RS: It's incredible, over the years - the voice has mellowed, become more resonant

KE: Well he hasn't paid attention to it. The annoying thing is that both Carl Palmer and I have gone through grueling surgery. I can't tell you how traumatizing it is for a doctor to be tell you that you will never be able to play again.

RS: I remember the cover of Keyboard Magazine where the headline read: Will Emerson Ever Play Again?

KE: I mean, I've gone through hell and back. But here's a guy who has a voice, and all he needs to do is train it, go to a voice coach - he's done nothing. It's an incredible fucking waste.

RS: But what can you do, you've got to move on.

KE: What can you do? You've gotta move on.

At this point, we started sounding like two elderly Jewish grandmas clucking over the sorry state of affairs of the demise of ELP. I had always thought Keith to be more aloof. He wasn't. It was painfully obvious that Greg Lake's departure from ELP had come at the most inopportune time. Keith had new material, he and Carl were chomping at the bit to record, and they both thought that the new material would take them successfully into the new millenium. I had recently thought that ELP should be relegated to the 99 cent bin at WalMart, that there was nothing new. They had become an oldies band. But Keith breathed new life into how promising the new album was to be. I mean, here is the father of progressive rock being progressive! It was a refreshing change from the Emerson that had been presented to us before. To look at Keith, you would see a man that looks 15 years younger than his actual age. I really had to suck it in when I saw him. Slender, put together. When he talks he's animated, and every other sentence is punctuated by a laugh. The few lines on his face map the hell that he had been through. The divorce, the years of unsettled drifting, searching for the muse, then the ulnar nerve disorder that threatened his career. He had truly been through it. Yet, he still finds time to run marathons and cruise the various SoCal beach communities on his Harley.. Whatever he's doing, he's doing it right. My past criticism's were vanishing as the waiter began to clear the table. I was with the maestro, sharing a meal, and he was sharing his life story with me.

Before we parted, I couldn't help but broach the subject about a possible tour with Rick Wakeman.

KE: Well, we might actually. Apparently when we met in London, within about two hours, Rick informed me that we'd been seen having lunch together. We acknowledged it. That's the state of it. I guess when Rick is finished with his Journey to the Centre of the Earth, then we might have a go at something. We'd like to, we're open to it, and we've been talking about it.

RS: What do you see for yourself in the future?

KE: Well next year I'm going to be a guesting soloist with orchestras all over Europe to start off with. Immediately, what I'm doing now is working with Mark Bonilla, an incredible guitar player and Glenn Hughes, the voice of rock - we did a concert in San Francisco last year that we are mixing now. We are probably going to Japan by late July. They are great musicians, they keep me on my toes so to speak. Playing Tarkus with Mark Bonilla and Glen Hughes, and the rest of their buddies known as The Dragon Choir, that is so fantastic.

I thought I'd get off a final zinger. I couldn't resist.

RS: What does it feel like to see your audiences getting smaller and smaller, when you used to fill stadiums. What goes on in your head when you see your audiences are now limited in demographics.

KE: I don't care who I play to, as long as they enjoy listening to what I play.

That pretty much shut me up, and shut down Close to Home. What a marvelous personality. The slings and arrows of misfortune have not slowed down Keith Emerson. He has risen above it. History will mark the time that this great talent walked among us. He has yet to do his greatest work, and as he loves to quote Holst, let me now quote the great Will Alexander who once summed up Keith's attitude: "Keith has a way of looking at everything and saying 'at the end of the day'. That's because at the end of the day Keith wipes the slate clean, hoping tomorrow will bring a new day, where everyone has a fresh start."