Steve Hackett Says Genesis' Rock Hall Night Took an Unexpected Turn, and It Wasn't About the Music

The part of Genesis' Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction that Steve Hackett still talks about is not a lost reunion performance. It is the strange mix of tribute, absence and backstage tension that turned the 2010 ceremony into one of the more revealing nights in the band's later history.

Hackett has been revisiting that evening as Phil Collins approaches another Hall honor next month, which will make Collins a two time inductee. His first came with Genesis in 2010, when the band was welcomed into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Phish handled the live musical salute.

That tribute gave the night one of its lasting images. Trey Anastasio delivered the induction speech while Collins, Mike Rutherford, Tony Banks and Hackett watched. Phish also played two Genesis songs, including "Watcher of the Skies," a piece closely associated with the Peter Gabriel period of the group.

For Hackett, the ceremony has stayed memorable for more than one reason. He remembers Anastasio speaking warmly not only about Genesis as a band, but also about some of the playing ideas Hackett had brought to it. He admits he found that both flattering and faintly awkward, because he suspected the other Genesis members were not especially thrilled to sit there listening to it.

Video: Trey Anastasio inducts Genesis into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

The clip below is the speech Hackett was recalling when he talked about Anastasio praising Genesis and some of his techniques.

Why the band never took the stage

One obvious question from that night has followed Genesis ever since. Why did a Hall of Fame induction for one of Britain's best known progressive rock bands end without the band performing?

Hackett says the ceremony's organizers wanted Genesis to play. In his telling, two problems stood in the way. Collins was, as Hackett put it, very unwell at the time, and that version of the band had not worked together for many years. Whatever hopes fans may have had for a live appearance, the band remained in their seats while an American act, Phish, supplied the performance element instead.

Hackett does not sound bitter about that arrangement. If anything, he looks back on the Hall itself with appreciation. He calls it a great American institution and points out that there is nothing quite like it in the United Kingdom. What he values most is the way it honors artists while they are still alive, while also recognizing those who have died. In his view, that matters, because some artists are celebrated too late to be present for the occasion themselves.

The comment that put Yes into the conversation

Hackett's sharpest memory from the event may actually have had less to do with Genesis than with another giant of progressive rock. Around that period, he was collaborating with Yes bassist Chris Squire on material that would eventually be released under the name Squackett on the 2012 album "A Life Within a Day."

Squire had wanted to attend Genesis' induction. Hackett says he had to tell him he could not get him into the event, a message Squire took badly enough that he thought Hackett was trying to keep him out. Hackett insists the opposite was true and says he would have loved to have had him there.

Unable to bring Squire into the room, Hackett found another way to make his point. When he met the press, he said that Yes should be inducted too. He now laughs at how that landed with the Genesis camp. According to Hackett, his bandmates were standing about four feet away, reacting as if to ask whether he was really speaking for them.

Hackett's argument eventually got its vindication. Yes were later inducted, and he sees that outcome as important for the genre as a whole. He suggests Genesis may have been the first progressive band, or at least the first band that had once been progressive, to make it into the Hall. In his mind, it was fitting that Yes followed, especially because he regards them as a group that had preceded Genesis.

Video: Phish performs Genesis' "Watcher of the Skies" at the Rock Hall induction ceremony.

What the story says about Hackett now

The Rock Hall memory also says something about where Hackett stands at this point in his career. He remains deeply tied to Genesis, but he is still eager to champion the wider musical world around it, including friends and collaborators who never got the same recognition at the same time.

That balance is likely to be visible again when he brings his Best of Genesis and Solo Gems tour to North America next year. The run is set to open on April 10 in Atlanta and continue for close to a month before finishing in Quebec with special symphonic shows.

One area of his catalog that he has not yet brought into his solo concerts is the Squackett material he made with Squire. Hackett says he would be open to changing that. He singles out the title track, "A Life Within a Day," as an intriguing song and notes that, despite the strength of the album, he and Squire never got the chance to perform those songs live together.

He also says there was more than one strong piece on the record. From his perspective, the album began strongly and ended strongly, and he remembers Squire being receptive to all of his lyrical ideas. Hackett even points to "Can't Stop the Rain" as an example of the pair moving into unexpected territory, describing it as a laid back song that was very beautifully produced.

That leaves Genesis' Hall of Fame induction looking a little different in retrospect. It was not the night fans might have imagined, with the band onstage and reunited for a celebratory performance. Instead, it became a revealing snapshot of late period Genesis: Collins unable to perform, Phish serving as the musical stand in, Anastasio saluting Hackett's contributions, and Hackett himself using the spotlight to argue that another progressive institution deserved its place too.

For a nostalgia audience, that may be the most interesting part of all. The 2010 ceremony did honor Genesis, but in Hackett's memory it also became a night about unfinished business, old alliances and the long campaign to get progressive rock treated as part of the main story.