Steve Hackett admits to some nostalgia, as he returned to the music of Genesis. But that doesn’t mean he’s running the new Genesis Revisited II project by his old band mates.
Instead, Hackett — guitarist in Genesis from 1971-77, a period the encompasses both the zenith of their Peter Gabriel years and some of the most interesting albums with Phil Collins as frontman — has thrown himself into a new tour behind the new project.
Meanwhile, Collins has retired, Tony Banks is now recording classical suites and Mike Rutherford rarely plays Genesis songs even as his group Mike and the Mechanics currently tours. Gabriel has long avoided playing Genesis tracks.
[SOMETHING ELSE! INTERVIEW: Guitarist Steve Hackett discusses his lasting connection to Genesis, his 2012 collaboration with Yes’ Chris Squire, and how Bach still blows his mind.]
Hackett is, in many ways, the last link to that time.
He first revisited Genesis with 1996’s Watcher of the Skies in 1996, has put on Genesis-themed shows in the interim, and now has produced the sprawling new double-album tribute, which charted in the UK. For upcoming tour updates, go here: http://www.hackettsongs.com/news/newsGeneral45.html.
“Oh, of course, there was a lot of nostalgia,” Hackett tells Jeb Wright of Classic Rock Revisited. What tends to happen with music you love, whether it be music that you were involved with yourself, or the music of your heroes, the cathedrals that other have built … you don’t see it as nostalgia. You see it as totally alive and it really speaks to you. Time doesn’t really come into it as nostalgia, but rather it becomes about getting back to the real thing.”
Hackett hasn’t performed with his old band mates in Genesis since 1982. He last joined them in the studio for a one-off session back in 1999. He’s not all that interested in what they may think of Genesis Revisited II, either.
“I won’t be sitting down playing it to them and asking them what they think,” Hackett tells Wright, laughing. “I really don’t know what they think about it; you’d have to ask them yourself.”
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this album really is genesis at its best. when i heard suppers ready it took my breath away, and transported me back to 1976. some of the tracks even sound like gabriel and collins, excellent well done steve, definately unquiet slumber for the sleepers in that quiet earth