Phil Collins’ slow journey back from a too-early attempt at retirement puts most any talk of a Genesis reunion on hold. Still, is it possible that some former members might be working together in the future?
Original guitarist Anthony Phillips, in fact, would love to collaborate with Mike Rutherford again. It’s a relationship that not only helped spark a pair of initial Genesis projects, but also Phillips’ first solo album — which recently saw a deluxe reissue, even as Rutherford returned with Mike and the Mechanics for a rare U.S. tour.
“I wouldn’t want to do the sort of the Mike and the Mechanics material, as much as I respect that, because it’s not really my kind of thing,” Anthony Phillips cautions, in a new talk with DMME. “But if he wanted to go back and do progressive stuff, I’d love to do that.”
Steve Hackett, his successor in Genesis, has also reached out — though there remains an issue in Phillips’ mind with that musical relationship. “We talked about it,” Anthony Phillips admits. “My own feeling is that, again, we’re maybe too similar in some respects and we might cancel each other out.”
More than that, though, Phillips doesn’t want to damage his long-standing friendship with Hackett.
“I have another fear as well, which he knows about: He’s a lovely guy, and I’m very fond of he and [Steve Hackett’s wife] Jo,” Phillips adds, “and I wouldn’t want to risk our friendship by a possible collaboration that might not work because, when you work with people, there’s always disagreement, there’s always some tension. You can’t escape it when you’re co-composing. People have their own style, they have their own way — one is not right and one is not wrong — and I would be nervous about it, I would hate anything that might impinge on our relationship. So that’s why I’m wary of it, I think.”
