When Ian Anderson, the flute-playing frontman of Jethro Tull, is not on tour, he wakes to his farm in southwest England. He usually rises around 6 a.m. for a rotation of breakfasts: crispy bread, oily fish, and poached eggs from his wife's chickens, accompanied with half a glass of orange juice and strong black Italian coffee.

"I try and meet the dawn," says Anderson in a phone interview. "There's nothing quite like the morning. It feeds you the promise of a new day."

After two or so hours doing office work and catching up with emails that span several time zones, the rest of Anderson's days are spent walking the gardens with his cats and dogs, and most recently, contemplating the dragonflies zipping over his pond.

"They are looking for really active sex before the summer is over and then they die," observes Anderson.

Anderson, who helped Jethro Tull release 30 studio and live albums, selling more than 60 million copies over the span of 45 years, also practices flute, guitar and vocals as part of his daily ritual.

"Keeping your fingers nimble and your mind nimble is important," says Anderson.

Currently, Anderson is not at home; he is on a world tour, resurrecting the hit album Thick as a Brick (TAAB) and promoting Thick as a Brick 2 - Whatever Happened to Gerald Bostock?, a continuation of the fictitious boy who wrote the lyrics to TAAB.

"For about 40 years, I've been the recipient of people's goodwill and thoughts about doing a sequel to TAAB ...," says Anderson, "but it came about after 39 years - a penny dropped and a simple, clear idea came to mind - whatever happened to Gerald Bostock?."

"I wrote about a number of possible scenarios and then decided to write about all of them," explains Anderson. "... As a sequel set in the context of today's world, not some piece of vintage musical history. But I did try to keep some elements of continuity of the sound of the album - the sound palette is that of the '70s. ..."

Recently crowned Prog God 2013 by Prog Rock Magazine, Anderson is not slowing down; a 2014 UK tour is already set, highlighting material from his forthcoming 2014 album.

According to jethrotull.com, the new concept album is folk-prog-metal, and will feature "heavier, less acoustic guitar sounds and more of Anderson's trademark flute."

Sunday, Oct. 27, Tacoma's Broadway Center welcomes Ian Anderson to its Pantages Theater stage. He and his mates will perform TAAB in its entirety for the first time since 1972, then follows up with TAAB 2. This will be Anderson's only West Coast stop this tour.

Tickets can be found here.

JETHRO TULL'S IAN ANDERSON, THICK AS A BRICK 1 & 2, 7:30 p.m., Sunday, Oct 27, Pantages Theater, 901 Broadway, Tacoma, $59-$99, 253.591.5894