“I said, ‘I quit!’ He said, ‘Take six months off, then I’ll call and find out if you’ve still left.’ When he called I couldn’t remember what we’d been arguing about”: Steve Hogarth, Marillion and several false starts
Marillion frontman Steve Hogarth has spoken to Prog magazine about the winding, uncertain path that led him into the band, revealing he came close to giving up on music altogether and taking a job as a milkman before an old friend urged him to audition for the role vacated by former singer Fish. The interview, marking his tenure of 16 albums with Marillion alongside solo touring and numerous collaborations, sheds light on how uncertain his career once looked despite his now-established status as a prog rock stalwart.
Hogarth recalls his musical awakening came not from formal training but from seeing Deep Purple perform at Sheffield City Hall on their Machine Head tour, after which he begged his parents for a piano having never taken to guitar. He also touches on a serious rift within Marillion serious enough that he told a bandmate "I quit", only to be persuaded to take six months away rather than leave permanently; by the time he was contacted again, he says, he could no longer even recall what the original argument had been about.
- Steve Hogarth nearly quit music to become a milkman before joining Marillion.
- He once quit the band, took six months off, then rejoined.
- Seeing Deep Purple live in Sheffield sparked his musical ambitions.