“I’m so sorry for the scare”: Steve Hackett provides update after being hospitalised before gig

Steve Hackett says he’s “so sorry for the scare” after he was rushed to hospital before he was meant to appear on stage for a show on Saturday (13 April).

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While he was fully intent on playing the show at the Celebrity Theatre in Phoenix, Arizona, a last-minute decline in the state of his health meant he never made it to the stage.

The following day, the Genesis guitarist shared a photo of himself in a hospital room on Facebook and explained what happened.

“I’m so sorry for the scare,” he wrote. “I’d hoped to power through the Phoenix show but I had a bronchial infection and a last-minute adverse reaction to medication. Consequently, the medics took me to hospital. I am now recovering and glad to be feeling okay. I was very sad to miss the show and I will return to play in Phoenix as soon as possible. My thanks to you all for your understanding and support. With warmest wishes, Steve.”

Hackett is currently on tour playing songs from Genesis’ acclaimed album Foxtrot as well as from his recent solo album The Circus and the Nightwhale, which came out in February.

“I’m keeping the museum doors open in the revisited sense of Genesis,” he tells The Republic, “but also doing new stuff to keep it vital so I don’t entirely pension myself off into a glorious past with all those lovely exhibits, beautiful though they are, but they are of a certain time-warp value.”

The promoter is currently attempting to reschedule the cancelled Hackett show. “If it doesn’t get rescheduled, obviously, people will be refunded their money,” their rep says. “It will go right to the credit card the ticket was purchased on.”

Listen to People of the Smoke, the opening track of The Circus and the Nightwhale, below: