{"id":844811,"date":"2026-08-03T17:26:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-03T17:26:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/844811\/"},"modified":"2026-08-03T17:26:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-03T17:26:09","slug":"phil-collins-says-he-nearly-died-in-2024-after-years-of-alcohol-abuse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/844811\/","title":{"rendered":"Phil Collins says he nearly died in 2024 after years of alcohol abuse"},"content":{"rendered":"

Years of alcohol abuse brought rock icon Phil Collins to death\u2019s door two years ago, with loved ones rushing to his bedside \u201cto say goodbye,\u201d the legendary singer and drummer said in an interview published over the weekend.<\/a><\/p>\n

The Genesis front man had been admitted to a Swiss hospital to treat his alcohol addiction. He was released in late 2023 and then re-admitted months later; he landed in the intensive care unit, where he was unconscious for long stretches of time.<\/p>\n

His long-time manager summoned Collins\u2019 family, fearing the rock icon was about to die.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause there were some decisions to be made about \u2018Do we keep Phil on life support?\u2019 kind of thing,\u201d Collins told The Times of London in an interview Saturday night.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy kidneys were packing up, my organs were just seizing up. People were coming to say goodbye. But I don\u2019t remember them coming, I didn\u2019t have no idea this was going on. They were all worried that they wouldn\u2019t see me again. It could all have gone so terribly wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

Collins said he\u2019s now on the mend following that seven-month stay in the hospital.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was very lucky to have come out of that,\u201d Collins said. \u201cNeedless to say, I haven\u2019t had a drink since.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Collins family celebrated the end of 2025 by renting out an entire floor of the Mandarin Oriental <\/a>in the Knightsbridge neighborhood of London, an opportunity to catch up and celebrate.<\/p>\n

He vividly recalled how his daughter, \u201cEmily in Paris\u201d star Lily Collins, \u201cwas sitting beside me in tears, saying, \u2018I never thought I\u2019d get these moments.\u2019 We had an incredible time. I can\u2019t overemphasize how fantastic it was,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

The 75-year-old musician has said he\u2019s also been facing mobility issues lately, making it hard to get back on stage. He\u2019s been frequently seen using crutches<\/a> in recent public appearances.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had five operations on my knee now,\u201d Phil explained on the BBC\u2019s \u201cEras\u201d podcast<\/a> in January. \u201cI\u2019ve got a knee that works and I can walk, albeit with assistance (from) crutches.\u201d<\/p>\n

The decades he\u2019s spent playing the drums have also taken a significant toll on the eight-time Grammy winner <\/a>and Rock & Roll Hall of Famer<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I can\u2019t do what I did as well as I did it, I\u2019d rather relax and not do anything. If I wake up one day and I can hold a pair of drumsticks, then I will have a crack at it. But I just feel like I\u2019ve used up my air miles,\u201d he said <\/a>in a 2024 documentary \u201cPhil Collins: Drummer First.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Years of alcohol abuse brought rock icon Phil Collins to death\u2019s door two years ago, with loved ones…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":844812,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[49,48,361,75],"class_list":["post-844811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/844811","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=844811"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/844811\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/844812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=844811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=844811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=844811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}