64 Facts About Steve Hackett

Steve Hackett contributed to six Genesis studio albums, three live albums, seven singles and one EP before he left to pursue a solo career.

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

Steve Hackett released his first solo album, Voyage of the Acolyte, while still a member of Genesis in 1975.

Steve Hackett has released albums and toured worldwide on a regular basis since.

Stephen Richard Steve Hackett was born on 12 February 1950 in Pimlico, central London to Peter and June Steve Hackett.

Steve Hackett was born one day before his future Genesis bandmate, singer Peter Gabriel.

Steve Hackett has a younger brother John who took up the flute and has performed, collaborated, and written with Hackett throughout his solo career, and helped compose some of the early Genesis songs uncredited including "Get 'Em Out by Friday" and "Cuckoo Cocoon".

Steve Hackett grew up having access to various musical instruments, such as the harmonica and recorder, but he did not develop an interest in the guitar until the age of 12 when he started playing single notes.

Steve Hackett has said that his compositions are still influenced by them.

Steve Hackett then joined Quiet World in 1970 which featured his brother John on flute.

Steve Hackett did not write any material with the group as the band's founders directed what the other members played, which did not bother Hackett as he wished to get more experience in a recording studio since the band had secured a contract with a label.

Steve Hackett played on the band's only studio album, The Road, released on Dawn Records, and left them soon after.

In December 1970, Steve Hackett placed an advertisement in Melody Maker in his search for a new band.

Gabriel advised Steve Hackett to listen to their last album Trespass before Steve Hackett auditioned for the group.

Steve Hackett became an early proponent of the guitar tapping technique normally attributed to Eddie Van Halen.

Steve Hackett claimed that Van Halen had told him that he learned the technique after attending a Genesis concert in the mid-1970s.

Steve Hackett had picked out "The Lamia" and "Fly on a Windshield" as his favourite moments on the album.

Steve Hackett had grown increasingly constricted by his lack of freedom and level of input and was insistent that more of his material be included on the album, but was rebuffed.

Steve Hackett's departure was announced in the press during the promotion of the album on 8 October 1977.

In 1983, Steve Hackett was joined on stage by Gabriel and Rutherford during a series of shows at the Civic Hall in Guildford, the three performing with Steve Hackett's band.

Steve Hackett participated in the re-recording of "The Carpet Crawlers" from The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway for inclusion on the 1999 greatest hits album Turn It On Again: The Hits.

Steve Hackett took part in a series of interviews as part of the remastering of the band's discography in 2007, and the interview book Genesis: Chapter and Verse released in the same year.

Steve Hackett appeared at the ceremony with Banks, Rutherford, and Collins, though none of them performed.

In 2014, Steve Hackett was featured in the BBC documentary Genesis: Together and Apart which focused on the band and the solo careers of the other members.

Steve Hackett expressed his displeasure with it following its broadcast, which he described as a "biased account of Genesis history" which "totally ignores" his solo work.

In 2022, Steve Hackett said he was invited to the final Genesis concert in London on 26 March.

In October 1975, Steve Hackett released his first solo album, Voyage of the Acolyte.

Steve Hackett enjoyed the freedom he had when writing and recording his own album, but was informed by Rutherford and Banks that he could not continue his solo career while in Genesis.

Steve Hackett did provide lead vocals for "Carry On Up the Vicarage", but they were processed using a "laughing gnome" vocal effect.

Steve Hackett used his band on his next album, Spectral Mornings, recorded in the first two months of 1979 in the Netherlands.

Steve Hackett looked back on this period, and the atmosphere within the group, as a hard working and positive one.

Steve Hackett found the experience of recording Defector as equal to Spectral Mornings and noted the similarity in music between the two albums, though he considered the material on the latter as some of the strongest of his career.

The album's tour saw Steve Hackett perform his first solo dates in the US.

The tour left Steve Hackett exhausted, and recuperated in Brazil where he spent three months working on new songs.

Steve Hackett changed musical directions with his fifth album, Cured.

Steve Hackett declined both offers, and went ahead with his next studio album, Highly Strung, put out in April 1983.

In 1983, Steve Hackett had secured a deal with Lamborghini Records which supported the release of his seventh album, Bay of Kings, containing classical guitar compositions.

In 1987, Steve Hackett contributed to the Genesis orchestral album We Know What We Like: The Music of Genesis, performed by the London Symphony Orchestra with arranger and conductor David Palmer.

In late 1989, Steve Hackett was the helm of the charity single "Sailing", a cover of Rod Stewart's 1975 hit released under the name Rock Against Repatriation.

Steve Hackett is co-author of the song "A Mulher Invisivel", from the 2nd LP of the countryman living in Brazil and played guitar on the track "Meantime" on the 4th LP of the artist, Loucura e Magica.

In 1992, Steve Hackett resumed touring for the first time in six years, which saw his return to activity in the US in several years.

Steve Hackett was pleased that his 1992 North American tour was well attended, and used it to test the strength of some new material that he had been working on to an audience, as well as to promote his first live album, Time Lapse.

In May 1993, Steve Hackett released his tenth studio album, Guitar Noir.

In retrospect, Steve Hackett said that much of the album made him "wince", and that he can "hear the struggles".

Steve Hackett promoted the album with two shows in Tokyo in December 1996 with John Wetton, Chester Thompson, Ian McDonald, and Julian Colbeck.

Steve Hackett looked back on the album as one with lyrical themes that he had not been "brave enough" to present before.

Steve Hackett said that he had not worked on a project with John for some time and had missed playing with him, leading to his manager Billy Budis to suggest an album of Satie's music.

In 2001, Steve Hackett contributed instrumental music to the score of Outwitting Hitler, a documentary about a Holocaust survivor.

In 2003, Steve Hackett released To Watch the Storms, his first studio album in four years and his first completed in his new recording studio, Crown Studios.

The recording of Out of the Tunnel's Mouth, was met with various legal issues, including those instigated by Poor and his former manager Billy Budis regarding its rights and attempt to block its release, to prevent Steve Hackett from playing on records by other artists, and the ownership of Steve Hackett's catalogue on Camino Records.

On 15 March 2010, Genesis was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with Steve Hackett making a rare appearance alongside Collins, Banks and Rutherford at the ceremony, though they did not perform together.

The album was met with enthusiasm from the public which resulted in Steve Hackett making a stronger chart presence and a sell out supporting tour in the UK.

Steve Hackett completed a second tour with a rearranged setlist in 2014 which spawned Genesis Revisited: Live at the Royal Albert Hall.

In October Steve Hackett won the "Chris Squire Virtuoso" award at the 2017 Progressive Music Awards.

In October 2018, Steve Hackett underwent a UK tour which featured his band performing Genesis and solo tracks with the 41-piece Heart of England Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Bradley Tkachuk.

Tkachuk and his brother took the orchestral arrangements that they had produced for a concert that Steve Hackett performed in Buffalo, New York in 2017, which featured an orchestra on stage, as the basis for the orchestral parts used for the tour, including those from Steve Hackett's collaboration with the Icelandic band Todmobile.

Steve Hackett released At the Edge of Light, in January 2019.

In 2019, Steve Hackett toured with a set comprising Selling England by the Pound performed in its entirety with other Genesis songs, plus tracks from At the Edge of Light and Spectral Mornings to commemorate the latter's fortieth anniversary.

In March 2020, Steve Hackett cancelled his existing North American tour just before a performance in Harrisburg, PA due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Steve Hackett resumed touring with performances including Genesis' Seconds Out in November 2021 in Finland followed by resumption of the cancelled North American tour in April 2022 in Boston following cancellation of the Canadian leg of the tour in March due to a case of COVID in the touring team.

In July 2020, Steve Hackett released an autobiography, A Genesis in My Bed.

In 1981, Steve Hackett married Brazilian painter and jewellery artist Kim Poor, who designed many of his album covers.

In 2006, Steve Hackett arranged for all royalties to be paid directly to him rather than the company, which Poor argued was in breach of their agreement and is entitled to a share of the money.

In June 2011, Steve Hackett married author Jo Lehmann, who has written lyrics on several of Steve Hackett's songs.