1975, but it took on a life of its own in any draft or breeze. Did he ever get distracted by being onstage with a flapping dragon while performing for a stadium crowd? "Yeah," says Anderson, 59. "If you have too much to drink and go onstage and see that thing, you don't want to be there." He chuckles. "But we never drank that much." Right. Anyway: "After the show, we all went to see Frank Sinatra sing," he says. "We were just watching the show like everybody else." Anderson really wanted to meet Sinatra. "So I went to the side stage door area outside, and people are playing the one-arm bandits, and everybody was busy trying to win money. And this little girl came over and tapped me on the shoulder." But this was no little girl. "She looked 7 years old, you know? And she said, `Are you ready, Jon?' And I knew I was actually talking to a very highly evolved, spiritual being," he says. She told Anderson he was doing good work, he says. "It's kind of an amazing story. And from that moment, there in Vegas, I met angels," he says. "It was a wonderful experience for me. So I didn't meet Frank. But I met God. And it gave me such sustenance over the years, and strength over the years, as to why I do what I do." Now that the band is on a tour marking its 35th anniversary, Yes has signed up the same stage designer, Roger Dean, who created that dragon, says Anderson, singer of "Roundabout" and "Owner of a Lonely Heart." The Smithsonian will use the Dean stage in an exhibit on bands, he says. "It's a million-dollar project," he says. "We constantly try to reinvent the band every time we tour, so we don't go on tour and play the same songs. "It's an event, and it's an event for us, actually. So the audience -- they know they're not going to come and see just another band. They're going to see Yes. It's going to be a special night. ... People get their money's worth." Fans should show up before the listed 7:30 showtime Wednesday, since there's no opening band. Tickets are $35, $45 and $65 at the box office, 3950 Las Vegas Blvd. South, and through Ticketmaster. To charge by phone, call 632-7580. Close Window YesInThePress.com For site comments, inquiries, corrections, or additions, contact yitp@yesservices.com