“Heat of the Moment,” the rock hit by Asia that dominated the radio in summer 1982, initially sounded far different from its final form.

“It was a country song on the piano,” recalls Asia keyboardist Geoff Downes. “John [Wetton, Asia’s original lead singer and bassist] had this chorus. We sat down at the piano one day and said let’s try and do something with it. It was actually the last song we recorded for the album, which is amazing. It had a summer sound to it, so we were very lucky in that respect.”

That self-titled debut by Asia, an English supergroup comprised of prog-rock and new wave thoroughbreds, topped the Billboard albums chart for nine weeks and went on to become 1982′s biggest selling album. “Heat of the Moment” was a top five single.

Asia’s sleek sound, with Journey’s producer Mike Stone behind the console, wasn’t what some beard-stroking critics expected from a supergroup comprised of Yes guitarist Steve Howe, Emerson, Lake & Palmer drummer Carl Palmer, King Crimson expat Wetton, and Downes from “Video Killed the Radio Star” icons The Buggles.

But tracks like the knotty “Time Again” gave Asia a chance to flex their virtuosity. And you can’t argue with the how many people the music reached. Asia’s debut was packaged in a stunning album cover featuring a fantastical water serpent painted by Roger Dean, known for his classic Yes sleeves.

This summer, Downes and his new version of Asia are hitting the road on “The Heat of The Moment Tour.” The band’s lineup features singer/bassist Harry Whitley, guitarist John Mitchell and drummer Virgil Donati, known for playing with the likes of Steve Vai.

In addition to celebrating Asia’s discography, the tour’s also to honor the memory of Wetton, who died in 2017 at age 67 and also was part of notable bands like Roxy Music, Uriah Heep and Wishbone Ash.

The tour’s compelling support acts include Dutch proggers Focus and Wishbone Ash/Curved Air bassist Martin Turner. As a bonus coup for classic rock fans, legendary album cover artist Dean is emceeing the shows. Downes wrote the forward for “John Wetton: An Extraordinary Life,” a new book compiled from interviews with more than 70 subjects including Wetton’s family and bandmates.

On a recent afternoon, Downes, also a longtime member of Yes, checked in for a video call from his home in South Wales. Edited excerpts below.

Geoff, why do you think the last songs written for albums often become big hits? Besides “Heat of The Moment,” there are other examples of this, like “Paranoid” by Black Sabbath.

Geoff Downes: I think you’re trying to push yourselves. You’ve got material assembled, but I think there’s always one thing left in it, you know?

When you perform these Asia songs, what are the moments where you think about John the most? Because the tour’s kind of a tribute to him.

Yeah, it’s very much a tribute to him. And that’s really how this latest version of Asia started, I think. We did a charity show for John last summer and I was asked to put together an Asia segment, so I recruited some guys who had been associated with John. And Harry [Whitley, current singer/bassist], I don’t know if you’ve ever heard him, but he sounds exactly like him. You know, it’s scary sometimes. John Michell, our guitarist, he worked with John and myself on a project called Icon. Virgil [Donati] in [the band] U.K., so there’s a lot of connections with John’s history and John’s background. And so in many ways is a sort of spiritual continuation of where we were, but at the same time it’s great to have these guys who are talented and accomplished musicians making up the lineup.

What was John Wetton like to collaborate with, to record with, to perform with. What was his magic as a musician and singer and songwriter?

Well, I think we hit it off really well initially, because I come from a slightly different background than John. Obviously, John came from a progressive spirit, like King Crimson and the U.K. and I came from being a session guy and going to The Buggles and doing a lot of pop stuff.

So, you know, in terms of the connection, there was there was a difference of our backgrounds. But at the same time, I think we had a common upbringing where we both were in church choirs and a lot of that music. That anthemic stuff we both related to. And that’s how we kind of met, in middle, really.

So a lot of the [Asia] songs have got those anthemic choruses, like “Heat of the Moment” and “Time Will Tell.” We were always looking for those anthems, I suppose. We both understood each other, musically. There’s a fantastic collaboration and, you know, not just in the early period, but also when we reformed Asia in 2006. It was nice to get back and realize how much understanding we had with each other.

And he was just a fantastic guy. Not just as a fellow bandmate or as a cowriter, he was very intelligent, very interesting to be with, we’d always have a good laugh about everything. So we were just like a couple of brothers, really, that was the thing. We did a lot of things together and just had a lot of fun.

Speaking of The Buggles, as an MTV kid, the song “Video Killed the Radio Star” was part of my soundtrack. Did the band have any idea that would be the first video played on MTV?

That’s an interesting point because when it was originally released, it was a hit everywhere in the world, but not so much in America. I don’t know whether that was paranoia about the DJs who thought it was spelling out something they didn’t want to hear or what.

It came out in 1979, so it was a surprise because MTV didn’t come out until 1981. At that point, we’d kind of moved on and we were already putting Asia together at that time. And then somebody called me up and said, ‘Hey, you know that song you had a couple years ago, ‘Video Killed the Radio Star’? They’ve launched his new cable channel,” which I don’t think was wall-to-wall America then, I think it was just the East Coast initially, “and they started with your video.”

And I didn’t think anything about it particularly. And then of course, MTV started to snowball huge and was coast to coast in America. With Asia, we came out when I don’t think it [MTV] had reached a huge point at that time.

So I’m very grateful that, you know, it was actually used as the first video, but at the same time it was more of an afterthought than something that was structured.

Speaking of visuals, the album cover Roger Dean did for Asia’s debut, wow. What was your reaction the first time you saw it? And did you all give him any direction for the artwork or give him like a rough mix of the album [to get inspiration from]?

I think he gets a feel from the writers and some of the song titles, maybe, some of the lyrics, and that gives him inspiration to do what he does. So the two things really go in tandem, you know, they work together in parallel, and Roger would come down to the studio and listen to some of the stuff we were doing and then he’d go away again and carry on working on the painting.

It was very sort of synonymous in a way with the music, I think. It was a very, very impactive logo that he came with, the triangular [Asia band] logo, like the Yes bubble logo, which is famous the world over.

So we were very lucky to have Roger come in and do what he does best, which is he’s a fabulous artist. And to have him on the tour is a real bonus for us because the fans can come and bring some of their old sleeves and Roger signs them. He sets up in the foyer usually at the gigs and he’s a very personable guy. The fans love to speak to him and it’s a friendly affair.

Asia worked with John Kalodner, the legendary A&R guy famous for revitalizing Aerosmith and Whitesnake in the ‘80s. Is it true he wasn’t crazy about the debut album artwork the first time he saw it?

He wasn’t crazy about it. He said, “Well, you can’t read it. I can’t read that logo. What does it say?” So we overrode him – we overrode him on quite a few things – but he was very supportive to us to be fair. He was very specific and particular in how he wanted us to do. I think that’s one of the reasons maybe why we got “Heat of The Moment” because he was probably saying look you’ve got something else, and you can push it more.

So in that respect he was very, very hands on and very supportive of us. And I think he really worked Geffen because we were the first band signed to Geffen Records. He said, “Look we’ve got this bunch of guys and they’ve made a fantastic album.” In the end, I think he turned the corner and said hey this artwork’s absolutely fantastic, it’s brilliant. So I think we convinced him or certainly Roger convinced him.

How was it when you joined Yes around 1980, along with your Buggles bandmate and singer Trevor Horn, because Yes’ music is fertile ground for a keyboardist.

For us, we’d mainly been session guys and backroom boys doing pop records, all sorts of stuff. Trevor and I got together a couple of years before we before The Buggles and we were doing a lot of co-production stuff. I think that’s where we forged our relationship. He was more regarded as a producer and I was more the orchestrator, so that was really how The Buggles came about.

When we joined Yes, it was a whole different world, you know. Because the first gig we did was in front of 20,000 people in Canada. We never dreamt of anything like that before. I mean we played live gigs before but clubs and that sort of thing and all of a sudden propelled into this huge environment on a global level.

So it was fascinating, particularly for me. Trevor went more in the direction of a producer, and a very successful producer. But for me I really relished that position to be the keyboard player and be able to hold my own with the forerunners that Yes had, with Tony Kaye, Rick Wakeman and Patric Moraz. These guys are top of the tree as keyboard players. So for me it was a real honor to play with them, and I rejoined them 12, 13 years ago and I’m still playing with them today.

What was it like working with Kate Bush, who’s had a renaissance in recent years, on her 1982 album “Dreaming”?

The reason why she asked me to play on it was because I had one of these instruments, the Fairlight CMI [synthesizer], and she was fascinated by this instrument.

She was recording in another studio where we were with Asia. She came in one day and had a look at this keyboard and said, What’s that?” So I showed her. That’s a seriously digital sampler. I was really into the technology, and all of a sudden you had an orchestral palette in front of you.

She said, “Do you want to come and play on one of my tracks? Because I’d love to get that on there.”

A couple weeks later, she invited me to record on this track called “Sat On Your Lap” [which became the opener for Bush’s “Dreaming” album]. And I used a lot of kind of the sampled brass sounds and things like that which she was very fascinated by.

But a wonderful talent. She’d down at the piano and was very, very determined and precise about what she wanted. A real amazing talent. Kind of like Peter Gabriel, she’s sort of the female equivalent to that, you know, someone with such a keen forthright attention to detail.

Last question: A bunch of English blokes form a supergroup. Why call it Asia?

Um, that actually came about from our manager. At one point we were going to extend to be a five-piece more in lines with Yes, I think that we felt that we’ve worked together or the four-piece for so long it became apparent that’s what that was.

He came up with this idea. He said, “There’s four guys. Four letters.” And someone said, well, what about Asia? And he said, “Well, there’s probably a band called Asia,” and there was actually but it was just like a pop band in Black Oak, Arkansas, or something like that.

And so they said to the guys [in the pre-existing band called Asia], do you mind if we use the name because we’ve got, you know, a big record label behind us and there’s a big mountain behind us. And they said, no that’s great, we’ll call ourselves something else. So we called ourselves Asia and that was the way it was.

“The Heat of The Moment Tour” comes to Von Braun Center Mark C. Smith Music Hall in Huntsville, Alabama on July 28. Showtime is 7 p.m. Tickets start at $45 (plus applicable fees) via the VBC Box Office, address 700 Monroe Street, and ticketmaster.com.