For decades, he thought little of it. Then, while Harrison was preparing the album\u2019s 30th-anniversary reissue, he unearthed an old session tape and sent Collins a copy with a handwritten note.<\/p>\n
\n
![\"George](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/BDMnTutHJGdtnU9ucDcGUF.jpg\")
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(Image credit: Getty Images)<\/p>\n
\u201cDear Phil, could this be you? Love George.\u201d<\/p>\n
Collins later recalled to Mojo (via Guitar.com<\/a>) that he eagerly listened to the tape, convinced he was finally hearing the performance he\u2019d recorded as an unknown teenager.<\/p>\n You may like<\/p>\n Instead, he got a shock.<\/p>\n \u201cThe conga player sounded like a hyperactive toddler,\u201d Collins said. \u201cAt the end, I heard George\u2019s voice saying, \u2018Can we try one without the conga player?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI rewound it and played it again and again and thought, \u2018Fuck\u2026 I was sacked, and I never knew!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n He left the listening session feeling \u201cangry, depressed and sad,\u201d convinced he\u2019d finally discovered why his contribution had disappeared from the album.<\/p>\n Art of Dying (2014 Remaster) – YouTube Watch On <\/a><\/p>\n A few days later, Harrison called to see whether Collins had received the tape.<\/p>\n What to read next<\/p>\n \u201cI said, \u2018You fucking bastard. You sent me this tape, and it turns out I was sacked!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Harrison burst out laughing.<\/p>\n When he finally caught his breath, he revealed the truth.<\/p>\n We eventually managed to have a laugh about it. And yeah, I swore at a Beatle.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2014 Phil Collins<\/p>\n \u201cOh no, no, no \u2014 that was [famed percussionist] Ray Cooper on the congas. We made the tape as a joke for you!\u201d<\/p>\n Collins admitted he eventually saw the funny side.<\/p>\n \u201cWe eventually managed to have a laugh about it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd yeah, I swore at a Beatle.\u201d<\/p>\n Of course, Collins\u2019 career \u2014 from Genesis to a string of chart-topping solo hits and even Disney film soundtracks \u2014 suggests he wasn\u2019t too badly wounded by the experience.<\/p>\n He also wasn\u2019t the only future star to appear on All Things Must Pass. Peter Frampton<\/a> contributed electric guitar<\/a> leads to Harrison\u2019s landmark solo album years before either musician became an international superstar.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Phil Collins thought he\u2019d been fired by George Harrison for more than 30 years \u2014 until the former…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":693695,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[96,128,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-693694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=693694"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693694\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/693695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=693694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=693694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=693694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n![\"Art](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1784151496_701_maxresdefault.jpg\")
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