Jethro Tull’s Ian Anderson — as himself

Just to set the facts straight: The show Sept. 18 at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts will feature a program of songs with lyrics by a man who doesn’t exist, based on a book by a man who also doesn’t exist, sung by a real man who is now performing under his own name to avoid ripping off the legacy of an 18th-century agriculturalist.

I hope that’s all clear then.

OK, let’s take it one part at a time. The performer is Ian Anderson, longtime singer, songwriter and flutist of the English rock band Jethro Tull, which was named by an agent after the farmer whose methods helped to spur the British Agricultural Revolution. Although Anderson will take the Segerstrom stage with a full band, he’s opted, at this phase of life, to put his own name on the marquee. (Kind of, anyway — the Segerstrom website bills the show as “The Best of Jethro Tull Performed by Ian Anderson.”)

Why the new approach? Well, in part because Anderson feels the “Jethro Tull” title rightfully belongs to the agricultural giant, who gets considerably less love than his band on a Google search.

“This really is identity theft on an astonishing and really quite embarrassing level,” Anderson said dryly, speaking by phone from his son’s London home. “It’s almost as if I stole the guy’s credit card, watched him enter his PIN code at the cash machine and then fleeced his bank account, made a ton of money out of him for the next 40-odd years. I do feel a bit bad about it, I have to say.”

All right, so Tull is Tull, and Anderson is Anderson. But the layers of reality grow even muddier with “Homo Erraticus,” Anderson’s latest studio album, which continues the story of a fictional character introduced by the band 40 years ago and tosses in a new mythical source to boot.

When Jethro Tull released its classic album “Thick as a Brick” in 1972, it claimed in the packaging that the music was based on a poem by Gerald Bostock, an 8-year-old prodigy who won a contest only to have his award rescinded. Bostock is even listed as the songs’ co-writer — the only tricky part being that Bostock is a fictional creation. (Screenwriter Charlie Kaufman, who shared credit for the Oscar-winning 2002 film “Adaptation” with his imaginary twin brother, Donald, may be a kindred spirit.)

Anderson revisited the character on 2012’s “Thick as a Brick 2,” and “Homo Erraticus” catches up to Bostock again, with the singer, in the album’s press materials, slyly identifying the former child prodigy as a “neighbor” who offered him a set of lyrics based on a book by Ernest “Teddy” Parritt, a British army colonel from the early 20th century. Perhaps it goes without saying that Parritt is also fictional — although Anderson said the character was inspired by a number of ex-military men he’s met in real life, just as Bostock’s surname came from an old classmate.

No doubt a few listeners out there believe Bostock really exists, and Parritt may elicit the same reaction. To Anderson, though, weaving an album around a fictitious source is no different than crafting a series of books about Harry Potter

“I think these things are just part of the world of movies, books, music — it’s what we do,” he said. “There’s nothing remarkable about it. It’s what writers do. They use devices to create and titillate, and sometimes, in the case of someone like Gerald Bostock, it’s something that’s just like an old friend, someone we’ve heard about and he pops in for a cup of tea. But we secretly hope he’s not going to stick around for lunch.”

Judging from the reviews, it’s at least a welcome cup of tea. AllMusic voiced reservations about the new album’s production but called it “satisfying” and “as close to ‘70s prog as is possible in 2014.” Blogcritics.org noted that “there isn’t very much new here” in comparison to previous Tull efforts, but praised the individual tracks.

“Homo Erraticus,” which came out in April, will make up the first half of the Segerstrom show. The second half will be a Jethro Tull greatest-hits retrospective, with “Aqualung” and other radio staples likely to factor in the playlist.

Terry Dwyer, the president of Segerstrom, is keen on hearing those nuggets. Forty years ago, he immersed himself in Jethro Tull’s music, and the band’s sound remains potent for him to this day.

“They just seemed not to be cut out of the same mold as the vast majority of rock bands back in the day, or, for that matter, now,” Dwyer said. “The orchestrations and use of the flute and just how the music was constructed was highly imaginative. And it was original.”

Well, even if Gerald Bostock provided some of the lyrics.

If You Go

What: The Best of Jethro Tull Performed by Ian Anderson

Where: Segerstrom Hall, Segerstrom Center for the Arts, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa

When: 7:30 p.m. Sept. 18

Cost: $39 to $129

Information: (714) 556-2787 or https://www.scfta.org