(Credits: Alamy)
Thu 15 January 2026 16:00, UK
For better or worse, drumming is always going to be the thing that the legacy of Phil Collins lives and dies by.
After all, if he has sought to shed his drumming skin at any point, it would be difficult, given he has a line of everyone from Taylor Hawkins to Neil Peart hailing him as a genius, a god, and everything in between. Ultimately, sitting behind the kit was how Collins truly made his name, and there’s nothing which will ever change that.
As such, you know the moment when Collins brought this chapter to an emphatic end was one that was loaded with absolute significance, as well as emotion, for everyone around him, not least for the man himself. But make no mistake – this was not a case of Collins belligerently sticking his heels in and being stubborn. Giving up drumming was a tragic but pure necessity.
Of course, it’s no secret that the former Genesis frontman has harboured his fair share of health struggles over the past number of years, but this came into focus most forcefully for fans when it was revealed in 2010 that Collins had still managed to record his album Going Back while having undergone a major spinal surgery in the process.
The fact that he managed to pull off playing the drums in this moment was nothing short of miraculous, and a testament to the tenacity he has carried through his whole life, but this streak of luck was too good to be true, as shortly afterwards, Collins arrived at the epiphany moment when he realised that his drumming days were done.
It was a performance with Eric Clapton at the Royal Albert Hall where those shimmering threads of hope were so cruelly snatched away. “I played with Clapton at [the] Albert Hall for one song, and I had that feeling of ‘This isn’t happening,’” Collins recalled.
Adding, “That kind of scared me. The one thing I could rely on in life was that I could sit down at the drums and it would sound good, and suddenly I couldn’t pull it together.”
Among many other factors, it signalled the kickstart of a time that many fans had feared: that Collins was about to recede into retirement. That dreaded call came down from on high on March 7th, 2012, when the musician confirmed that not only was he giving up his sticks, but also the whole business entirely. He had spent decades upon decades riding high, but now the story was done.
Collins joked at the time by saying, “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’ve used up my air miles.” Yet somehow, either through that unwavering tenacity or a sudden discovery of points he never knew he had, the man found the strength to fight back.
Within a few years, he was back right in the heart of where he belonged, being on the road with Genesis, and while things may not have looked or felt the same, he still possessed the vitality of performing, and that was the only thing that mattered, and fans would definitely want to see him shredding things up with his sticks once more, but at the end of the day, some things are better left as treasured memories.
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