Pop song lyrics often deal in trivialities. But every once in a while, a big hit manages to elucidate something important about the human condition.

Thirty years ago this month, one of the most profoundly sad songs in pop music history hit Number One on the Hot 100.

"Since doing the book and the documentary, I know more about me than I ever did—I studied up," Genesis co-founder Mike Rutherford declares with his wry humor.

In 1988 Mike Rutherford, bass player, guitarist and songwriter in Genesis since 1967, wrote a song with the Scottish musician BA Robertson called The Living Years.

Mike Rutherford admits he needed the help of his wife Angie to write his memoirs 'The Living Years' because there were so many parts of his life he couldn't recall.

As a teenager in the late 1960s, the last thing I wanted was to be like my father. He was a retired naval captain who'd fought in the second world war; I'd just recorded my first album with Genesis, had hair down to my elbows and lived in jeans and a military jacket from Kensington market that smelled like an entire battalion had worn it at some stage or another. It never occurred to me that he might see this as disrespectful.

The rock guitarist's autobiography, The Living Years, reveals the debt he owes to a loving, tolerant and supportive father. When Mike Rutherford’s father died in 1986, the lead guitarist of the rock band Genesis was feeling "invincible".

Genesis star Mike Rutherford talks about family, friendship and his father as he brings out a rock 'n' roll memoir with a personal touch. Genesis might never have come into existence without Second World War naval captain William Francis Henry Crawford Rutherford CBE DSO.

With a time-span of more than four and a half decades between his first and his latest recordings Mike Rutherford is showing no signs of resting on his many laurels with an extensive UK tour imminent, two 2CD sets plus his autobiography available this month.

A sentimental exploration of Mike Rutherford’s uncommunicative parental relationship had already catapulted a side band to the top of the charts. Genesis’ "No Son of Mine," released on November 11, 1991 as part of We Can’t Dance, takes a far different tack.