Steve Hackett Credit: Lee Millward

In the beginning there was prog, and the British band Genesis — a group whose illustrious roll call includes Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins, Tony Banks, Mike Rutherford and the subject of our interview, guitarist Steve Hackett — had a key role in shaping that genre in the 1970s.

Hackett was in Genesis during the run of fearlessly freaky and adventurous albums that made the group’s name — including Foxtrot, Selling England by the Pound, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway and Wind & Wuthering — before leaving the band in 1977 feeling too, ironically for such a freewheeling outfit, creatively constrained. (Indeed, during the recording of 1974’s Lamb, Hackett was already at work on his dizzying Tarot-inspired solo debut, Voyage of the Acolyte, which came out the next
year.)

There’s no small irony, then, in the fact that Hackett has of late become — in his mid-70s and still touring relentlessly with an eclectic array of creative outlets and collaborators — the live keeper of Genesis’ musical flame. 

Hackett’s tours revisiting the 1970s Genesis oeuvre are the only game in town if you want to hear the material from an original member’s hands. Think about it: Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins barely revisit that material live; Rutherford focuses on his Mechanics project, and Banks is more involved in classical music nowadays. 

To understand why it’s ironic that it is Hackett who primarily keeps Genesis’ music alive on stage, you only need to take the briefest of peeps at his formidable discography. You’ll see an artist in love with music and its endless possibilities and variables and tools. To wit: He doesn’t really need to do this, but …

“I think there’s room for everything. There’s room for Andrés Segovia. There’s room for a Jimi Hendrix and there’s certainly room for a pan-genre approach,” says Hackett. “Every genre has got something to offer. Every instrument. First you think, ‘Oh, I don’t think I’ll be able to use that. That’s useless.’ And then you find out, yes, there is a place where, even in the orchestra, there is a place for the humble triangle. There is a moment when it needs to be used.”

Hackett describes his solo practice as “a gigantic experiment” and, indeed, there’s a lot of ground to cover: progressive rock, hard-charging blues-rock, jazz, acoustic etudes, Latin sounds and the GTR supergroup with Yes’ Steve Howe.

Hackett as a guitarist is credited with inventing the two-hand tapping solo technique that shredders like Eddie Van Halen would later take to the bank, but he was just as eagerly putting synthesizers through their paces; later he’d walk away from electronics and play a nylon-string acoustic, or collaborate with an orchestra.

Hackett would arguably be doing just as well out on the road playing his solo catalog.

And yet, here we are, talking to Hackett a few days before he comes to Florida from the U.K. for a string of Sunshine State dates. Rehearsals are wrapped with a group of reliably shredding Swedes for this Floridian leg — his only U.S. shows penciled in for 2026 so far — of his Genesis & Solo Gems tour. After the Florida shows, he sets sail on the Cruise to the Edge voyage along with the proggy likes of Marillion and Adrian Belew. (And while we’re not saying that being trapped on a boat with a gaggle of obsessive prog rock fans is an unsettling proposition, we’re not not saying that either.) After that,  tours of South and Central America, Europe and the U.K. 

“Flexibility is the key word,” says Hackett of this intricate itinerary and its shifting roster of collaborators. “I’ve toured in all sorts of ways. I’ve toured as a band member, as a solo act. I’ve toured as an acoustic player, sometimes with a duo, a trio or quintet. But I do actually like working with a band. The camaraderie is important to me, the joy in that communicates to an audience wherever we happen to be.”

These shows will feature Hackett and co. playing two sets a night, one of his solo material new and old, and one of prime Genesis material. Setlist selection was suitably unorthodox.

“During COVID, when nobody could hardly get outside their front door. I stayed in touch with fans with lots of home-style videos, to give them teasers of what might come in the future. And we conducted a survey, my wife and I, asking people what they thought were their favorite tracks from solo stuff and from Genesis. The set that I’m doing is largely written by what fans want to hear. Plus there will be some new things as well,” says Hackett. “It’s important not to just keep the museum doors open for the glorious old exhibits, lovely though they are, but to stay relevant and to push yourself to do things that you couldn’t do way back in the day or even last week.”

For Hackett, it all comes down to the ineffable magic and alchemy of music, its power to heal and to unite. And with him looking so remarkably well-preserved and in full control of his creative faculties, who are we to argue?

“Music is the best medicine that we’ve got to heal us. I’m very proud to do that, doing something that I think politicians refuse to do. I show up and I plug in and I play, and there’s something in there that plays to everybody, to locals and to immigrants. I don’t care where you’re from, if you like it, great,” says Hackett, before getting in one last and very British quip. “I guess I’m the best ambassador I can find right now for world peace.”

Steve Hackett, 7:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 27; The Plaza Live, 425 N. Bumby Ave.; plazaliveorlando.org; $75-$165.

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This article appears in Feb. 25-March 3, 2026.