The greatest classic rock band of all time, according to Robin Williams: “The three kings of rock and roll”
Everybody has their own opinion on which classic rock band deserves to be called the greatest of all time. Robin Williams had his, and since he was a world-famous celebrity, he was given a bigger platform than most to state his compelling case.
He might have released five Grammy-winning albums, but Williams wasn’t a musician. Not that it stopped him from bursting into song whenever he could, though, whether he was making guest appearances on albums or ensuring that several of his most iconic roles featured at least one earworm.
The legendary comic covered The Beatles’ ‘Come Together’ alongside Bobby McFerrin, performed ‘Blame Canada’ from South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut live at the Academy Awards, impersonated James Brown in Mrs Doubtfire, rapped in FernGully, and let Aladdin know that he’d never had a friend like the Genie in Disney’s animated classic.
Clearly, he was not averse to getting in front of the microphone and stretching his vocal cords, but having named pianist and composer Keith Barrett, Bob Dylan, Tracey Chapman, and Paul Simon among his favourite musicians, you wouldn’t have necessarily pegged the Academy Award winner as having a soft spot for classic rock.
Maybe he did, and maybe he didn’t, but what can’t be denied is that he had the softest spot of all for Genesis, his all-time favourite band. When the group became the recipients of a career tribute at the VH1 Rock Honours show in 2007, Phil Collins, Mike Rutherford, and Tony Banks’ biggest Hollywood superfan was the ideal candidate to fawn over their achievements.
This being Williams, he didn’t take it completely seriously. “I am here to spread the good word about my favourite band,” he said, anointing Genesis as “an enduring band that has changed our rock history,” not to mention “a group over the past 40 years that’s had more hits than Willie Nelson on a good weekend.”
He wasn’t erasing the Peter Gabriel era, though, even if he still had a couple of gags up his sleeve. “Let us rejoice that these three kings of rock and roll have finally come back together to turn it on again to heal the wounds, and most importantly, pack arenas around the world once more,” Williams went on, anointing them as the group “that pulled off the single most surprising lead singer swap in all of rock history.”
As Williams explained it, when Peter Gabriel “decided to stop dressing like vegetables” and left Genesis, they didn’t need to search too far for his replacement: “No, they just looked to their brilliantly gifted drummer and said, ‘Yo, Collins, you Bob Hoskins lookalike, get your ass up to the microphone and sing your bollocks off.'”
After that, “Goodness became greatness,” so there’s no prize for guessing whether Williams prefers the band’s pre- or post-Gabriel output. As far as he was concerned, Genesis’ existence and longevity were “one of rock’s greatest stories ever told,” and as biased as that is, since they were his favourite band, you wouldn’t have to travel too far to find someone who’d agree with him.
