{"id":2465,"date":"2026-11-12T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-11-12T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/realrockrevival.com\/index.php\/2026\/11\/12\/it-was-like-opera-the-only-thing-missing-was-stabbing-each-other-that-happened-later-focus-ex-jan-akkerman-wont-go-back\/"},"modified":"2026-11-12T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-11-12T17:00:00","slug":"it-was-like-opera-the-only-thing-missing-was-stabbing-each-other-that-happened-later-focus-ex-jan-akkerman-wont-go-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/realrockrevival.com\/index.php\/2026\/11\/12\/it-was-like-opera-the-only-thing-missing-was-stabbing-each-other-that-happened-later-focus-ex-jan-akkerman-wont-go-back\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cIt was like opera. The only thing missing was stabbing each other. That happened later\u201d: Focus ex Jan Akkerman won\u2019t go back"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Former Focus<\/a> guitarist Jan Akkerman<\/a> says he still loves the music he made with the Dutch prog veterans, but he\u2019s learned to resist the temptation to return.<\/p>\n

He co-founded the band with Thijs van Leer<\/a> in 1969, but tensions led to his departure seven years later. He returned in 1985 and again in 1990 \u2013 however, as he tells Guitar World<\/em><\/a>, he won\u2019t sign up for a fourth time.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe problem for me is not in the music,\u201d Akkerman says. \u201cLet\u2019s put that upfront. I love the music of Focus. The problem is the right or wrong synergy \u2013 or whatever you want to call it. I said earlier that envy and jealousy are factors, and those feelings are often underestimated.\u201d<\/p>\n

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He continues: \u201cThat\u2019s the stuff that factors in for me, rather than how good the music was \u2013 it\u2019s all good. Every album is like one of my babies.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2024 van Leer told Prog<\/em><\/a> <\/em>he wasn\u2019t in regular contact with Akkerman, and said of their relationship: \u201cThe creative tension helped, here and there. At other times it did not help. So it\u2019s difficult to define that adequately.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Asked about the chances of another reunion with van Leer, Akkerman says: \u201cNo. I mean, the idea is, of course, very tempting. But there are plenty of other tempting things in life. Life is basically one risk after another. To get involved in that again, part of me thinks that would be crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the subject of his musical inspirations behind 1971\u2019s Focus II<\/em><\/a> \u2013 aka Moving Waves<\/em> \u2013 Akkerman says: \u201cI listened to a lot of John Coltrane, Django Reinhardt and all sorts of things. With Hocus Pocus<\/em><\/a>, I remember I was listening to a lot of the Beatles<\/a>\u2019 White Album<\/a>. I loved the craziness of that album.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d be listening to that with one ear, the other fixed on the television, while sitting on the floor with a guitar. I\u2019d come up with a heavy lick, and tracks like Hocus Pocus<\/em> and that album came together. It has a lot of different influences layered in.<\/p>\n

He reflected: \u201cIt\u2019s a funny album because there\u2019s a lot of heavy rock on there, but also yodelling to the point where it\u2019s almost half opera! It was<\/em> kind of like a big opera-type story. The only thing missing was stabbing a knife in each other\u2019s back \u2013 but that happened later anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/article>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former Focus guitarist Jan Akkerman says he still loves the music he made with the Dutch prog veterans, but he\u2019s learned to resist the temptation to return. He co-founded the band with Thijs van Leer in 1969, but tensions led to his departure seven years later. He returned in 1985 and again in 1990 \u2013 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2466,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/realrockrevival.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/realrockrevival.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/realrockrevival.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realrockrevival.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realrockrevival.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2465"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/realrockrevival.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2465\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realrockrevival.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/realrockrevival.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realrockrevival.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realrockrevival.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}