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He’s always been a trailblazer—in music videos, activism and cross-cultural projects. Now Gabriel, a Rock and Roll Hall of Famer (as Genesis member and solo artist), has reinvented the art of the covers album. In 2010, he recorded songs by his favorite artists on Scratch My Back with the plan of those same musicians returning the favor. Said Gabriel: “Rather than having a passive project where you do your own thing with people’s songs, I wanted to see if I could interact with the people who wrote them.” The result is And I’ll Scratch Yours, which features Arcade Fire tackling Gabriel’s “Games Without Frontiers,” Lou Reed toughening up “Solsbury Hill” and Feist, together with Timber Timbre, c...

Few pop stars have been as creative—or forward-thinking. Since leaving British prog-rockers Genesis, Peter Gabriel has consistently pushed pop’s boundaries with inventive songs, groundbreaking videos and an enthusiastic embrace of world music. He has also become a social anthropologist, exploring the musical instincts of African apes, been an active campaigner for human rights and launched an international think-tank to promote peaceful solutions to global conflicts. For his various humanitarian efforts, Peter was made a Nobel Man of Peace in 2006. Now the singer, whose playfully funky song “Sledgehammer” topped the charts more than 20 years ago, has returned with a typically experimental al...

Few pop stars have been as creative—or forward-thinking. Since leaving British prog-rockers Genesis, Peter Gabriel has consistently pushed pop’s boundaries with inventive songs, groundbreaking videos and an enthusiastic embrace of world music. He has also become a social anthropologist, exploring the musical instincts of African apes, been an active campaigner for human rights and launched an international think-tank to promote peaceful solutions to global conflicts. For his various humanitarian efforts, Peter was made a Nobel Man of Peace in 2006.     Now the singer, whose playfully funky song “Sledgehammer” topped the charts more than 20 years ago, has returned with a typica...