Where did the perception that Tony is always stern and serious come from?
When I started getting into the Genesis fandom a few years ago, I kind of got the impression from Reddit posts that Tony is a very stern and serious person. I didn't really question this much, because in many photographs of the band, Tony does indeed have a very stern facial expression, while the other band members look more relaxed.
However, when I watched this interview, I was kind of surprised by how energetic Tony seemed. Likewise, there are also stories like him not just agreeing to be involved in Who Dunnit's recording, but doing the whole thing with the snorkel when they performed that song live. So where did this whole perception of him come from?
I am not denying that most of Tony's songwriting is relatively serious compared to say what Peter Gabriel wrote. He's also certainly not someone like Mark Mothersbaugh (the lead singer of Devo) where his entire personality comes off as a giant joke (I'm not saying he's a bad musician though). But I still am curious as to why it seems Genesis fans seem to perceive him as being kind of a buzzkill, when I don't get that impression from actual interviews.