Ian Scott Anderson MBE (born 10 August 1947) is a Scottish-born British musician, singer and songwriter best known for his work as the lead vocalist, flautist and acoustic guitarist of British rock band Jethro Tull. Anderson is a multi-instrumentalist who, in addition to flute, plays keyboards, bass guitar, bouzouki, balalaika, saxophone, harmonica, and a variety of whistles. His solo work began with the 1983 album Walk into Light, and since then he has released another five works, including the sequel to the Jethro Tull album Thick as a Brick (1972) in 2012, entitled Thick as a Brick 2.

Ian Anderson was born in Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland, the youngest of three brothers. His father, James Anderson, ran the RSA Boiler Fluid Company in East Port, Dunfermline. Anderson spent the first part of his childhood in Edinburgh. He was influenced by his father’s big band and jazz records and the emergence of rock music, but was disenchanted with the “show biz” style of early American rock and roll stars like Elvis Presley.

His family moved to Blackpool, Lancashire, England, in 1959, where he was educated at Blackpool Grammar School. In a 2011 interview, Anderson said he was asked to leave grammar school for refusing to submit to corporal punishment (permitted at that time). He studied fine art at Blackpool College of Art from 1964 to 1966 while living in Lytham St Annes.