As one of the best-selling artists in the world gets ready to celebrate his 75th birthday, Phil Collins addresses rumours of a final farewell tour
When his assistant walked in with an inflatable balloon in the shape of the number 2, Phil Collins was confused. “Who’s two?” he asked her. “She said, ‘No, it’s two years since we had a drink.’” It’s a massive achievement for Phil, whose drinking led to pancreatitis so severe that his will was discussed while he was in hospital – in front of his children. He admits: “It’s been a difficult, interesting, frustrating last two years.”
Describing his drinking, he continues: “I wasn’t one of those guys that stayed up all night drinking, I’d drink during the day. But I guess I had too much of it and it all caught up with me.” Phil, who turns 75 on January 30, is speaking to Zoe Ball for an exclusive interview to be aired on Radio 2 in early February. He talks frankly about his cocktail of health problems, starting with a spinal injury during the 2007 Genesis tour, which triggered nerve damage affecting his hands and legs – forcing him to stop drumming and retire from touring in 2022. He has also had knee operations and he has type 2 diabetes and hearing loss from a viral infection he picked up in 2000.
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Living alone in Switzerland in 2008, the year he finalised his divorce from third wife Orianne Cevey – although they reconciled in 2016 and then parted again in 2020 – also escalated his drinking, when he had “too much time on my hands.” But today, Phil looks trim and fit and is considering going back into the studio and even touring. He says: “I have a 24 hour live-in nurse to make sure I take my medication. “I’ve had five operations on my knee. but now I’ve got a knee that works and I can walk, albeit with crutches. But I’m not dead yet.
“The things that are ahead for me would be, apart from just being back to being totally mobile and healthy, sort of maybe go in there [into the recording studio] and have a fiddle about and see if there’s more music. So that is something on my horizon. I’ve got some things that are half formed or were never finished, and a couple of things that were finished, so you know there’s maybe life in the old dog yet. Never say never.”
With three UK number one singles, two Golden Globes, six Brit Awards and eight Grammy Awards under his belt, Phil Collins has had an incredible career. He has also had a very colourful love life – with divorce settlements reportedly costing him £42m. Orianne was his third wife; his second marriage from 1984 to 1996 was to Jill Tavelman and his first, from 1975 to 1980 was to Andrea Bertorelli.
But he is immensely proud of his five children – his adopted daughter Joely, 53, son Simon, 49, daughter Lily, 36, and sons Nicholas, 24, and Matthew, 20. Actress Lily is a celebrated actress, with credits including Emily in Paris, Snow White and Mirror, Mirror. While Nic plays drums and fills in for his father in Genesis and Mike and the Mechanics. Phil says: “I had a very happy family life. My kids are amazingly well adjusted considering some of the things that they’ve been through. I’m very proud of all of them. They’ve all stood on their own and done what they believe in.”
Nic and Phil have played together on many occasions, although Nic professes to being nervous about standing in for his famous father, He says: “He’d come by the side of the drum riser on some of the instrumental bits. Once I figured out that he wasn’t sitting there to judge me – it became a really nice moment that we shared.”
Phil says Nic’s talent “surprised the sh** out of me’”. Recalling how he’d play drums with Nic and Matthew when they were kids, he says: “They’ve had two drum kits and my drum kit down in the playroom and we all used to play together and then they played together and Nic just got better and better. I’m very proud of him and he’s amazing. I’m very proud of all my kids, they’ve all done incredibly well.”
Phil’s oldest son, Simon, is also a musician and drummer – a former lead singer of progressive rock band Sound of Contact. His eldest daughter, Joely, is an actress and producer and his youngest son, Matthew, is a professional football player in Austria. Phil, whose dad Greville was an insurance agent, and mum, June, was a talent manager, got his first drum kit aged five – the same year he started drama school and landed the role of the Artful Dodger in a West End production of Oliver.
Reminiscing about sell-out concerts he has performed at, he says: “Sometimes I feel like, wouldn’t it be nice if we did it again. I just don’t know if I wanna go as far as to launch that boat, you know? Because once you launch it, it’s difficult to unlaunch it.”
Growing up in Chiswick, west London, Phil – who joined Genesis as the drummer in 1970 – says becoming the frontman when Peter Gabriel quit in 1975 was not planned. He confesses: “The job was kind of thrust upon me by default because we couldn’t find a singer. I was very reluctant at first and it was my first wife that said ‘Why don’t you do it?’ and at that point I bit the bullet. Having to go down the front and stand with just this microphone stand scared the life out of me. The drums were like a security blanket – you’ve got something between you and the audience. Everyone’s looking at you ‘cause you are the singer, whereas they didn’t look at the drummer. I was suddenly under the spotlight.”
But, as the hits – like Follow You Follow Me – came, his confidence grew and in 1981 he began a successful solo career, with hits like In the Air Tonight reaching number 2 in the UK charts. Phil also worked with former Led Zeppelin vocalist Robert Plant in the early 1980s, drumming on his first two solo albums, touring with him and performing with him at the 1985 Live Aid concert. Robert says: “We had so much fun. I love him and he played a big part in my early career take-off, post Led Zeppelin.”
Looking back on his astonishing career and the incredible people he has worked with, despite his health difficulties and the drink problem that he seems to have conquered, Phil has few regrets. He says: “I’d love to do it again. I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.”
Source: Mirror
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