Former Genesis lead guitarist Steve Hackett opened up about his relationship with the band’s original lead singer Peter Gabriel after his departure during his latest appearance on Rock History Music. The musician also shared details about two Genesis reunions in the early ’80s.
Peter Gabriel was among Genesis’ founding members alongside the other Charterhouse students, Tony Banks, and Mike Rutherford. However, the guitarist and singer could only perform with the band for almost a decade and parted ways because of different reasons. The first one was Gabriel, whose costumes and the theatrical show drew more attention than the band’s music, so he left the band in 1975.
Two years after the frontman’s departure, Hackett decided not to continue as a Genesis member to focus on his solo materials more because he wouldn’t have time for that otherwise. Shortly after, the original members performed together for Six of the Best, a reunion concert that took place on October 2, 1982, at the National Bowl in Milton Keynes, to raise money for Gabriel’s World of Music, Arts, and Dance festival.
Gabriel’s financial status worsened because of the festival’s situation as he’s the co-founder and his former bandmates and longtime friends were ready to help. Then, they collaborated during a series of shows at the Civic Hall in Guildford in 1983. Therefore, the famous guitarist revealed that he and Gabriel were in touch and willing to support each other during the hard time after Hackett was asked to share the singer’s reaction to the famous musician leaving Genesis a few years after him.
Here’s what the host asked:
“Did he get hold of you when you decided to leave Genesis? Did he say, ‘How’s going? Are you doing okay?’ Were you guys in contact back then?”
Hackett responded:
“I think we were from time to time. I’m trying to remember what the order of the events was. Shortly afterward, we had a Genesis reformation in the early ’80s to help the state of Peter’s finances because he was heavily involved with WOMAD, and it had lost a lot of money, although it was a great idea.
It was a one-off show we had at Milton Kynes, and then I did another charity thing myself. I asked Pete if he’d be involved, and then when Mike Rutherford heard that was happening, he said, ‘He’d like to be involved as well.’ So luckily, we were able to do something that involved future members of Marillion and Genesis.”
You can watch the interview below.
