About four years ago, Peter Gabriel came up with the rather bold plan of recording twelve tracks by some of the biggest names in music and asking them to return the favor by covering his songs. It was originally planned as a double album containing both sides of the music exchange, but turns out getting acts like Arcade Fire, Paul Simon, the late Lou Reed, Bon Iver and many others to record on request is no easy feat. “I made the calls myself,” he says. “I’ve aways been a hustler. I wouldn’t have made it in this business otherwise.”
Gabriel’s cover album, Scratch My Back, came out in early 2010, and the follow-up And I’ll Scratch Yours finally hits shelves on January 6th. In the end, he got everyone to record his own songs besides Neil Young, Radiohead and David Bowie, though “Heroes” co-writer Brian Eno did agree to step in and tackle Gabriel’s 1978 song “Mother of Violence.”
Rolling Stone sat down with Gabriel to chat about And I’ll Scratch Yours, his ongoing Back To Front tour – where he plays his landmark 1986 album So straight through – why he has mixed feelings about Spotify, the long-awaited followed up to 2002’s Up and (inevitably) the possibility of a Genesis reunion.
You took off a year off to travel recently. How was that?
It was great, though I lost my dad in the first part of the year. But he was 100 years old, so I was very lucky. Then we went traveling. I think we started off in Ecuador, Galapagos, Mexico, Nassau, Hawaii, Wales and then Japan, Thailand and Botswana. It was a good mix. My twelve year-old became a passionate wildlife photographer and we took lessons with a lady photographer in Botswana, which was a real treat at the end.
Did you do any work whatsoever the whole year?
No. I wanted to purely spend time with the family and have a sabbatical year. I meant to do that when I was fifty, so I was only thirteen years behind schedule.
Was this the longest break of your life?
Absolutely. I thoroughly recommend it. I’ve been lucky in that I’ve had many lives to lead, but I think it’s still quite easy to get stuck into some habits. It’s important to put yourself into different situations.
So many people in your position tell me their biggest regret in life is not spending more time with their kids when they were young.
It’s easier now because I have more money now than I did when my first kids came around. They’re now delivering me grandchildren. I still was present more than most musician dads. It’s harder when you’re in a band. You can’t call the shots the way you can as a solo artist.
You just wrapped up another leg of the So tour. Are you still enjoying that?
Yeah, I am. I’m gonna do a bit more. I only do short tours now of three to four weeks because of family. I’m gonna do one in the spring and probably one in the fall, both in Europe. The second one isn’t locked in at the moment. I wasn’t sure how much I would enjoy it, but playing again with [drummer] Manu Katche and [keyboardist] David [Sancious] was really a lot of fun. Manu is such a different musician than most drummers. It’s been great. We did the show in three parts with some acoustic numbers, some electronic and then the whole album.
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