If you’re going to try to retell a story, best to stick close to the original script. When former Yes guitarist Billy Sherwood decided it was time to pay tribute to the rock institution that is Roger Waters’ The Wall, more than a few asked, “Why?”

With the attitude that no classic is truly untouchable, as well as great reverence for the original, Sherwood plowed headlong into the unenviable task of trying to pay tribute without desecrating a musical monolith.

Of course, Sherwood has an exemplary track record in similar work. Having spent much of the previous two decades holding the disparate camps of classic-rockers Yes together as guitarist/producer while at the same time issuing a series of homages to AC/DC, Queen and others, Sherwood earned the cachet to make this attempt.

Fortunately, Sherwood succeeds in his reverent mission with his star-filled homage to Roger Waters and Pink Floyd with Back Against the Wall.

With a cast of progressive-rock heavyweights that includes members of Pink Floyd, King Crimson, Yes, Asia, Jethro Tull, Toto, Deep Purple, The Tubes, ELP, Styx, Kansas and more, Sherwood retells the tale of a rock star as he slips into madness. Creepy actor extraordinaire Malcolm McDowell (A Clockwork Orange) makes several appearances as well, bringing an edge to the proceedings that only he can.

While in the midst of preparations for staging live performances of the piece with select guest stars, Sherwood spoke with Egypt Today’s David Wilson about the process and purpose behind his interpretation of Pink Floyd’s magnum opus. Excerpts:

Some things in life just have to be touched! It was always one of my favorite records growing up, and when the label asked me to do it I thought, ‘Well, that was 1979 and it is 2005 now, so maybe we should take another look at this thing.’ One of my stipulations for doing the project was that I be in control of who the participants were.

With that set, I was free to go after all of the progressive-rock musicians that I grew up loving and respecting — and that I know other prog-rock fans would enjoy hearing. With those parameters in mind, it just seemed to be something worth pursuing.

Not really. I had a wish list, and 99 percent of it came true. I asked Steve Hacket of Genesis to play on the record, and due to scheduling problems he couldn’t make it work, but other than that it was just a matter of making some calls and I was on my way.

I had worked with Malcolm on a previous project. He was doing a play that the singer from AC/DC was working on, and I engineered those sessions and got along great with Malcolm. I remembered what a great job he did with that Broadway-esque sort of thing and when I was thinking about The Trial and the attitude of all of the characters, the wife, the teacher and the judge, I just thought, ‘You know, Malcolm could just eat this thing alive,’ — which he did.

I also thought that having the guy from A Clockwork Orange, that incredibly violent character, added a special twist to it. It made sense because although it is sung, it is really more acted.

The tape thing is all in the past now, it is more about uploading and downloading files these days, which I am a big fan of because it is so much faster and straight to the point. I would say that it was about 60–40 with the sixty percent being the sharing of files over the internet.

I respected them so much that I didn’t feel that I needed to direct them in what they needed to do, whereas if you are working with newer musicians and making original music, they might need a little guidance here and there.

I mean, what are you going to tell Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull to do except, ‘Please just do what you do!’ I think that the real trick for me was to pair up the right artist to the right character on the song.

The only thing that I did tell people was, ‘Please pay attention to the iconic moments of the piece that we all know and love.’

I think that, maybe, if you tried to do this twenty years ago there may have been problems, but it is 2005 now and there has been enough time. The kind of musicians that we are talking about here want to continue to make interesting stuff and I think that I have provided a platform for them to be themselves yet be involved in something bigger than themselves.

I am getting e-mails back from some of the artists and they are all positive I think that the egos were checked at the door.

It seems that it keeps coming back at me. I mean, I am a musician and a producer and I want to continue to make records. Who wouldn’t want to make records with this cast of characters? So, if I am headlong back into it making one after the other, time will tell. These things naturally take their course and as a result of The Wall being a positive experience for everyone involved, I have been asked to do Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon and I am doing that.

It will have some of the same cast members that I used on The Wall as well as some new members. It is kind of like doing the prequel to Star Wars, you know! For me it has got to be something that I can relate to musically, and Pink Floyd was a huge part of my upbringing, and I am very familiar with the territory. I try to tread lightly and be as respectful as possible when I am re-making great music like that.

We are discussing it. It is possible and it is really just a matter of logistics. If it can be done it will be done. I can’t think of a more fun thing to do, really.

I think that the way that we are approaching it is that we would have all of the audio up and working, but I don’t think that it would be the mammoth production that Pink Floyd did back in the day. The lack of production would be made up for with the fact that you would have some of your favorite music being played by some of your favorite prog-rock icons live on stage.

No. I think that I left right on time. I tried to move the ball down field to the goal and good, bad or indifferent that was my primary objective with Yes, to keep the ball moving.

I never thought in a million years I would ever be able to say that I played Awaken, The Revealing Science of God and Close to the Edge with Yes on tour. No regrets at all.

I have only heard, through Jim Ladd, who is on the record and knows Roger Waters, that Roger has heard it and liked it I do this stuff to be creative and to do the music justice, but I am not out to upset anybody. I do it with the utmost respect, so when I heard that Roger liked it I was happy.

Who wants to go to sleep at night knowing that their heroes hate them? [laughs] et