MONTREAL - Father-of-two Benoit David has left his family, his business and his bands behind in Montreal to pursue a dream job he admits he never aspired to.
  
Not for a second did the 42-year-old singer for a Yes tribute band ever imagine that he'd one day join the real group on stage and tour the continent.

And yet a few months ago, while toiling away at his day job detailing the interiors of cars and boats, he picked up the phone and heard a British man make him the offer that seemed too good to be true.

"I couldn't believe it at first, to be honest with you. I thought I was being pranked. I thought maybe one of my friends put an English accent on and was trying to pull a joke on me," David said this week after his first show with the U.K. band in Hamilton, where they kicked off their 40th anniversary tour.

"But I realized it was the real thing. It was (bass player) Chris Squire calling me, and they really wanted to put the show on the road and wanted me to be there with them. You don't dream about things like that, they just happen."

The band sought a new vocalist after original lead singer Jon Anderson fell ill and couldn't commit to travelling for the anniversary tour.

Yes decided they had found their man after seeing performances by David's cover band online. David said Squire told him the Montreal group was "freakily" like Yes.

There were months of rehearsals and waiting before David could finally take the stage, and he admits he was feeling the pressure of fans' expectations.

Fans online have debated whether the tour should have gone on without Anderson and if the ticket prices of up to US$250 at some shows were reasonable considering it wasn't a true Yes lineup.

Guitarist Steve Howe warned fans against "musical terrorism," saying any heckling of David wouldn't be tolerated.

David said he resisted the urge to read what fans were saying about him and stayed away from Yes websites.

"A lot of my friends and my kids went online to read about it, but no, I didn't feel the need to do that. I thought that maybe it wouldn't help me to keep focus on what I had to do," he said.

"How I was able to cope with the pressure was to say to myself and everybody, 'I can't replace Jon Anderson, only Jon Anderson is Jon Anderson, but I'll just go there and do what I do, sing the songs and just do my best."'

David may not blend in perfectly with the band, given that he's about 20 years younger than the original members, but fans seem to be accepting him.

At a Toronto concert Wednesday night he got a big ovation when he was introduced by Squire and another roar of approval as he sang the song "Close to the Edge," which he named his cover band after.

David still doesn't know whether Anderson will be well enough to join a Yes tour overseas and whether his run with the band ends next month with the last North American date in Hollywood, Fla.

But he's not holding out hope of staying on as the band's permanent singer and figures Anderson will be back eventually.

After his run with Yes is over, he's not sure what he'll do.

"It's very hard to say right now. For sure, all the music projects that I'm into -- a prog rock band called Mystery and Close to the Edge -- will probably draw more attention, I would expect that," he said.

"Or I might just pick up my business that I put aside and go one with that, it's very hard to say. I don't know what the future has in store for me."