You may have thought Genesis was history after the ill-fated Ray Wilson experiment on 1997’s epic failure “Calling All Stations” and a few reunion appearances thereafter, but following years of inactivity, the English prog-rock (and later pop-rock) legends are back again. As reported by Pitchfork, the trio was supposed to play a series of reunion shows in 2020, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, these shows have been rescheduled to late 2021. The old hitmaking lineup of Phil Collins, Mike Rutherford, and Tony Banks will be back in action during that tour, and while several other musicians had recorded or performed with the band in the distant past, most fans are aware that Genesis has had the most commercial success with that simple three-piece lineup befitting of their short, punchy name. But how did they end up getting called Genesis anyway?

In order to trace the genesis (pun definitely intended) of the band’s name, we’ll need to go back all the way to 1967, a few years before Collins finally ended their revolving-door drummer problem and close to a decade before the onetime five-piece act was whittled down to a trio. Back then, Genesis was a group made up of students from Surrey’s Charterhouse School who came from two different bands that had just split up, and they had big hopes for the future despite the lack of an official name. Here’s the story of how they got that now-familiar name.

Genesis represented a beginning, but not in the way you may expect

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