After 1978, this must have felt like a long-term gig. Billy Cobham: a very good drummer who shimnes mostly as soloist. Chester Thompson, who spent more than 30 years playing drums live with Genesis, recalled how Phil Collins targeted him every time things went wrong on the frontmans debut solo tour. Who did you see after that? Why not? And I gotta tell you, man, Barry Gibb might have been one of the most professional people Ive worked with in my life. Was it hard on your marriage that you were never home? Many of them are self-taught. I know my reaction to Hacketts "Genesis revisited" was- Hmm, I guess hes running out of money As I wrote, I find Hacketts soloalbums uneven but on the other handhis music is solid (apart from that GTR-thing, didnt like it!) But not only did Thompson stick with Genesis all the way through their Turn It On Again reunion tour of 2007 Collins also brought him over to his solo career in 1981 and used him for nearly all of his tours between 1981 and 2010. Whats it like to walk onto that stage and see just an ocean of people going insane? most great drummers won't ever do that, because they live for their drums. I watched it a couple of times, but Bob hung out with us the whole time. I didnt really know what was happening in the background. Born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland, Chester Thompson took to the drums at an early age.James Harris, a family friend and jazz drummer, first introduced Chester to the drum kit at age 11, and by the time he was 13, Thompson was already doing club gigs in the greater Baltimore area. but it was some kind of fight for the power and Tony won. Yeah. Thompson believed hehad landed a short-term job when Collins asked him to join Genesis without an audition in 1977, but he went on to take part in every road trip until 2007 and was also a stalwart of Collinssolo group fromthe initial Hello, I Must Be Going tour in 1982. Phil Collins offers health update ahead of Genesis reunion - MusicRadar I said to those guys, I dont care if you use another drummer on parts of the album. Im fine either way. The news that he left didnt come out until 1996 or so. Oh, goodness. Beans and Corn Bread was probably my favorite Louis Jordan tune. Unfortunately, they never had enough of his clear vocals to release it, or anything. He flew me out to L.A. and liked my playing and we immediately started rehearsing. The whole band took Tony's side (There's no Genesis without Tony) instead of compromising, giving more songs to Steve, It's ridiculous that Your Own Special Way was in W&W instead of Steve's superior material. It lets me read for about 90 seconds before it yanks the article. The first Phil solo tour was kind of a drag. One day, he got pretty frustrated with me and literally cussed me out in front of everybody. O.K.! They were having a little congratulations party for Tony [Smith] to celebrate 30 years of management or something. Even the sax players who sometimes only play 3 notes or a solo in songs are more impotant than drummers in bands (it is the same in Jazz, not only in Rock bands). The manager of Chicago [Jim Guercio] supposedly bought it as a tax write-off. It took me a while to get over it, but I really wish him well. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding. Serious Hits Live! - Wikipedia We crossed paths several times [after that] and there were never any weird vibes about it or anything. They were great writers. He might have some fives and sevens instead of triplets, things like that. In the meantime, they had brought in [drummer] Narada Michael Walden. Well, yeah. Not sure what's up there? When you heard he was going solo, did you think it would work out for him? Oh, my goodness! The first album after Gabriel left was still very progressive sounding, and as the albums after came out, the change could be heard more and more. He didnt know all the tunes, but obviously he was pretty familiar with the whole prog-rock thing. IvanI think we have reached the end of our discussion wether Phil is nasty or not. Most surely he didn't made s much money as Phil Tony and Mike, but he has a wealthy positiobn and artistic respect, something that Genesis lost. Thread starter Vistalite Black; Start date Feb 5, 2021; Prev. Im grateful. Chester Thompson sheds some light on relationship with Phil Collins Avatar: Photo of Solar Eclipse, Mexico City, July 1991. You knew it at five years old. Unfortunately, it really took off, so I dont think it worked as a tax write-off. Steve and I always stayed pretty good friends. I was seriously intimidated. Apparently he was a close friend of the band because in 1969 Genesis moved to cottage owned by Richard Macphail's parents to concentrate on writing. According to my mother, even before I can remember, she mentioned getting a toy drum and me standing on the front steps and playing as people listened. We had a bunch of 78s. I just knew that he was a radically different person than Id ever known. Max Roach and Art Blakey were first. Its an interesting gig musically speaking. And even though Im not doing it anymore, Im glad that he decided to go back to work. . I cant be gone that much at this point. Thats when Ricky [Lawson] wound up doing [the Phil solo tours of the mid-Nineties]. Its going very well. I think some of that might have something to do with it. When I was 13 and able to go on my own, I pretty much went every other week. Long story short: Collins turned up in a bad mood for the 2010 "Going Back" tour and griped at Thompson because Thompson hadn't prepared the Motown drum parts in enough detail. I felt like I needed to work on my playing. Ive heard lots of audiences tapes, but its pouring rain and none of them sound great. Genesis' The Last Domino? Playing in bars must have really sharpened your skills. He was smelling the money. I certainly never dreamed it would go on and on like it did. Had they said, Were going to change the feel a bit, I would have been fine with that. Man, it was fun. It wasnt the same kind of luxury and stuff, which is fine., He added that Genesis was very balanced, instead of having a leader, and everybody had their say. But his first experience with Collins as boss was kind of a drag. He only truly related to drums," Thompson explained. It was a lot. I did one of his solo albums and we had been pretty good friends. We were out there hitting it together and theres something about that. Phil Collins (onion head) <-nickname), is a great drummer and that is where i believed he should have stayed. Drummers are kept in the background because DRUMS CAN'T MOVE AROUND THE SCENARIO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We go way back. Basically, he tried to come up with stuff the band couldnt play, and we always managed to pull it off.