“I thought no one’s gonna buy this because it’s too long. I thought our label would say, ‘Sorry boys, you’ll be hearing from our lawyers’”: How Genesis wrote one of prog’s wildest epics –with help from a rumoured exorcism

Genesis posing for a photograph in the early 1970s.

“I don’t think it’s crazy, no,” says Steve Hackett.“I wouldn’t say it’s particularly misunderstood, either. Though it is hugely open to interpretation.”

The former Genesis guitarist is talking about Supper’s Ready, the 23-minute-plus opus that runs for almost the entire length of side two of his old band’s 1972 breakthrough album Foxtrot.