23 Facts About Mike Rutherford

Mike Rutherford was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Genesis in 2010.

Michael John Cloete Crawford Mike Rutherford was born on 2 October 1950 in Chertsey, Surrey.

Mike Rutherford's father, William Francis Henry Crawford Rutherford was a Royal Navy Captain who became a manager in industry upon his retirement from the service and married his mother Anne.

Mike Rutherford received his first guitar at the age of 8, and played in his first band, The Chesters, so named because by then they lived near Chester, in the following year.

Mike Rutherford attended The Leas, a preparatory school in Hoylake, Merseyside before he moved to Charterhouse, a private school in Godalming, Surrey in September 1964.

Mike Rutherford co-formed the school band Anon with guitarist Anthony Phillips in 1965, but was forced to leave the band when his housemaster banned him from playing guitar.

Mike Rutherford disliked his time at Charterhouse, and was expelled for instances of minor misconduct.

Mike Rutherford's playing style has been shaped by his unorthodox performance requirements within Genesis, where frequent shifts between instruments were common.

Mike Rutherford assumed lead guitar duties for Genesis in 1977 after Hackett left the band.

Mike Rutherford found that he liked this configuration, and following the recruitment of Steve Hackett he continued to play bass pedals both live and in the studio, often playing simultaneous twelve-string guitar and bass pedal parts in order to cover rhythm and bass parts at the same time.

In concerts during the first half of the 1970s, Mike Rutherford often played a double-necked instrument, custom built from a separate Rickenbacker hollowbody 12-string and 4001 bass.

However, Mike Rutherford assigned the guitar neck to the top position rather than the 4080's stock guitar on bottom.

Mike Rutherford later had a custom Shergold double-neck made, with the body modified so that each neck could be detached and played as a standard single-neck instrument, or swapped out in favour of alternate halves.

Mike Rutherford wrote a few Genesis songs by himself, including the minor hit "Your Own Special Way".

In 2004, Rutherford confessed that the lyrics were in fact written by B A Robertson, and based entirely on Robertson's relationship with his father.

Mike Rutherford collaborated with other artists, including associates Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins, on the Against All Odds soundtrack, offering the song "Making A Big Mistake".

Mike Rutherford played at the Strat Pack Concert in 2004 along with Brian May, David Gilmour, Joe Walsh and many other guitarists, in a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Fender Stratocaster electric guitar.

Mike Rutherford performed in the closing ceremony of the 2012 Summer Olympics on 12 August 2012 as a guest member of Ed Sheeran's band, along with Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason, playing the Pink Floyd song "Wish You Were Here".

Early in his career, Mike Rutherford played mainly Rickenbacker and Shergold basses.

Mike Rutherford developed the idea behind the M-Series Steinberger guitar with the help of English luthier Roger Giffin and he used this extensively in the 1980s and during The Invisible Touch Tour with Genesis.

Mike Rutherford had a double-neck Strata built for the Mama tour which featured a six string guitar and four string bass placed in a custom body.

Mike Rutherford's current double-neck model is a Gibson twelve-string guitar with a Yamaha TRB-4P bass while he prefers Eric Clapton signature model Fender Stratocasters when playing guitar on later pieces.

In 2014, Mike Rutherford published The Living Years: The First Genesis Memoir with Thomas Dunne Books.