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Legendary guitarist and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, Steve Hackett will be bringing his Genesis Greats, Lamb Highlights and Solo Tour to the Goodyear Theater in Akron on November 4.

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We had the chance to to a Zoom call with Steve to discuss his upcoming tour, celebrating 50 years of the classic The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway and his memories of playing in Cleveland.​​​​​

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Greg Drugan:  Where are you Zooming in from today?

 

Steve Hackett:  This is England, this is London. It’s a new house in London which is very nice.  It’s a small room upstairs because we’ve got guests downstairs where I would normally do this.  So excuse me, it looks a bit basic here. 

 

GD:  That’s quite alright!  I appreciate you taking some time with me today to talk about your upcoming tour.

 

SH:  Sure, looking forward to it.

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GD:  Your US tour is coming up in the fall and you’re going to be playing Akron, Ohio at the Goodyear Theater. This time around you’re going to be playing “Genesis Greats,” “Lamb Highlights,” and your solo material. How do you approach blending these different eras of your career into this one performance?

 

Steve Hackett:  I try to address the past and the present.  The inconvenient thing with the present stuff, these things have gone into the charts.  I’ve released two albums this year, one of which was an acoustic retrospective the other one was a rock album that was done at the Royal Albert Hall. That went to the top of the Rock charts in the UK and that’s pretty much the program that we’re bringing over except we’re going to include “Supper’s Ready” as well as nine tracks from The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, the whole of “Supper’s Ready” from Foxtrot and one or two selections from Genesis.  The rest is solo stuff which did very well when it was released a while back. 

 

It’s funny, it’s as if I’ve got two different audiences. One is exclusively interested in the Genesis stuff from fifty years ago and the other ones are who buy the more recent stuff. I’ve been making more of a dent on the charts than I’ve ever done before. Maybe it was a good idea to keep doing new stuff as well as the old stuff. Most of my time is spent not devising ways to do the old stuff, which kind of takes care of itself, but to write and produce (new) music as well.  We try to make it as inclusive as possible, the new stuff.   We try to include some aspects of world music, we try to include some aspects of rock, classical, fusion.  When I say inclusive, I’d rather say that than progressive.  When you say progressive people think, “Hammond organ, melotron, difficult time signatures, and I hate that sort of stuff and I’m not going to listen to that!”  I’d rather do accessible music with surprises! That’s how I see it.  

 

GD:  Excellent! You just released The Lamb Stands Up at Albert Hall. What does this live album mean to you personally, and how does it differ from previous live albums that you’ve done, you said the last one was acoustic, so how does this differ?

 

SH:  That’s right! The thing about this, the last rock album I did- the studio album- I started it off in the year of my birth 1950. I started it off with sound bites of what the radio played at that time. You had an aspect of “Listen With Mother” a little bit of The Ovaltineys which was an ad that was around during my mothers time which was an advertisement for this drink Ovaltine, and a little bit of a newscast. It’s very much what the BBC played in 1950.  The film of the Albert Hall (performance) the Blu-ray starts off with the outside of Albert Hall, then zooming in from outside and you get all of this terrific, quintessential British structure, which is Albert Hall dating back to Victorian Albert, literally. With this back dated, pre rock-n-roll British, land of hope and glory, “Citizens of Hope and Glory" which was part of the Genesis canon via “Dancing with the Moonlit Night” which Peter Gabriel was addressing.  It makes so many different reference points  but I think it was because it was all things British, and very British, and playing to a largely British audience, when it all starts and they start cheering, it’s as if they aren’t cheering me as much as they’re cheering the past, they’re cheering the BBC.  I think that’s what makes this thing work as a film.  It’s got a spectacular beginning to it, it’s addressing what is it to be British? It’s like Springsteen comes out, wrapped in the flag or whatever. Here’s me saying, this is pre hi-fi, it’s all British Emprire.  It’s all nostalgia for the past then I do stuff that’s more modern.  Then the second half of the show we go full nostalgic and I give them the Genesis stuff. I’m looking forward to bringing this to the States, of course. 

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GD:  When performing Genesis classics today, do you strive to replicate the original sound exactly, or do you allow yourself room to reinterpret and modernize those arrangements?

 

SH: I try to strike a balance. It’s important that it’s an authentic version of the song. In other words, it’s not a jazz version of the song with accents and swing or what have you.  It’s not a punk version.  There might be a few solos within it that might change.  I’ve Steve Rotherly and myself trading guitar licks. He’s from Marillion and they are hugely popular here.  When we do “Fly on the Winshield,” another piece from “Lamb Lies Down” we sort of turned it into not a guitar battle, but “over to you my friend,” and here we are. It divides people because the keyboard player is like “the guitar solo is too long.” But those who like guitar say “it’s far too short!” I’m happy to be controversial at this late stage in the game. 

 

GD:  Genesis’ music from your era is known for its complexity and emotion. Is there a song that you find the most challenging to play either Genesis or solo stuff?

 

SH:  I think one of the most beautiful moments is “The Chamber of 42 Doors,” I think it’s one of the best songs on the album.  It’s a very strange song. It doesn’t really have a chorus. It starts off, almost like classical music.  Then it’s got a guitar riff that’s played almost, I want to say fusion but that’s misleading because it’s fairly short but somehow those few phrases say a lot. Because I play these phrases deliberately out of time, it’s in its own time, that’s the most challenging moment.  To get that so it falls in time afterwards once the band has gotten its teeth into it. That particular moment, but I absolutely love it. With Genesis Revisited #2, I started off with that piece and took some liberties.  Once the song starts, what you see is what you get.  It’s completely recognizable. I started it off with acoustic guitar, sort of as if it were a harp, coming through the ages with fast arpeggiated stuff with a strange tuning I persist in using. It’s a G minor tuning as far as I know, no one else uses. You can get some Russian influence and some jazz influence, certain chords that rock guitarists don’t touch.  That’s one of the loveliest pieces. 

 

I’ve chosen what I think are the strongest tunes within “The Lamb.” Not dependent on the narrative, just stand alone tunes that stand the test of time. Like the title track, which has its own strangeness.  It’s almost like the leadline is the bass, which Mike was using my Baratone guitar for that through distortion. Tony is playing a virtuoso RMI piano part throughout and Pete’s turning it into a rock song with a chorus that has more to do with musicals than it does to rock.  But that’s the hybrid again, isn’t it?  People either love it or they go “what are these English guys doing singing about a Puerto Rician punk in New York, where’s the credibility in that?”  I agree with that! (laughs) Praise it by all means. I agree with the critics.  If you’ve got a problem with that, don’t listen to the rest of the album.  But it does go into some weird and wonderful places.  It goes its own way. 

 

GD:  Can you believe that it’s been fifty years since “The Lamb” was released.  Is that the reason why you are revisiting some of the tracks?

 

SH:  Yes, that’s really it.  It started last year. Officially the album was released in 1974, a mere fifty-one years ago. The majority of the touring took place the following year. An album that produced so much controversy at the time because it was very different than anything that Genesis had done up to that point. It divided people but when you look back at a band that no longer exists, yet had a big impact on a number of people who weren’t just interested in listening to the music but were interested in becoming musicians themselves. I think it gave people license to become, perhaps virtuosic.  There’s some wonderful keyboard parts on it. Peter Gabriel, it was his last album with the band, was almost headed towards a solo career with this particular album.  You’ve got his stamp on it very closely.  Then you’ve got kind of the wrestling match between keyboards and vocals going on the whole time, vying for supremacy. The band is mine! No, the band is mine!!  The rest of us tried to fit in.  There are humble moments on guitar, or when drums and bass were allowed to breathe. It is what it is and it has some beautiful songs on it.  A personal best on the album, I only do tracks where guitar is allowed to breathe within it.

 

 We also celebrate a lot of Selling England By The Pound, which did wonders for us  in America because we had the audacity to claim that we were all things English and selling it to the colonies.  Rethinking that we were the oppressor! Hey, America we lost that one!  It was a time where John Lennon started saying nice things about Genesis.  The last thing I heard was that we were one of the bands that he was listening to.   He said that he considered Genesis to be true sons of The Beatles.  I’m very proud of my time in Genesis and it’s all pre-MTV Genesis. I’m very proud that he thought enough of us to say that.  

 

GD:  I have to say that Trick of The Tail is a masterpiece and your guitar work on there is outstanding. That’s peak Genesis for me right there. 

 

SH:  Oh, well thank you very much.  I tried my best. 

 

GD:  What do you think it is about Genesis’ music, after all these years that resonates with audiences today?  You have younger fans, you have older fans and people are still drawn to it. 

 

SH:  It’s got to be about the songs.  It’s got to be about the writing. Yes, you can get some great soloists within these things but ultimately unless you are listening to blues or jazz or classical, they aren’t really talking about the solos as the things that survive. You’re talking about the strength of the song, the strength of the ensemble. So I think when you get a strong team, ensemble and you get some great writing within it, then you’ll have something that if you’re lucky, may stand the test of time. That’s just my view.  

 

Things were different in those days.  We were making albums. Albums were considered to be the real deal. Singles were almost like a dirty word. There were fans who would say “If you ever go on The Top Of The Pops and perform your latest single, we’ll never talk to you again.”  The level of prejudice against mere pop music and whatever Genesis was expected to do was extraordinary.  As far as I’m aware, up into the present day, Led Zepplin has never released a single. As far as I know.  Everyone thinks, “Stairway to Heaven” meets “Black Dog,” meets “Kashmir.” Actually the story is somewhat different from the era we grew up in. Genesis did not get support from radio in those days.  Really, media support came largely in the 1980s for Genesis. After Peter Gabriel left, after I left, after Anthony Phillips left. By then, I suspect, by a lot of British rock acts the albums that were being made were full of potential hit singles. If you were lucky, you had the equivalent of Fleetwood Mac’s Rumors. Just about every track has been played to death. We know them all.  One of the most successful albums of all time.  I suspect when they were doing that they weren’t thinking “Oh, here’s a single. We’re making a collection of singles masquerading as an album. We’re making an album because we feel this way.  I think the authenticity of that is what has made that last. 

 

I think I’m lucky to have been involved with a band that I think was going through it’s classic period with the five guys that I was involved with at that time.  And even the era just slightly before Phil joined and I joined.  Genesis had Anthony Phillips who was the main writer and driving force within that band. 

 

GD:  Did you ever perform on Top of the Pops?  I can’t see Genesis being on Top of the Pops. 

 

SH:  We never did.  But they had a dance troop who performed to a song that we did called “I Know What I Like In Your Wardrobe.”  There were intonations of cross-dressing in the lyric.  What these girls were doing in the dance troop was they were appearing in basically lingerie, very suggestive.  I’ve been told it was very good but I’ve never seen it.  Genesis did appear but it was a straight ahead performance video.  At the time, the same thing would have been shown on MTV.  That was an era that had it’s pluses and minuses. I must admit I enjoyed the benefit of having a single that was on MTV with GTR. That was a subsequent band that I was involved with Steve Howe. We had “When the Heart Rules the Mind” they were playing it on the hour so I can’t complain. 

 

GD:  Sure!  I’ve got that album!

 

SH:  Oh, you’ve got that album. I re-recorded that album fun enough with Steve Rotherly.  It’s a version where I wanted to have a go doing the vocals myself and with Amanda. It’s slightly different. Basically the song hangs in the same way. But where we did the roughs, the chorus had a Beach Boys effect with the question and answer type thing. I wanted to make that more heavyweight. That was my main motivation more than wanting to do the guitar, which there is a great hook in it.  Steve Howe came up with but I kinda came up with the song and we merged the two. The hit song was actually written on the second day that we worked together. He had a song, I thought the instrumental part was brilliant.  I had a song looking for an instrumental bit. We merged the two and it came out really well. It seemed to fit the bill at the time. It’s essentially a pop song, it’s got rocky elements to it. A rock song becomes a pop song the moment people start to play it a lot.  That’s my definition.  Sorry, I apologize for all my successes! (laughs) 

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GD:  Cleveland and northeast Ohio have always been big supporters of you and Genesis.  Do you have any memories of playing in Cleveland and the Cleveland area throughout your career?

 

SH:  Oh, absolutely! It was always very good.  It always seemed to stand alone from the rest. There was always a gap.  We got to play east coast, west coast and what was in the middle. (Cleveland) was always amazing. 

 

GD:  You will be playing the Goodyear Theater in Akron in November. We love having you, what can fans expect from the show?

 

SH:  We’re going to have Nick Di Vigillo on drums, Ned Sylvan on vocals, Jonas Reingold who’s a marvelous bass player who also does some of the twelve string stuff along with me. Roger King on the main keyboards and Rob Townsend who’s the multi-instrumentalist woodwind, brass, keyboard, bits of percussion.  It’s a great band and I’m very proud of them.  It’s a great show.  If you don’t like one era, you get another era.  Some people prefer one side of it, the first half, some people prefer the second half. I think there’s something in it for everybody. 

 

GD:  Very good! Excellent. I look forward to the show. I’ve seen you a few times in the past and this is going to be another outstanding show here in Akron.  

 

SH:  I think it will be! Looking forward to coming back to Akron, always! So, thank you so much.

 

GD:  Safe travels on the road, Steve! Thank you so much for your time.

 

SH:  All the best! 

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Steve Hackett will be playing the Goodyear Theater on November 4.

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Watch the entire Zoom call below! 

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