Peter Brian Gabriel was born on 13 February 1950 in Chobham, Surrey. His father, Ralph Parton Gabriel (1912-2012), was an electrical engineer, and his mother, Edith Irene (nee Allen), who was from a musical family, taught him to play the piano at an early age. His great-great-great-uncle, Sir Thomas Gabriel, 1st Baronet, served as Lord Mayor of London from 1866 to 1877. Gabriel attended Cable House, a private primary school in Woking; St Andrews Prep School in Horsell; and Charterhouse School in Godalming from 1963.

Following a five-year hiatus, Gabriel re-emerged with OVO, a soundtrack for the live Millennium Dome Show in London in 2000, and Long Walk Home, the music from the Australian movie Rabbit-Proof Fence, early in 2002. This soundtrack also received a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Original Score - Motion Picture.  In September 2002, Gabriel released Up, his first full-length studio album in a decade. Entirely self-produced, Up returned to some of the themes of his work in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Only one of the three singles managed to crack the top 50--in part because almost every track exceeded six minutes in length, with multiple sections--but the album sold well globally, as Gabriel continued to draw from a loyal fan base from his almost four decades in the music business. Up was followed by a world tour featuring his daughter Melanie Gabriel on backing vocals, and two concert DVDs, Growing Up Live (2003) and Still Growing Up: Live & Unwrapped (2004). Gabriel contributed to the WALL-E soundtrack in 2008 with Thomas Newman, including the film's closing song, "Down to Earth", for which they received the Grammy Award for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media. The song was also nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song and a Academy Award for Best Original Song.  In 2010, Gabriel released Scratch My Back. The album is composed entirely of cover songs including material written by such artists as David Bowie, Lou Reed, Arcade Fire, Radiohead, Regina Spektor, and Neil Young. The concept for the record was that Gabriel covered songs by various artists, and those artists, in turn, covered Gabriel songs released on a follow-up album called And I'll Scratch Yours. Scratch My Back features only orchestral instrumentation; there were no guitars, drums, or electronic elements that are usual attributes of Gabriel records. A brief tour followed the album's release where Gabriel performed with a full orchestra and two female backup singers, his daughter Melanie Gabriel and Norwegian singer-songwriter Ane Brun.  In October 2011, Gabriel released New Blood, a collection of his earlier songs recorded with an orchestra. A special edition of the album features solely instrumental versions of some of the songs. Gabriel embarked on the 2012 Back to Front Tour in which he performed the entire So album with a band composed of the musicians who originally played on the record, to mark its 25th anniversary. Following this tour, Gabriel took a sabbatical to spend time with his family. Early 2014 saw another Back to Front tour in Europe. In June 2016, Peter Gabriel released the single "I'm Amazing". The song was written several years prior, in part as a tribute to Muhammad Ali. As such, the single was released two weeks after Ali's death. He embarked on a joint tour with Sting titled the Rock Paper Scissors North American Tour in the same month.

How was that album received?
The concept for the record was that Gabriel covered songs by various artists, and those artists, in turn, covered Gabriel songs released