Ian Scott Anderson MBE (born 10 August 1947) is a Scottish musician best known for his work as the singer, flautist, acoustic guitarist and primary songwriter of British rock band Jethro Tull. He is a multi-instrumentalist who also plays harmonica, keyboards, bass guitar, bouzouki, balalaika, saxophone and a variety of whistles. His solo work began with Walk into Light in 1983; since then he has released another five albums, including the sequel to the 1972 Jethro Tull album Thick as a Brick, titled TaaB 2: Whatever Happened to Gerald Bostock? (2012).

Ian Anderson was born in Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland, the youngest of three brothers, to an English mother and a Scottish father. Anderson said, “I am a Brit. I’m a Brit. I see myself as a product of that union.” His father, James Anderson, ran the RSA Boiler Fluid Company in East Port, Dunfermline. Anderson’s family moved to Edinburgh when he was three. He was influenced by his father’s big band and jazz records and the emergence of rock music, but was disenchanted with the “showbiz” style of early American rock and rol lstars like Elvis Presley.