Steve Hackett Picks His Favorite Genesis Member Solo Album

Former Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett recently joined Rock History Music for an interview during which he revealed his favorite solo record of a former band member.

Genesis members have worked on their solo projects at various points during their careers with Genesis. Mike Rutherford, Steve Hackett, Tony Banks, Phil Collins, and Peter Gabriel have all released successful solo efforts and focused more on their music, especially when Genesis went on hiatus.

Steve Hackett worked with Genesis as the band’s lead guitarist from 1971 to 1977, and his reason for leaving the band was to pursue a solo career. In a recent interview with Rock History Music, the talented guitarist talked about Genesis members’ solo albums and revealed his favorite one.

Hackett said that many of the band members liked Mike Rutherford’s first solo effort, ‘Smallcreep’s Day,’ and he first listened to the album after Armando Gallo played it to him. He then thought it was a great album and phoned Rutherford. However, as it turns out, Rutherford wasn’t pleased with the outcome.

Following that, Hackett stated that he realized the owners of the songs are not their parents. According to Hackett, it’s the audience who owns the songs, and he was a part of the audience when he listened to ‘Smallcreep’s Day.’ So, although Rutherford didn’t like it that much, he heard it and became a fan.

During the conversation, Steve Hackett said the following:

“Funnily enough, many of us really liked Mike Rutherford’s first solo album ‘Smallcreep’s Day.’ The weird thing is, I phoned him up, and I said, ‘Yeah, you got it right there, okay. Alright, folks, we didn’t talk about this. We didn’t confer on this.’ But, I remember it was Armando Gallo who played me some of that first of all, and I thought it was great. I phoned Mike up, and he said, ‘Yeah, I didn’t like it, this and that about it.’ He wasn’t very happy with it.

Years later, I spoke to Chester Thompson, and he said, ‘Yeah, I love Mike’s album.’ Okay, Chester Thompson — fabulous drama, working with us. So, I came to realize that everyone who worked on the album told me what was wrong with it. And yet, it was up to us to say what was right about it.

So, once again, the true owners are not the parents. You create something, and you may think, ‘Oh, here’s my big beautiful baby,’ or ‘Oh, well, it didn’t come out perfectly, and I wasn’t happy.’ I’m saying this till I’m blue in the face — the audience is the true owners. In the case of ‘Smallcreep’s Day,’ I was part of the audience. I heard it, I was a listener, and I became a fan. ‘This is great stuff,’ I thought. ‘Really great, Mike.'”

You can watch the full interview below.