“When you’re friends first and the music comes later, you know it’s non-competitive”: Steve Hackett and Steve Rothery aimed to prove two guitarists can share a studio without dissolving into a duel of overplaying egos. Did they do it?

Steve Hackett and Steve Rothery in 2026.

“There was a point when we were making this album when he said the music felt like an extension of our friendship,” Steve Rothery says, turning to his counterpart, Steve Hackett, with a warm smile.

“When you’re friends first and the music comes later, you know it’s non-competitive, and something else starts to happen,” says Hackett with a matching grin.