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Steve Hackett Credit: Lee Millward<\/p>\nSteve Hackett Credit: Lee Millward<\/p>\n
In\u00a0the beginning there was prog, and the British band Genesis \u2014 a group whose illustrious roll call includes Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins, Tony Banks, Mike Rutherford and the subject of our interview, guitarist Steve Hackett \u2014 had a key role in shaping that genre in the 1970s.<\/p>\n
Hackett was in Genesis during the run of fearlessly freaky and adventurous albums that made the group\u2019s name \u2014 including Foxtrot, Selling England by the Pound, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway and Wind & Wuthering \u2014 before leaving the band in 1977 feeling too, ironically for such a freewheeling outfit, creatively constrained. (Indeed, during the recording of 1974\u2019s Lamb, Hackett was already at work on his dizzying Tarot-inspired solo debut, Voyage of the Acolyte, which came out the next
year.)<\/p>\n
There\u2019s no small irony, then, in the fact that Hackett has of late become \u2014 in his mid-70s and still touring relentlessly with an eclectic array of creative outlets and collaborators \u2014 the live keeper of Genesis\u2019 musical flame.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Hackett\u2019s tours revisiting the 1970s Genesis oeuvre are the only game in town if you want to hear the material from an original member\u2019s hands. Think about it: Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins barely revisit that material live; Rutherford focuses on his Mechanics project, and Banks is more involved in classical music nowadays.\u00a0<\/p>\n
To understand why it\u2019s ironic that it is Hackett who primarily keeps Genesis\u2019 music alive on stage, you only need to take the briefest of peeps at his formidable discography. You\u2019ll see an artist in love with music and its endless possibilities and variables and tools. To wit: He doesn\u2019t really need to do this, but \u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cI think there\u2019s room for everything. There\u2019s room for Andr\u00e9s Segovia. There\u2019s room for a Jimi Hendrix and there\u2019s certainly room for a pan-genre approach,\u201d says Hackett. \u201cEvery genre has got something to offer. Every instrument. First you think, \u2018Oh, I don\u2019t think I\u2019ll be able to use that. That\u2019s useless.\u2019 And then you find out, yes, there is a place where, even in the orchestra, there is a place for the humble triangle. There is a moment when it needs to be used.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hackett describes his solo practice as \u201ca gigantic experiment\u201d and, indeed, there\u2019s a lot of ground to cover: progressive rock, hard-charging blues-rock, jazz, acoustic etudes, Latin sounds and the GTR supergroup with Yes\u2019 Steve Howe.<\/p>\n
Hackett as a guitarist is credited with inventing the two-hand tapping solo technique that shredders like Eddie Van Halen would later take to the bank, but he was just as eagerly putting synthesizers through their paces; later he\u2019d walk away from electronics and play a nylon-string acoustic, or collaborate with an orchestra.<\/p>\n
Hackett would arguably be doing just as well out on the road playing his solo catalog.<\/p>\n
And yet, here we are, talking to Hackett a few days before he comes to Florida from the U.K. for a string of Sunshine State dates. Rehearsals are wrapped with a group of reliably shredding Swedes for this Floridian leg \u2014 his only U.S. shows penciled in for 2026 so far \u2014 of his Genesis & Solo Gems tour. After the Florida shows, he sets sail on the Cruise to the Edge voyage along with the proggy likes of Marillion and Adrian Belew. (And while we\u2019re not saying that being trapped on a boat with a gaggle of obsessive prog rock fans is an unsettling proposition, we\u2019re not not saying that either.) After that,\u00a0 tours of South and Central America, Europe and the U.K.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cFlexibility is the key word,\u201d says Hackett of this intricate itinerary and its shifting roster of collaborators. \u201cI\u2019ve toured in all sorts of ways. I\u2019ve toured as a band member, as a solo act. I\u2019ve toured as an acoustic player, sometimes with a duo, a trio or quintet. But I do actually like working with a band. The camaraderie is important to me, the joy in that communicates to an audience wherever we happen to be.\u201d<\/p>\n
These shows will feature Hackett and co. playing two sets a night, one of his solo material new and old, and one of prime Genesis material. Setlist selection was suitably unorthodox.<\/p>\n
\u201cDuring COVID, when nobody could hardly get outside their front door. I stayed in touch with fans with lots of home-style videos, to give them teasers of what might come in the future. And we conducted a survey, my wife and I, asking people what they thought were their favorite tracks from solo stuff and from Genesis. The set that I\u2019m doing is largely written by what fans want to hear. Plus there will be some new things as well,\u201d says Hackett. \u201cIt\u2019s important not to just keep the museum doors open for the glorious old exhibits, lovely though they are, but to stay relevant and to push yourself to do things that you couldn\u2019t do way back in the day or even last week.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Hackett, it all comes down to the ineffable magic and alchemy of music, its power to heal and to unite. And with him looking so remarkably well-preserved and in full control of his creative faculties, who are we to argue?<\/p>\n
\u201cMusic is the best medicine that we\u2019ve got to heal us. I\u2019m very proud to do that, doing something that I think politicians refuse to do. I show up and I plug in and I play, and there\u2019s something in there that plays to everybody, to locals and to immigrants. I don\u2019t care where you\u2019re from, if you like it, great,\u201d says Hackett, before getting in one last and very British quip. \u201cI guess I\u2019m the best ambassador I can find right now for world peace.\u201d<\/p>\n
Steve Hackett, 7:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 27; The Plaza Live, 425 N. Bumby Ave.; plazaliveorlando.org<\/a>; $75-$165.<\/p>\n Orlando\u2019s daily dose of what matters. Subscribe to The Daily Weekly.<\/p>\n Related Stories<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\tArtistic presentations of multi-course tastings \u2014 but also the finest pastrami sandwich in the city\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\tTouched by the hand of Prog\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
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