For Tull’s Ian Anderson, not playing Woodstock is a badge of honor

The next few months will be filled with reminders that mid-August marks the 50th anniversary of the Woodstock Music & Arts Festival, the “Aquarian Exposition” that gave the Baby Boomer generation a collective identity. As part of the run-up, there will no doubt be interviews online, in print and on-the-air with musicians who performed at the soggy three-day bash. And they will no doubt take great pride in telling their tales of the epochal weekend.

And then there’s Ian Anderson.

The flute-playing singer-songwriter, who on Saturday brings his “Ian Anderson presents Jethro Tull 50th Anniversary” program to Atlantic City’s Ocean Resort Casino, has no Woodstock war stories to tell. And he clearly wouldn’t have it any other way.

It’s not that Jethro Tull wasn’t offered the opportunity to join the likes of Jimi Hendrix, The Who and Santana at the festival that was staged in upstate New York. But, according to a September, 2018 Q-and-A with the Philadelphia Inquirer, Anderson, 71, claimed ownership of the decision to decline the invitation.

“It was I, not the band’s management, that declined the invitation,” Anderson told the paper.

“It was relatively short notice, and we were on our second American tour at the time, and our second album, “Stand Up,” had just gone to number-one on the charts in the U.K., and I was very much aware that this album was the more eclectic beginnings of Jethro Tull in a more creative sense.”

As such, he continued, “It really needed time to establish us, and I really felt at that point, in the middle of 1969, we were not really fully formed, we were learning our craft, we were learning our skills as performers and I was learning my job as a songwriter and performer. So, it was just too early to be putting a stamp on something that was set to become a huge, epic festival.”

According to Anderson, the manner in which the career of a band that did appear at Woodstock played out is all the proof he needs that he was right to not play Woodstock.

“Our early label-mates on Chrysalis Records was a band called Ten Years After,” he explained. “Ten Years After went to play Woodstock and were one of the hits of the festival. It took them from almost-obscurity to being a household name throughout the world.

“Ten Years After were playing at some German festival a few years back, and I went over to Leo Lyons, who was still in the band at that time. And I noticed stuck on to the edge of his bass guitar there was a set list. I said, “What songs were you doing? “And he said, ‘Oh, the usual ones.’” I said, “That set list looks like it’s been there a long time.” He said, ‘This is the set list from Woodstock.’” So that’s what they were still playing some 40 years later.

“I would find that somewhat limiting to be known just for these very few pieces of music and for a very definitive style of music. In a way, that was a curse. They were never really able to move on from forever being associated with Woodstock.

“It was certainly one of my best career decisions not to do Woodstock.”

Ocean Resort Casino, 500 Boardwalk, Atlantic City; 8 p.m. Saturday; 101.50, $71.50 and $61.50; www.ticketmaster.com.