While 'The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus' brought together some of the greatest musicians in rock history, the concept was just a bit silly, according Jethro Tull frontman Ian Anderson.

"It was a strange atmosphere because it was Mick Jagger's baby," Anderson tells Spinner. "He and the director, Michael Lindsay-Hogg, they had this vision of what they were going to do. They didn't seem to communicate it to the rest of the Rolling Stones, let alone anybody else. We all arrived there, and it was all a bit embarrassing and self-conscious."

The concept was intriguing -- a 1968 TV special that featured the day's top performers playing music in a big-top atmosphere, complete with circus performers and silly costumes. Invited to perform were the Who, Jethro Tull, Taj Mahal and a super group known as the Dirty Mac, which consisted of John Lennon, Keith Richards, Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix Experience drummer Mitch Mitchell. While the musicians all gathered at once, long delays took the steam out of what should have been a momentous occasion.

"They wanted everybody there all the time because they wanted to make it look like an atmosphere where everybody was together and having a lot of fun and blah, blah, blah," Anderson says. "In fact, it was just deadly boring and a bit silly."

Tull, still a relatively new band, performed the show's first number, 'Song For Jeffrey.' While the Stones performed six songs, most people who saw the show -- including the Stones -- felt that they were badly outperformed by the Who, so the show was shelved until 1996, when it was finally released on video with a soundtrack on CD.
While some have suggested the show proved that the Who were better live performers, Anderson said the Stones had simply played themselves out.

"I was there, and they were pretty good when they were rehearsing," he says. "But they just did too much, and I think Mick Jagger sang himself out. When it came to the crunch, the Who just came in and did a few songs, did what they normally do and -- crash, bang -- the Stones, who had been rehearsing and working at it for ages, felt perhaps a little overshadowed by the energy of the Who."