The Mirror published a picture of what was implied to be the 66-year-old keyboard player, sporting blond hair rolled up in a clip as she appeared to shop.

Dee told reporters she felt free to pursue a sex change after the death of her wife Margaret nine years ago.

"I've felt like this since the age of three," she explained.

"It's not just wimps who want to do this. To be a girl, it goes a lot deeper than that."

Ian Anderson, the voice and flutist for Jethro Tull, told reporters Dee broke the news by calling him and saying, "There's something I need to get off my increasingly ample chest."

"I found it difficult to understand at first," Anderson admitted to reporters. "But I fully support his decision."

But while some British media outlets are covering Palmer's transformation, Jethro Tull's official Web site is silent as of press time.

The Web site, which was last updated Jan. 17, reported that Palmer "returned a few weeks ago from an invitation to conduct the Bergen (Norway) Philharmonic Orchestra in their Christmas Special series of concert celebrations. He is rumored to be alive, well and quietly victorious."

In June 2003, another rock band, Toto, made headlines for using its Web site to claim its own keyboardist-vocalist David Paich was pursuing a sex change.

The band would later reveal it was joking.

But so far, reporters believe Dee is being sincere.

She told reporters she is recording her first solo album in the Spanish resort of Lanzarote and is planning a British tour. "I want to be judged on my musical ability alone, " she said, "and nothing else."

http://www.planetout.com/news/article.html?2004/01/23/3