{"id":552451,"date":"2026-03-22T03:16:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-22T03:16:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/552451\/"},"modified":"2026-03-22T03:16:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T03:16:16","slug":"phil-collins-interview-genesis-success-and-led-zeppelin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/552451\/","title":{"rendered":"Phil Collins interview: Genesis, success and Led Zeppelin"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"9d306c53-b3bc-4dd8-b65d-194fd0c96a07\">As drummer-turned-frontman with Genesis and a solo star in his own right, Phil Collins is one of the most successful musicians in history, beloved by everyone from Robert Plant to the Foo Fighters. But his career has been blighted by critical disdain and personal struggle. In 2016, he sat down with Classic Rock for one of his most candid interviews ever.<\/p>\n<p class=\"vanilla-image-block\" style=\"padding-top:5.67%;\">\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Mm2aXHnAcTD5rV3KPSXBUP.png\" alt=\"Classic Rock divider\"   loading=\"lazy\" data-new-v2-image=\"true\" data-original-mos=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Mm2aXHnAcTD5rV3KPSXBUP.png\" data-pin-media=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Mm2aXHnAcTD5rV3KPSXBUP.png\" class=\"inline\"\/>\n<\/p>\n<p id=\"2a097912-4ada-425d-9d58-b2f135a53e43\">Ancient tape machines clutter the upper corridors of Abbey Road Studios. They\u2019re the clunky old contraptions, with big metal spools, that would have been pressed into service for his first recordings. At the age of 18, in 1969, he was in a rock band that had elaborate songs about the moon landing. A year later he was in a room downstairs in this very building, playing on a George Harrison album.<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"elk-seasonal\"\/><\/p>\n<p id=\"2a097912-4ada-425d-9d58-b2f135a53e43-1\">He started early, Phil Collins, and he\u2019s crammed a lot in. When still only 20, he signed up as the denim-dungareed drummer with Genesis. He ended his tenure with them as their satin-jacketed singer, and went on to release the eight solo albums now resurfacing in extended and remastered versions in a reissue project called Take A Look At Me Now. There was also a sideline in production, working with everyone from John Martyn and the Four Tops to Adam Ant and Tears For Fears.<\/p>\n<p>Article continues below <\/p>\n<p>            You may like<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s weathered every storm imaginable; one minute the revered godhead of atmospheric pop-soul, the next lambasted as a mawkish balladeer, his two-continent appearance at Live Aid pouring petrol on the critical flames. But in the typically cyclical nature of fashion, a raft of American rock and R&amp;B stars are now sampling and loudly applauding the very records that were supposedly over-processed and disagreeable 30 years ago.<\/p>\n<p class=\"vanilla-image-block\" style=\"padding-top:56.25%;\">\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/eTr2kCQBhfg5KtUnNkQSFn.jpg\" alt=\"Phil Collins posing for a photograph in 1985\"   loading=\"lazy\" data-new-v2-image=\"true\" data-original-mos=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/eTr2kCQBhfg5KtUnNkQSFn.jpg\" data-pin-media=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/eTr2kCQBhfg5KtUnNkQSFn.jpg\" class=\"inline\"\/>\n<\/p>\n<p>Phil Collins in 1985 (Image credit: Aaron Rapoport\/Corbis\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p id=\"2a2f8faa-9d12-45ca-9ebb-da81a03c2c6a\">Today Phil Collins is in a little side-room that contains only two chairs, a small table, him and his can of Red Bull. He has the thickest, most muscular arms imaginable, and two main emotional gears: when we talk about music and the people he\u2019s worked with, he lights up like a pinball machine \u2013 \u201cI haven\u2019t thought about this for years!\u201d; when we touch on that famous critical pasting or the sad recent events of his private life, he seems to shrink in size, so crestfallen and preoccupied that he\u2019s like a completely different person.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou ask it,\u201d he says, raising his Red Bull, \u201cand I\u2019ll answer it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"vanilla-image-block\" style=\"padding-top:5.67%;\">\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Mm2aXHnAcTD5rV3KPSXBUP.png\" alt=\"Classic Rock divider\"   loading=\"lazy\" data-new-v2-image=\"true\" data-original-mos=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Mm2aXHnAcTD5rV3KPSXBUP.png\" data-pin-media=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Mm2aXHnAcTD5rV3KPSXBUP.png\" class=\"inline\"\/>\n<\/p>\n<p id=\"e81c8d73-fe78-4183-8b71-d349a9623cf7\">I can remember everything about seeing Genesis at Farnborough Tech on May 29, 1972, including a stupendous version of The Return Of The Giant Hogweed. Can you remember anything about it?<\/p>\n<p>Yeah. It was good times. We played Farnborough quite often. It was always friendly, as some of the guys were from that neck of the woods. We did the Great Western Festival in Lincoln two days later, and I remember meeting the promoter, Stanley Baker, on the Embankment somewhere. He had a lovely penthouse overlooking the river. He\u2019d been in Zulu with Michael Caine, so that was a real star.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s an elite club of former child actors who played the Artful Dodger in Oliver! when they were kids and went on to be rock stars: you, Steve Marriott, Davy Jones of The Monkees and Robbie Williams. Do you think you had anything in common?<\/p>\n<p>My manager once said Robbie Williams was a new version of me, a \u2018cheeky chappie\u2019. Stevie Marriott and Davy Jones, yes \u2013 it was a great part if you were a precocious kid.<\/p>\n<p>            What to read next<\/p>\n<p class=\"vanilla-image-block\" style=\"padding-top:56.25%;\">\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/DuK35Gc3fQHjdV5J5cUcJn.jpg\" alt=\"Phil Collins in his pre-Genesis band Flaming Youth in 1970\"   loading=\"lazy\" data-new-v2-image=\"true\" data-original-mos=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/DuK35Gc3fQHjdV5J5cUcJn.jpg\" data-pin-media=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/DuK35Gc3fQHjdV5J5cUcJn.jpg\" class=\"inline\"\/>\n<\/p>\n<p>Phil Collins (centre) in his pre-Genesis band Flaming Youth (aka Hickory) in 1970 (Image credit: Sunday People\/Mirrorpix via Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p id=\"6d82bded-ab54-4e5d-ad65-255e96793984\">How did you get to be in The Beatles\u2019 film A Hard Day\u2019s Night?<\/p>\n<p>Well I was in it, but not in it. Walter Shenson [the producer] asked me to narrate a \u2018Making Of\u2019 DVD for its 30th anniversary in 1994. And I said: \u201cI was in it but they cut me out.\u201d And he gave me the outtakes of the concert scene at the end and I went through it frame by frame and I found myself! And on the DVD I circle myself on the screen. I was thirteen. I was also in I\u2019ve Got A Horse, a Billy Fury movie which has the Small Faces in it, but I didn\u2019t finish up in the film. And I was edited out of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. So yes, there\u2019s pattern here.<\/p>\n<p>I was working with Townshend just after Moon died, and I said to him: \u2018Have you got anybody to play the drums? Cos I\u2019d love to do it. I\u2019ll leave Genesis.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Phil Collins<\/p>\n<p id=\"e9ef450c-8aad-4b1c-b995-5b04c67427b4\">But I did Buster later on. And I played Uncle Ernie in Tommy, which I loved doing though it was very politically incorrect \u2013 playing a paedophile. But it was great cos I was with The Who. I was working with Townshend just after Moon died, and I said to him: \u201cHave you got anybody to play the drums? Cos I\u2019d love to do it. I\u2019ll leave Genesis.\u201d And Pete said: \u201cFuck, we\u2019ve just asked Kenney Jones.\u201d Cos Kenney Jones, unbeknown to most people, played on stuff when Keith was too out of it. He was far too polite for The Who. But I would have done the job. I would have joined them.<\/p>\n<p>Flaming Youth &#8211; Changes &#8211; ARK-2 &#8211; (Phil Collins) \u2022 TopPop &#8211; YouTube<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1774149372_924_maxresdefault.jpg\" alt=\"Flaming Youth - Changes - ARK-2 - (Phil Collins) \u2022 TopPop - YouTube\" data-aspect-ratio=\"16\/9\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p><a class=\"watch-on-youtube-oWhUukkGPFM\" href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/oWhUukkGPFM\" target=\"_blank\" data-url=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/oWhUukkGPFM\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" data-hl-processed=\"none\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Watch On <\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"b7e6e893-4310-4aa8-a861-c5b9b217a34b\">The band you joined when you were nineteen, Hickory, made a concept album about the moon landing. You couldn\u2019t make it up. How 1969 is that?<\/p>\n<p>Yeah, it was. I remember it all. We were called Hickory, and then became Flaming Youth. Ken Howard and Alan Blakely were the writers \u2013 they wrote for The Herd and Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick &amp; Tich. And, being a gay couple, they\u2019d taken a shine to our keyboard player, who drank at this club in Warren Street. And they were looking for a band to do this concept album they\u2019d written. I said: \u201cI\u2019m in a band.\u201d And they came to see us at Eel Pie Island, and they liked us so we did it.<\/p>\n<p>How did you get to play on George Harrison\u2019s All Things Must Pass?<\/p>\n<p>That was when I was in Flaming Youth. Our manager got a call from Ringo Starr\u2019s chauffeur, who said they needed a percussionist, and he suggested me. So I went down to Abbey Road and Harrison was there and Ringo and Billy Preston and Klaus Voormann and Phil Spector, and we started routining the song. No one told me what to play, and every time they started the song, Phil Spector would say: \u201cLet\u2019s hear guitar and drums,\u201d or \u201cLet\u2019s hear bass and drums.\u201d And I\u2019m not a conga player, so my hands are starting to bleed. And I\u2019m cadging cigarettes off Ringo \u2013 I don\u2019t even smoke, I just felt nervous.<\/p>\n<p>Anyway, after about two hours of this, Phil Spector says: \u201cOkay congas, you play this time.\u201d And I\u2019d had my mic off, so everybody laughed, but my hands were shot. And just after that they all disappeared \u2013 someone said they were watching TV or something \u2013 and I was told I could go.<\/p>\n<p>A few months later I buy the album from my local record shop, look at the sleeve notes and I\u2019m not there. And I\u2019m thinking: \u201cThere must be some mistake!\u201d But it\u2019s a different version of the song, and I\u2019m not on it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"vanilla-image-block\" style=\"padding-top:56.25%;\">\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/NAGk8XJuYmiU4wnYXMAsNn.jpg\" alt=\"Genesis posing for a photograph in the early 1970s\"   loading=\"lazy\" data-new-v2-image=\"true\" data-original-mos=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/NAGk8XJuYmiU4wnYXMAsNn.jpg\" data-pin-media=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/NAGk8XJuYmiU4wnYXMAsNn.jpg\" class=\"inline\"\/>\n<\/p>\n<p>Collins (left) with Genesis in the 1970s (Image credit: Michael Ochs Archives\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p id=\"2072a972-f62c-4f33-a3bd-ce746c4589bb\">Edited out yet again.<\/p>\n<p>Yeah but worse \u2013 there\u2019s more! Cut to years later. I bought [former F1 driver] Jackie Stewart\u2019s house. And Harrison was a friend of Jackie\u2019s, and Jackie told me George was remixing All Things Must Pass. And he said: \u201cYou were on it, weren\u2019t you?\u201d And I said: \u201cWell I was there.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019d lived all my life behind the security blanket of a drum kit, and suddenly there was nothing except a microphone stand.<\/p>\n<p>Phil Collins<\/p>\n<p id=\"80d871ae-89c4-4b73-a595-121e02550ea5\">Two days later a tape\u2019s delivered from George Harrison with a note saying: \u201cCould this be you?\u201d I rush off and listen to it, and straight away I recognise it. Suddenly the congas come in \u2013 too loud and just awful. And at the end of the tape you hear George Harrison saying: \u201cHey, Phil, can we try another without the conga player?\u201d So now I know, they didn\u2019t go off to watch TV, they went somewhere and said: \u201cGet rid of him,\u201d cos I was playing so badly. And then Jackie rings and says: \u201cI\u2019ve got someone here to speak to you,\u201d and puts George on and he says: \u201cDid you get the tape?\u201d And I said: \u201cI now realise I was fired by a Beatle.\u201d And he says: \u201cDon\u2019t worry, it was a piss-take. I got Ray Cooper to play really badly and we dubbed it on. Thought you\u2019d like it!\u201d I said: \u201cYou fucking bastard!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>All that effort for one little gag. Wonderful!<\/p>\n<p>It was lovely, wasn\u2019t it? [laughs]<\/p>\n<p>Genesis Live 1972 The Return of Giant Hogweed Popshop HD &#8211; YouTube<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1774149373_572_maxresdefault.jpg\" alt=\"Genesis Live 1972 The Return of Giant Hogweed Popshop HD - YouTube\" data-aspect-ratio=\"16\/9\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p><a class=\"watch-on-youtube-P4q7-wZmn-Q\" href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/P4q7-wZmn-Q\" target=\"_blank\" data-url=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/P4q7-wZmn-Q\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" data-hl-processed=\"none\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Watch On <\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"cfa9d146-4eb9-4c2b-a22b-f144be2ecdc4\">On that bill in 1972, Genesis played with Atomic Rooster, Vinegar Joe, Humble Pie and Wishbone Ash. I always imagined the rock underground were all in it together. Was there any sense of rivalry?<\/p>\n<p>We were in it together, yeah. You didn\u2019t feel threatened by anybody. It was the days when you\u2019d bump into people at Watford Gap [service station on the M1]. We did the Six Bob Tour \u2013 six shillings to see three bands: us, Lindisfarne and Van der Graaf Generator. We went on first, then Lindisfarne brought the house down every night \u2013 Newcastle band, singalongs \u2013 and then Van der Graaf came on and it all went very dark. We shared a coach together and we all got on very well. It\u2019s funny to think about [smiles fondly]. I don\u2019t often think of those days.<\/p>\n<p>How did it feel to be suddenly out front in Genesis?<\/p>\n<p>I felt exposed. I\u2019d lived all my life behind the security blanket of a drum kit, and suddenly there was nothing except a microphone stand. And the band sounds different from out front. You hear a different kind of balance out front, and it isn\u2019t comfortable. And I didn\u2019t want the job, frankly.<\/p>\n<p>Why not? <\/p>\n<p>I wanted to stay the drummer. We had people down every Monday [auditioning], five or six people, and I would teach them what they had to do. We were writing A Trick Of The Tail and I would teach them some old songs \u2013 Firth Of Fifth or whatever \u2013 and I ended up sounding better than anyone else. And this [Genesis] was kind of a family. \u201cDo we want this person in our family? Will he fit in with the way we do things?\u201d Anyway, we didn\u2019t find anybody and ended up with me.<\/p>\n<p class=\"vanilla-image-block\" style=\"padding-top:56.25%;\">\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/R4wD255w7jFKhVXty4qSGn.jpg\" alt=\"Phil Collins playing tambourine at a gig in 1977\"   loading=\"lazy\" data-new-v2-image=\"true\" data-original-mos=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/R4wD255w7jFKhVXty4qSGn.jpg\" data-pin-media=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/R4wD255w7jFKhVXty4qSGn.jpg\" class=\"inline\"\/>\n<\/p>\n<p>Phil Collins onstage with Genesis in 1977 (Image credit: Richard E. Aaron\/Redferns)<\/p>\n<p id=\"ce0065cf-0ab5-453a-98a6-b3321d1b6061\">You\u2019d grown up listening to pop music and Motown, but I remember people being surprised when you released In The Air Tonight in 1981: \u201cPhil Collins is rock musician, but isn\u2019t this a pop ballad with synthesizers?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Face Value had a huge variety of songs on it. I was listening to The Beatles, Count Basie, Weather Report, Earth Wind &amp; Fire, Neil Young\u2026 They all featured in my life, so I kind of wrote songs like them. I remember doing In The Air Tonight at Live Aid and Townshend saying: \u201cAre you going to do that fucking song again?\u201d as it was the only one I ever played.<\/p>\n<p>Why did so many people connect with Face Value?<\/p>\n<p>Well, it was a very personal album, and I said it like it was. The romantic songs were heart-on-sleeve. The lyrics of the songs were real. I didn\u2019t hide it \u2013 \u2018You\u2019ve taken everything else.\u2019 You know what I mean?<\/p>\n<p>So they identified with the heartbreak, the divorce?<\/p>\n<p>[Theatrical mock-sorrow] Oh please, don\u2019t mention that! Yeah, people identified with it.<\/p>\n<p id=\"441a4c03-34b0-4b4b-89b8-49a4921f2a28\">Did they identify with you playing In The Air Tonight on Top Of The Pops with a paint pot and brush on your drum machine as a message to your wife, who\u2019d gone off with your interior decorator?<\/p>\n<p>All these stories come up and there\u2019s never enough time to talk about them properly. What happened was I didn\u2019t know what to do on Top Of The Pops. I didn\u2019t want to just stand there and sing cos of all that insecurity, so I thought: \u201cI\u2019ll play the keyboard.\u201d But I didn\u2019t want one of those poncey Duran Duran things on a stand. So I got a Black &amp; Decker Workmate, and a drum machine on a tea chest. So there was a theme there.<\/p>\n<p>So people just assumed it was about the bloke who went off with your wife?<\/p>\n<p>Well she certainly did. I improvised the lyrics to In The Air Tonight and wrote them on a sheet of paper. And when I turned it over, weirdly, it was the letter-headed notepaper from the painter and decorator. She took great umbrage, my ex-wife, at me writing about anything like this. She didn\u2019t like the way I was giving people my side of the story. But I didn\u2019t colour it any way.<\/p>\n<p class=\"vanilla-image-block\" style=\"padding-top:56.25%;\">\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/jUujD8b7KF9izJ7S2FNPKn.jpg\" alt=\"Robert Plant and Phil Collins talking at a party in 1983\"   loading=\"lazy\" data-new-v2-image=\"true\" data-original-mos=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/jUujD8b7KF9izJ7S2FNPKn.jpg\" data-pin-media=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/jUujD8b7KF9izJ7S2FNPKn.jpg\" class=\"inline\"\/>\n<\/p>\n<p>Collins with Robert Plant in 1983 (Image credit: Gary Gershoff\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p id=\"922401e3-fd87-4c0f-b71a-24251069e25d\">Musicians respected you but the press weren\u2019t always as kind. One critic said: \u201cPhil Collins has been guilty of placing the bullseye on his own forehead\u201d \u2013 a reference to the Concorde caper at Live Aid \u2013 \u201cand after Another Day In Paradise he was a purveyor of tortured romantic ballads for the middle-income world.\u201d How did you react to things like that at the time?<\/p>\n<p>I didn\u2019t understand it. I know what I meant with Another Day In Paradise, but people took offence to it because I was rich. What I was saying is that we should all be very appreciative of whatever we\u2019ve got, as we\u2019re all doing better than that. But they all took offence at it. With Concorde it looked like I was showing off. I\u2019d played on Robert Plant\u2019s solo records and he said: \u201cAre you doing this Live Aid thing?\u201d And I said: \u201cYeah.\u201d And he said: \u201cCan you get me on it? [US promoter] Bill Graham doesn\u2019t like me and he doesn\u2019t like Zeppelin. Maybe you, me and Jimmy can do something?\u201d And I said: \u201cGreat, yeah.\u201d And then Sting called me and said: \u201cCan we do something together?\u201d [UK promoter] Harvey Goldsmith said: \u201cYou can get Concorde and play both.\u201d I said: \u201cWell, okay, if it can be done.\u201d I didn\u2019t think I\u2019d be showing off.<\/p>\n<p>I remember doing In The Air Tonight at Live Aid and Townshend saying: \u2018Are you going to do that fucking song again?\u2019<\/p>\n<p id=\"963abc03-1831-4059-8c58-ea8f82a305af\">By the time I got there, me and Robert and Jimmy playing together had become The Second Coming Of Led Zeppelin \u2013 John Paul Jones was there too. Jimmy says: \u201cWe need to rehearse.\u201d And I said: \u201cCan\u2019t we just go on stage and have a play?\u201d So I didn\u2019t rehearse when I got there, but I listened to Stairway To Heaven on Concorde. I arrived and went to the caravans, and Robert said: \u201cJimmy Page is belligerent.\u201d Page says: \u201cWe\u2019ve been rehearsing!\u201d And I said: \u201cI saw your first gig in London, I know the stuff!\u201d He says: \u201cAlright, how does it go, then?\u201d So I sort of\u2026 [mimes the Stairway To Heaven drum part], and Page says: \u201cNo, it doesn\u2019t! It doesn\u2019t go like that!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>So I had a word with [co-drummer] Tony Thompson \u2013 cos I\u2019ve played as two drummers a lot and it can be a train wreck \u2013 and I say: \u201cLet\u2019s stay out of each other\u2019s way and play simple.\u201d Thompson, rest his soul, had rehearsed for a week, and I\u2019m about to steal his thunder \u2013 the famous drummer\u2019s arrived! \u2013 and he kind of did what he wanted to do. Robert wasn\u2019t match-fit. And if I could have walked off, I would have done, cos I wasn\u2019t needed and I felt like a spare part.<\/p>\n<p class=\"vanilla-image-block\" style=\"padding-top:56.25%;\">\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/QPNeQPzKXkAVhxkP3gZyGn.jpg\" alt=\"Phil Collins and his wife in front of Concorde in 1985\"   loading=\"lazy\" data-new-v2-image=\"true\" data-original-mos=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/QPNeQPzKXkAVhxkP3gZyGn.jpg\" data-pin-media=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/QPNeQPzKXkAVhxkP3gZyGn.jpg\" class=\"inline\"\/>\n<\/p>\n<p>Collins with then-wife Jill in 1985, preparing to board Concorde to fly the US leg of Live Aid (Image credit: Dennis\/Mirrorpix\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p id=\"fc67c7ab-dcf1-4ee3-b5ca-28bf73610e72\">So you could tell it was going badly?<\/p>\n<p>Yeah, frankly. But we\u2019d all have been talking for thirty years about why I walked off stage if I\u2019d done it, so I stayed there. Anyway, we came off, and we got interviewed by MTV. And Robert is a diamond, but when those guys get together a black cloud appears. Then Page says: \u201cOne drummer was halfway across the Atlantic and didn\u2019t know the stuff.\u201d And I got pissed off. Maybe I didn\u2019t know it as well as he\u2019d like me to have done, but\u2026 I became the flagship, and it looked like I was showing off.<\/p>\n<p>Why did you let this kind of criticism affect you so much?<\/p>\n<p>Because you tend to beat yourself up. You start to think you are the things people say you are. Things like that review you just read me of Another Day In Paradise [shakes his head]. I should be over that by now, but it still puts the hackles up occasionally.<\/p>\n<p>You\u2019ve worked with such a variety of great people \u2013 Thin Lizzy, Adam Ant, Tears For Fears, Anni-Frid from ABBA, to name just four. Why did you go for those four? <\/p>\n<p>I kind of knew Phil Lynott. He lived with one of our tour managers, that\u2019s how I got the call. Adam Ant \u2013 funny guy, lovely guy! Tears For Fears just wanted me to do that big drum thing from In The Air Tonight on Woman In Chains \u2013 \u201cWe want you to come in here in a big way.\u201d Frida flew over to the Genesis studio to meet me \u2013 it\u2019s so interesting for me to talk about this sort of stuff! \u2013 and she was ever so nice. She thought I was a kindred spirit as she was going through this painful divorce, and she liked Face Value and she thought I\u2019d understand her. I picked the songs with her \u2013 or for her, actually. That whole Something\u2019s Going On album is great.<\/p>\n<p id=\"67d9c05a-355f-4e87-8cb7-aa9a774ed287\">Only Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson have sold more records than you as a solo artist, so it must have been impossibly hard to choose material. Don\u2019t you end up thinking \u201cthis will sell\u201d, rather than \u201cthis is good\u201d as your main concern must be to maintain your success?<\/p>\n<p>You can\u2019t help it. You can\u2019t help but judge it by what position it gets to. Both Sides fell through the cracks a bit \u2013 I mean, it still sold eleven million copies. But I was very aware that everyone wanted me to go back to doing You Can\u2019t Hurry Love and Sussudio, and here I was being serious and dark. People were saying: \u201cYou\u2019ve lost your sense of humour, Phil.\u201d People didn\u2019t know what to make of it.<\/p>\n<p>You were deeply unfashionable for a while, so how did it feel when you started getting support from the hippest quarter imaginable \u2013 Kelis, Ol\u2019 Dirty Bastard and the Wu-Tang Clan?<\/p>\n<p>I felt good about it \u2013 my people! Those R&amp;B artists didn\u2019t have all that conditioning, they didn\u2019t have the rock critic backstory, and it\u2019s refreshing. What\u2019s written in The Sun goes everywhere; what\u2019s written in the Philadelphia Inquirer stays in Philadelphia. So they\u2019re not as aware of it. They don\u2019t have the conditioning and the bias.<\/p>\n<p class=\"vanilla-image-block\" style=\"padding-top:56.25%;\">\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/LjTDrJiAoonz3UAPBLJFMn.jpg\" alt=\"Phil Collins and his solo band performing live in 1997\"   loading=\"lazy\" data-new-v2-image=\"true\" data-original-mos=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/LjTDrJiAoonz3UAPBLJFMn.jpg\" data-pin-media=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/LjTDrJiAoonz3UAPBLJFMn.jpg\" class=\"inline\"\/>\n<\/p>\n<p>Phil Collins onstage with his solo band in 1997 (Image credit: Goedefroit Music\/Getty Images))<\/p>\n<p id=\"03edf16b-158b-41ec-9c2d-c81f80f6e760\">And Taylor Hawkins of the Foo Fighters wrote you a note\u2026<\/p>\n<p>He wrote me a lovely email: \u201cUs in the Foo Fighters, we think the world of you. Please don\u2019t feel bad about anything.\u201d I\u2019d done a thing in Rolling Stone which echoed round the world. I\u2019d spent three days with this journalist, and we started talking about things\u2026 They were saying: \u201cWhen three marriages have gone wrong and you\u2019re not living with your kids, then sometimes\u2026 it\u2019s a dangerous word to use, but have you ever felt suicidal?\u201d \u201cYeah, I have.\u201d And people rang me up and said: \u201cDon\u2019t say that! What are your kids going to say at school?\u201d There was a picture of me with Davy Crockett\u2019s rifle and an axe. I thought it was lovely that he\u2019d taken the time to write.<\/p>\n<p>He wrote me a lovely email: \u2018Us in the Foo Fighters, we think the world of you. Please don\u2019t feel bad about anything.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Phil Collins<\/p>\n<p id=\"e1e7dd40-f88a-405d-8825-af54631dca44\">You said you were going to retire, and did so for a while, and now you\u2019re not. What happened?<\/p>\n<p>You say something one day and it goes around the world. I retired so I could be at home with the kids. Then my wife left me and took the kids \u2013 they moved to Miami \u2013 so I found myself in a void with no work. But I didn\u2019t really want to work, and the kids weren\u2019t there.<\/p>\n<p>That sounds terrible. <\/p>\n<p>It wasn\u2019t particularly nice. I had a big hole in my life and I started drinking. And I wanted to stop so I could be with my kids. I also wanted to stop so that I could maybe do something else \u2013 I didn\u2019t know what \u2013 though I felt l deserved the right to do nothing. All this stuff happened. The ear thing was in 2000 \u2013 I lost my hearing in my left ear \u2013 and then [waves arm painfully] the arm [a spinal injury affected his nerves in 2009, making it impossible for him to play the drums]. I had various operations. I still can\u2019t play, but it\u2019s better than it was.<\/p>\n<p class=\"vanilla-image-block\" style=\"padding-top:56.25%;\">\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/qvt89bCnUiUcRBsfYpSvKn.jpg\" alt=\"Genesis posing for a photograph at the announcement of their reunion in 2006\"   loading=\"lazy\" data-new-v2-image=\"true\" data-original-mos=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/qvt89bCnUiUcRBsfYpSvKn.jpg\" data-pin-media=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/qvt89bCnUiUcRBsfYpSvKn.jpg\" class=\"inline\"\/>\n<\/p>\n<p>Collins with Genesis bandmates Tony Banks and Mike Rutherford in 2006 (Image credit: Fred Duval\/FilmMagic)<\/p>\n<p id=\"9d888c76-3f88-491b-8e25-af72ee2a7ae8\">Did you stop drinking? <\/p>\n<p>Oh yeah. I haven\u2019t had a drink for over three years. I nearly died from the damage, organs starting to break down. It was a series of things and I just kind of felt I want to be someone else. I\u2019m a man of my word but, at the same time, there\u2019s a hole where that used to be and I might as well do something.<\/p>\n<p>Any regrets?<\/p>\n<p>Not really. The serious things would be: \u201cWould you try a bit harder at a marriage?\u201d But things lead to other things. There\u2019s a few people I\u2019d love to have worked with \u2013 Miles Davis would have been nice, Aretha Franklin would have been nice. My daughter told me it was dangerous to stop working \u2013 \u201cIt\u2019s part of what you are, you\u2019re a writer\u201d \u2013 and I realised it was important. What\u2019s nice is I now realise people miss me.<\/p>\n<p>Originally published in Classic Rock issue 217 (October 2016)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As drummer-turned-frontman with Genesis and a solo star in his own right, Phil Collins is one of the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":552452,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[49,48,75,341],"class_list":["post-552451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=552451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552451\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/552452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=552451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=552451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=552451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}