Despite being in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Steve Hackett’s picture could appear in the dictionary with the word “underrated.” 

Having debuted on an album with a certain band in 1971, this British rock guitar hero is hardly an oldies act. 

Following six albums with that band, he went solo in 1976. Since then, Hackett has steadily released 30 studio albums of original music. Today, he stands as perhaps the most prolific and consistent world-touring rock musician who got his start in the ’70s. 

He’ll be at Embassy Theatre on Friday, March 22, to perform songs from The Circus and The Nightwhale, a concept album released in February about his own life story. 

“It starts off in 1950, and then it’s a travel through time and personal experiences,” Hackett said in a Zoom call from London. “Lyrically, it’s a description of my first impressions of the world, and then certain characters that I met. But then it moves into more and more fantastic and imagined situations.”

In the beginning

But about that first band: they were called Genesis. 

Beginning the Steve Hackett Revisited: Foxtrot at Fifty + Hackett Highlights Tour in 2022, Hackett and band perform Genesis’ 1972 album Foxtrot in its entirety, including the magnum opus “Supper’s Ready,” a 23-minute suite inspired by the Book of Revelation in the Bible. It’s revered by prog rock fans, yet rarely performed live.

You may be asking, Genesis? Yes, the same Genesis you know from those ’80s and ’90s pop hits, but then again, no. 

In the early ’70s, Genesis was a seminal progressive rock band known for complex instrumental-oriented songs, synthesizing British musical traditions from folk to classical, while exploring lyrical themes from Greek mythology to science-fiction to contemporary life. 

Genesis is the only band we know of that has two Apple Music Essentials playlists: “Prog Era” and “Pop Era.” Hackett’s work is on the former when the prominent lead singer and flute player was a guy named Peter Gabriel.

In those days, Hackett earned acclaim for innovating two-handed tapping on the electric guitar, as well as the arpeggiation technique called sweep-picking, well before guitarists from Eddie Van Halen to all the shredders since made these advanced licks their stock in trade. 

Finding his voice

Let’s talk about Hackett since the ’70s. 

As a songwriter, lead singer, and guitarist, he’s still producing excellent music with plenty of heroics, whether it’s on a cranked-up Les Paul or classical guitar with an orchestra. 

On electric, he can certainly shred those triplets, but he’s envied for his expressive, singing vibrato. 

He’s also known for sounds: Embracing technology early, his music incorporated unusual industrial found sounds and samples. Seriously, by now he’s composed and recorded more music than all the other musicians who were in Genesis combined.

“Part of me is driven to do so, but I don’t think it’s a competitive streak,” he said. “I think it’s just that the older I get, the more I am aware of the passing of time and the beauty of music. And now that I’ve got the full support from the team that I need, it makes so many more things possible. My wife, Jo Lehmann, and I write together, and I write with my keyboardist Roger King as well, and sometimes that gets expanded to include other people. Working with people, I think, is very important. Having musical conversations, having conversations, full stop.”

Along with King, Hackett’s band consists of Rob Townsend on saxophones, flute, percussion, keyboards, and vocals, Jonas Reingold on bass guitar, 12-string guitar, and vocals, Craig Blundell on drums and vocals, and vocalist Nad Sylvan, who joins the band on the early Genesis material to sing the parts originally sung by Gabriel and Phil Collins.

“I only really learned to speak for myself relatively late in life,” he said about coming into his own as a solo artist. “I think that I was used to being shouted down in various situations, and I think I allowed it to happen. Then I started to realize that just because you’re shouted down it doesn’t mean that you haven’t got something to say.

“But now I have a voice. I’m not intimidated to talk to anyone anymore. It’s taken me a lot of years to come out of my shell, truly.”

Since going solo, Hackett has continued to play theaters across England, Europe, and Japan. About 20 years ago he broke back into the market in the U.S. and has toured here almost every year since.

Spending time with contemporaries

In 2010, Hackett was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Genesis. Gabriel could not make the ceremony, but he and Hackett have remained friends. They were born one day apart in 1950, February 12 and 13, and they call or write each other on every birthday. 

Hackett remains a great admirer of Gabriel’s, not only for his music but for his work as a humanitarian.

Since 2014, Hackett has gotten a further boost to his career, headlining the annual all-star progressive rock festival at sea, Cruise to the Edge. There he gets to perform for thousands of super-fans on a cruise ship in the Caribbean and jam with and hang out with his peers from bands like Yes; King Crimson; Emerson, Lake and Palmer; and many more. 

An even bigger delight for Hackett was appearing on the sister cruise On the Blue, featuring The Moody Blues and British singer-songwriters. 

“Al Stewart, Procul Harum, you know, and various pals, and I enjoyed that immensely. Even though I’m a guitar man, I do actually love to hear songs. 

“You can hear an awful lot of notes with the other stuff, and it’s almost like a sprint, isn’t it? Music that’s sport-driven, shaving nanoseconds off runs, etc.,” he said, referring to high-intensity hard rock. “Very interesting, but it’s a bit of a one-horse trick.”

“What I really value is John Lennon saying that he considered that Genesis were true sons of The Beatles.”