Genesis: Former Members Happy To Move On

Peter Gabriel says that because his 1986 hit "Sledgehammer" was inescapable on MTV, it did much to final separate him from his past with Genesis. On October 23rd, Gabriel will release his 25th Anniversary edition of his 1986 Top Two album So, which spawned his only chart-topper to date, "Sledgehammer." Rolling Stone asked Gabriel if he felt as though the video was "played a ridiculous amount of times on MTV," to which he explained, "Yeah, I think it was the most played video on MTV, and still is today. But I was trying to get some income from it, which is another battle, another story. . . At the time, I was still fighting the ex-Genesis label, so to have a new label that was bigger than ex-Genesis. . . I was quite pleased about that."

Guitarist Steve Hackett is one former member of Genesis, who's happy to delve into the band's past, and will release his new studio set, Genesis Revisited II, on October 22nd. Hackett, who quit the band in 1977, told Ultimate Classic Rock, that he remembers Genesis as being "an extremely magical band, full of great songwriters and singers, (who were) visionaries in a sense. . . (Genesis was) the most broad-based band in the business. We did everything from gentle little lyrical acoustic songs, tinkling on 12-strings. . . to atonal stuff and extraordinary moments borrowing from jazz."

Hackett plans to hit the road to support Genesis Revisited II, which will be released in several format, including "a double CD media book as well as a quadruple LP and standard two-CD versions."
Mike Rutherford, who recently incorporated three Genesis songs into his recent Mike & The Mechanics shows -- "Throwing It All Away," "Follow You, Follow Me" and "I Can't Dance" -- told Genesis-news.com that he's not one for reviving the past for long periods: "Well, I find it kind of strange, I know (one time Genesis-vocalist) Ray (Wilson) does it a lot. I rather live in the 'now.' I find it strange, going back and play these songs. . . it's not for me. If I were Steve. . . I'd rather do something new."

He spoke candidly about the 1997 Calling All Stations album and project, featuring Ray Wilson fronting the band after Phil Collins initially quit, recalling, "The writing team was incomplete. I felt that me and Tony (Banks) and Ray, that was not quite enough. Maybe if we had done more, we would have found some answers to that question."

We asked Mike Rutherford what he's most proud of from his time in Genesis: "More an appreciation of different things about our career. A) That we had the career (laughs) we had and it lasted as long as it did. And I think because we're all good friends, I know this is the corny old stuff, but it makes the memories -- I think --- more enjoyable. Y'know, so many bands fall out and if so-and-so goes, the other one's not going, y'know? I feel pretty proud of what we've done of what we've done, actually, over the years."