Legendary Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett will publish his memoir, A Genesis In My Bed – Steve Hackett: The Autobiography, this July. Hackett joined Genesis in time for its 1971 third album, Nursery Cryme, and performed and composed material for such classic sets as Foxtrot, Genesis Live, Selling England By The Pound, The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway, A Trick Of The Tail, Wind And Wuthering, and left during the mixing of 1977's Seconds Out. In January 2019, Steve Hackett released his 25th album, At The Edge Of Light.
According to the press release for the new book:
Steve talks candidly about his early life, his time with Genesis, and in particular his personal relationships with the other four band members, with great insight into the daily goings on of this major rock band. . . Naturally, A Genesis In My Bed also regales stories of Steve's career since leaving Genesis and the many different journeys that it has taken him on. . . . It is a riveting read. Indispensable for Genesis fans but also essential for general music lovers and avid readers of autobiographies full of heartfelt and emotive tales.
Steve Hackett told us that the best way to salute his '70s work with Genesis, is to incorporate it into a show featuring new music, as well: “It is demanding music, it's demanding physically. There's no doubt about it, and we do long shows — we do a two-and-a-half hour thing. We usually take a break in the middle. We're both the stuff that does the solo (material), but then there's the Genesis set as well. It's important. It's important to honor all of that, but I think as well as honoring the glorious set of exhibits from the past, I think it's important to keep recording new stuff and keep your chops up to challenge yourself.”
Although Genesis could hold their own with all the prog giants of the era, Steve Hackett told us that Genesis always had a leg up on their competition because the band featured up to five songwriters at a time vying for space on their albums: “I think Genesis' strength was the fact that we had the best writing. I think there were a lot of bands who had very accomplished jazz people who were playing rock, y'know, people that were full of technique, etc. But, I think in terms of writing, Genesis had that down. There was a huge emphasis on that — it was a songwriters' collective, so, it was a school of that, and we had a collision of many styles. There was classical influence, there was jazz influence, there was big band influence, there was folk influence, there was social comment. Everything could be part of it.”
