Steve Hackett: “Genesis is a strange band”

Interviewed by The Telegraph Steve Hackettamong other things, stated that he had no regrets about leaving i Genesis in 1977, and confesses to being “very proud” of everything the group achieved during his formative period as a guitarist, but this does not change the fact that he sees them as “a strange band”.

Hackett played on some of the most praised albums Genesis. His first album with the group was “Nursery Cryme” in 1971, to continue with “Foxtrot” (1972), “Selling England by the Pound” (read the review here) (1973), “The LambLies Down on Broadway” (1974), “A Trick Of The Tail” (1976) and finally “Wind & Wuthering” (1976), before leaving the band and dedicating himself to a solo career.

About his exit come on Genesis Hackett wrote on his website in 2018: “I left Genesis because I had a lot of ideas that I couldn’t otherwise develop and I needed autonomy, but my time with the band was special and the music we all created together was inspired.

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In The Telegraph, Steve Hackett he says he is “very proud” of the group’s success during those six years, saying they were “a killer team”. When asked about his absence on the reunion tour Genesis of 2022, he responds like this: “Genesis is a strange band. They ask you, and then when you say yes they say… there are too many of us. They are very competitive. I didn’t realize that I was becoming part of a very competitive and often tried to overthrow the ideas of others. I imagined that joining a songwriters cooperative meant that we would collaborate. But they had known each other since they were 11. I think they were privileged but brutalized. That system (that of the school that they attended, ed.) was designed to produce the next viceroy of India, the next prime minister, and competitiveness was instilled within them.”