Musicians who have (or may have?) Asperger's Syndrome.

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So why is Kingfish — who has been described by Guy as “the next explosion of the blues” and by Rolling Stone as “one of the most exciting young guitarists in years,” and who appeared simultaneously on the covers of both Guitar World and Downbeat in February 2021 — such a big deal? Why is he already taking on the role of a generational blues talent who will accept the torch from his elders and represent the genre in the mainstream — the anointed ambassador of the blues who, like B.B. King before him, will be showing up everywhere from the White House to “Sesame Street” for decades to come?

First, he’s a bluesman in full, not just another amazing guitar player who can sing a little. He has a deep, soulful voice, a powerful instrument in its own right, which these days he’s working hard to make as limber and expressive as his guitar playing. “

Kingfish experiences colors when he hears or plays music, a variety of associative synesthesia — when the stimulation of one sense involuntarily inspires a strong feeling related to another sense — known as chromesthesia. An E minor chord may have a “darkish blue” feel for him, “or a major chord might be yellow.” Because of this, his mother accepted as medical fact the suggestion made by a doctor that Christone might have Asperger’s syndrome, which is no longer officially recognized as a diagnosis separate from autism. She regarded Asperger’s as “more positive than negative” in his case because she believed it gave him a special gift for music, and she talked about it freely. As a result, it has been widely reported that he’s on the autism spectrum. When I asked him about it, he said, “No, there was never, like, an official diagnosis from a doctor, but I don’t make a big deal out of it. I can say that’s what opened doors for me to work with organizations for musicians who have special needs, like United by Music North America, to be a mentor.”

I have no idea if anybody uses this website anymore; in fact, I have no idea what it even is. [EDIT: Okay, I looked around a little bit. Seems cool here.] I literally just made this account to post a reply to this thread, because I need to get this out somewhere people might understand:

I am 110% convinced Tony Banks of Genesis is autistic.

- He doesn’t sugarcoat; he’s very upfront about his opinions on his and his band members’ past work, to the point where the general public see him as a bit of an as*hole for voicing the negative ones so often, but he has a very logical explanation behind each of his opinions, positive or negative.

- Another reason he gets perceived as an as*hole is his facial expressions. Go to the comments section of any interview with him and I guarantee you’ll find at least one “[timestamp] Did Tony Banks just smile????” comment. But if you watch a lot of interviews, you’ll find he actually smiles pretty often — he just has the world’s worst case of RBF, a pretty classic autie thing.

- He really hates surprises. It’s pretty well-documented that Peter Gabriel’s antics (“singing over [Tony’s] bit,” appearing on stage in a fox head and red dress without running it by Tony first, etc.) and Tony’s angry reactions to them comprised a majority of the tension and drama in the band’s early days. I’m also reminded of that one interview from 2007 where Peter says something along the lines of “Any creative person wants to push themselves and go outside the box” and Tony cuts in, “Speak for yourself!”

- He’s got a near-encyclopedic memory of Genesis’ history. No matter how many decades have passed, he can talk about details and dates of old events like they happened last week. Watch his segments of the 2007 Genesis interviews to see what I’m talking about. (Funnily enough, it’s almost exactly the same way I talk about Genesis’ history — and I wasn’t even alive for most of it!)

- He considers himself a rather reserved person (or in his words, “I don’t bite the heads off chickens”) and gets stressed out by interviews. He also doesn’t care much for the performing side of his career — he doesn’t mind it per se, but when playing on stage he considers himself more of a spectator to the whole event. Hell, he didn’t even intend on becoming a performer in the first place; Genesis was originally just meant to be a songwriting collective.

- As a kid, he learned to pick out songs on piano by ear — not just hits (although he was fascinated with the top 10), but pieces written by the likes of his favorite composers Rachmaninoff and Ravel, too.

- His lyrics tend to be pretty straightforward — plenty of moving stories, but written in very grounded and literal terms. And when they’re not strictly stories, they often get rather analytical and logically philosophical.

- Speaking of which, before joining Genesis, Tony was studying mathematics, physics, and philosophy at university.

- As far as keyboards go, he was a self-described “stiff player” in the band’s early days, and though he loosened up a bit over time, he still retained a penchant for repetitive techniques, the best example of which I can think of is the song “Keep It Dark” off Abacab (1981).

- He often sits funny, fidgets, even rocks a little sometimes. And as far as moving to music goes, the Tony Banks Head Bop oughta be patented. Also, his spacial perception is a little sus — I’m reminded of the clip where he’s trying to work out the rhythm of “Second Home by the Sea” and he whacks Mike Rutherford in the face with a pen without even noticing.

- He’s got a fear of flying because “if you stop thinking about it, the plane goes down” — this gives me OCD vibes, and OCD has a lot of overlap with ASD.

- His debut solo album, A Curious Feeling, is a concept album based on the story Flowers for Algernon, which is about a janitor with a low IQ who undergoes an experimental scientific procedure that temporarily gives him a high IQ, and he’s a genius for a while, but gradually his intellect dwindles till he’s right back where he started. If an autistic person wouldn’t relate to that so hard they’re inspired to make a concept album about it, I dunno who would.

- I haven’t even mentioned the unadventurous sweaters thing or the being soothed by gardening thing but I’ve been writing this post for way too long and I have to go to bed soon, so I’ll leave you with this quote:

- “He was a really awkward bastard.” -Peter Gabriel, 2007





(Sorry for the essay lol; I just found out I’m autistic a couple weeks ago [I’m 21], and suddenly it makes so much more sense why I’ve been so fixated on Genesis and Tony Banks since I first discovered them at age 16.)

Always thought Suzanne Vega has it:

He told of his rocky childhood in the 1950s struggling against what are now recognized as attention-deficit disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder and Asperger’s syndrome.

“There was no awareness of what that was. … You were just difficult. I was difficult,” he said. “I was different that way from the other kids, and because of that I was terrified. I was truly terrified because I felt stupid and alone and that nobody understood. … In my late teenage years I tried to play guitar in front of some people and I couldn’t do it. I was so scared. I could not do it. I hyperventilated. I started shaking. I started crying.”

Looking back, I think almost everyone who was attracted to what is called ‘punk’ now had personality disorders, but we had no words for it then – no one bandied the word ‘autism’ around; there was no ADHD or Aspergers – so we just thought Ari was incredibly annoying, and the others in the band just thought I was anal. But we were all just on the spectrum in one way or another.

Modern psychoanalysis and giving conditions names dilutes the intensity of that. It makes you less individual, in a way. In a way that’s a relief – for me it’s a relief to learn that I’m on the autistic spectrum, as it makes sense of my social difficulties in life – but at the same time it stops you being that strange peculiar person that you were. I mean, maybe if Ari knew that she was this or that, and was diagnosed and sent around to different doctors, things would’ve been different. But she wasn’t sent anywhere except the 100 Club, and expelled from school, as I was, which forced us into an alternative path. If we’d had a path that was medical, then that might’ve calmed us down.

Maybe it has been mentioned before in the thread that Marc Almond has stated that he believes he is on the autism spectrum but has not been professionally diagnosed.