«Genesis are like the British smarter version of Van Halen» [Robert Downey Jr.]
🔸 Ain’t it cool? Robert Downey Jr, Bruce Willis, Rick Moranis, Rosanna Arquette… All of these Hollywood celebs have confessed their love for Progressive Rock. Keep it going bros and sisters! Prog on forever!
Did You Know..? All These Celebs Love PROGRESSIVE ROCK!
🔸 Phil Collins wasn’t in the picture yet and some time away from answering the Melody Maker ad that would change his life forever. Back then, the drummer was a guy named Chris Stewart.
(by) Hiscio
PROG ROCK JOURNALIST
«Genesis are like the British smarter version of Van Halen. I just bought Abacab to put in my iPod. They’re so weird – aside from when they go into ponce-mode on some of those songs. But the arrangements, the artistry… wow»
🔸 Well, I don’t know what to do with that comparison, Mr. Downey, but I’m sure you’re entitled to your opinion. Robert Downey Jr, famed actor for Chaplin, Sherlock Holmes, Iron Man and others, says he’s fan a Genesis, Yes and Supertramp.
«I’m deep into old Genesis. I’m sorry, but these are songs that mean something to me. ‘Follow You Follow Me’ is a song that’s about something to me»
🔸 About Yes, Robert went as far as singing on a more-than-a-decent cover of Your Move, the first section from I’ve Seen All Good People, on his album The Futurist (2004) with Jon Anderson himself on chorus.
🔸 I was VP with the Spanish Tolkien Society for a while in the 90s and I read one day that Bruce Willis was big into Tolkien (no Peter Jackson movies yet!) and that, when his home was lost in a fire, he said he would missed a lot his books. And it happens he was also big into Prog. As proof, that day when Willis dropped by surprise at a Steve Hackett gig in Nov. 14, 2014 at The Town Hall (New York). After the show, they met at the backstage and got along just fine.
«We did a New York show and Bruce Willis came along, which was fantastic. It was lovely to meet him, talk and befriend him. He saw the show and came backstage. He’s a fellow harmonica player. It was very nice that we connected with him. It was something completely outside of music. But in a way, he’s in music.» [Steve Hackett]
🔸 Need more proof? Here’s a picture of Willis with Roger Waters.
«There’s a Genesis album, Selling England by the Pound, that has incredible riffs and melodies and it’s also always coming to mind. I have the same feelings for Yes!»
🔸 Canadian actor and comedian Rick Moranis went very popular worldwide in the 80s with movies like Ghostbusters, Spaceballs and Honey, I Shrunk The Kids. Moranis not only has declared his love for Yes and Genesis but attended elementary school with Geddy Lee, from Rush!
🔸 Moranis had a comic duo named Bob and Doug McKenzie with Dave Thomas and, in 1982, they were approached to do a record by Athem Records, Rush label record back then. So Geddy Lee ended up singing lead vocals for the first single, Take Off. The album The Great White North went platinum in sales, won a Grammy nomination and broke the Top 10 on Billboard‘s Top LPs and Tapes list in March, 1982. The album was also #1 in Canada for six weeks.
«I’ve seen Lee subsequently a number of times and he always says, ‘That’s the only number one record I’ve ever had!’ Which is insane to me because those guys have sold about a 150 zillion records!»
«The Geese And The Ghost takes me back personally to a time when I had total freedom and could at the drop of a hat get on a plane to London or Paris which I did frequently just because I felt like it. I guess this record reminds me of that time when I was free of responsibility and it brought me back to a time in my life when I listened to Genesis daily.» [Rosanna Arquette]
🔸 And lastly, but not leastly, comes BAFTA and Emmy winner Rosanna Arquette, a popular actress back in the 90s with roles in well-known movies like The Big Blue, Pulp Fiction and Crash. She’s a true fan of Genesis but, especially, of Anthony Phillips‘s The Geese & The Ghost, the debut album from Genesis original lead guitarist. For the album 31st anniversay, she contributed with some comments to the liner notes.
«I met her through Peter Gabriel. She’d told him that something on Geese was one of her all-time favourites – I discovered this at Mike Rutherford‘s 40th in 1990. When we came to re-master the Geese in 2006, I remembered it and contacted her thru her agent – not expecting to get a reply….! Quite to the contrary she was expedite and fulsome in reply, amply generous with praise and we have kept up email correspondence since!» [Anthony Phillips]
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