Phil Collins rose to prominence as the drummer and lead singer of Genesis. During the 1980s, he rose to become one of the world’s most popular performers, with songs such as In the Air Tonight and You Can’t Hurry Love.
Collins is now 71 years old, and it appears that time has taken its toll on the iconic vocalist.
Phil Collins gave the BBC a scary health report in which he said he can barely hold a drumstick.
Phil Collins has spent his entire life in the service of music. He was introduced to numerous instruments as a child, and when he grew up, music was all that mattered.
Phil Collins is a musical genius.
Collins has had success as a member of various groups, including Genesis, and as a solo performer. He’s had a lot of hits and won a lot of honors for his work.
It’s difficult not to be fascinated by his ability to sing and play the drums at the same time. What a natural, innate ability!
Collins has had enormous success during his life. Unfortunately, his condition is deteriorating. But how did he get here to begin with?
That’s all there is to know about Phil Collins.
Phil Collins began playing music, particularly the drums, as a kid.
He was born in London, England, on January 30, 1951. His father was an insurance agent, and his mother was a talent manager and child actor agent.
Phil’s household was always buzzing with creative ideas as he grew up. His older brother, Clive, became a cartoonist, while his sister became a professional ice skater.
But creating cartoons or ice skating wasn’t precisely what Phil was looking for. He was given a drum when he was three years old, and when he was five, his uncle made him suitcase-sized drum equipment. Collins recalled that it was constructed of tambourines, triangles, cymbals, and toy drums.
“At the very least, it will keep him quiet,” he told Interview Magazine.
Collins rapidly became interested in the drums, and he began performing in performances at his parents’ boating club. At the same time, he was a fantastic actor, and it was clear that he enjoyed his time on stage.
“When I first started playing, the English beat thing was just getting started, with bands like the Shadows and others,” Collins said.
“I recall purchasing “Please, Please Me.” I used to turn up the record player and position my drums so that I was facing the mirror, so I wouldn’t have to look at what I was doing.
“When I was fourteen, I went to an instructor to learn to read drum music. When this rock-and-roll thing was done, I imagined I’d have to make a career playing in a dance band or in an orchestra pit. So I started to read drum music, but I discovered that my reading ability was nowhere near as excellent as my instinctive playing.
Phil was given the role of Oliver in a London performance when he was 13 years old! At that point, he and his parents decided to pull him out of the school he was in and sign him up for the Barbara Speake Stage School in London.
Collins appeared as a background extra in The Beatles’ 1964 film A Hard Day’s Night. He possessed an ability that may have led him to a career in acting, but he was more interested in music.
Phil Collins formed his first band, “Real Thing,” with several fellow classmates at Chiswick County School for Boys. He later joined the band Freehold, and it was around this time that he composed his debut song, “Lying Crying Dying.”
However, Phil Collins’ life would alter forever in 1970. He spotted an ad in the paper about a band named Genesis searching for a drummer who could also sing backing vocals. Peter Gabriel, the band’s lead vocalist, had founded them three years prior, and they were in desperate need of a musical change.
Collins received the job, and everything changed in an instant. Genesis released five studio albums and toured the United States during the next five years. When Peter Gabriel chose to quit the band in 1975, they found themselves in desperate need of a new lead vocalist.
According to reports, the band interviewed approximately 400 singers. Regardless, Phil Collins became the band’s primary vocalist and drummer.
But was that truly what he desired?
“I felt vulnerable. I’d spent my entire life hiding behind the security blanket of a drum set, and suddenly there was nothing but a microphone stand,” Phil Collins explained to LouderSound.
“And from the front, the band sounds different. Out front, you hear a different type of balance, and it isn’t pleasant. And, to be honest, I didn’t want the job.
“I wanted to keep playing the drums.” Every Monday, we had five or six people down for auditions, and I would teach them what they needed to do. “We were working on A Trick of the Tail, and I would teach them classic tunes like Firth of Fifth or something, and I ended up sounding better than everyone else,” he continued.
“And [Genesis] was like a family. “Do we want this individual as a member of our family?” Will he be able to fit in with the way we do things? Anyway, we couldn’t locate anyone and had to settle for me.
Genesis maintained their work despite Collins’ conflicted feelings about becoming the frontman. With him at the helm, the group continued on their path to even greater fame.
Genesis had begun as a prog rock band, but Collins and the other members of the band had gone on to more mainstream rock. Follow You, Follow Me, their first huge success in 1978, peaked at No. 7 in the UK and No. 23 in the US.
More hit songs were released as the 1980s progressed. Duke, released in 1980, was one of the band’s biggest commercial triumphs, reaching No. 1 in the United Kingdom.
At the same time that Genesis was doing well, Phil Collins began to work on other projects. In 1981, he launched his solo career by releasing his debut album.
He produced and recorded his own songs as a solo artist, including the big hit “In The Air Tonight” from his first album, as well as “You Can’t Hurry Love” and “I Don’t Care Anymore” from his second solo album in 1982.
So how come Genesis didn’t acquire those songs?
“Well, Genesis got to the stage where we’d all compose together, and then someone would go off and write the lyrics and sort of write the melody that would go over this thing that we’d done. And there was occasionally a scarcity of air. “Everything was really claustrophobic,” Phil Collins explained.
“And I’ve always wanted the spaciousness of an R&B album, you know? So, when I first started learning how to record at home, one of the things I told myself was that whatever drawings I was making, I would sing. Then everything else I did had to work around the vocal.
“So, something like “In The Air Tonight” is a nice example where you have an ambiance and a voice, and if I’d given it to Genesis, it would have been a lot busier. In terms of production, all of the songs I’ve done have been hectic.
“Certainly some are busier than others—II mean, “Sussudio,” you know, with all those horn parts.”
Phil Collins recorded the dance song Sussudio in 1985, which hit No. 1 on the Billboard singles chart. He wrote the title song for the film’s soundtrack two years later. It peaked at No. 1 on the singles charts and received Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations.
Phil was still a member of Genesis at the time. In 1991, the band released the famous song “I Can’t Dance.”
Phil was also a producer, collaborating with musicians such as ABBA’s Anni-Frid Lyngstad.
He chose to quit Genesis in 1996 to pursue other ventures.
“After 25 years with Genesis, I decided it was time to alter the course of my musical life,” Collins wrote.
“For me now, it will be music for movies, some jazz ventures, and of course my solo career.” I wish the Genesis people the best of luck in the future. “We’re still the best of friends.”
Phil has been through a lot, both in terms of new solo ventures and in terms of producing.
He’s been married three times and is famous for singing songs about his relationships. This features his debut single, “In The Air Tonight.” It was about his anguish after divorcing his first wife, Andrea Bertorelli, who abandoned him for someone else.
“People ask, “Aren’t you embarrassed?” You’re exposing your personal life to the entire world. “It’s as if I shouldn’t show that I’m upset, that I weep, that I do unmanly things,” Collins stated. “However, I’m not ashamed of it.”
Phil Collins is no longer merely a musician and producer with “a few successes”; he has six Grammy Awards.
Furthermore, Collins is one of only three artists (together with Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney) to have sold over 100 million records (both as a solo act and as a member of a band).
Collins reformed Genesis in 2015, and the band announced a new UK tour last year. It was postponed to this year owing to the COVID-19 epidemic.
Phil said that his son, Nicholas, will be doing all of the drumming for the tour. He has four additional children in addition to Nicholas. Lili Collins, his eldest daughter, is now a prominent actress.
“Nic is a fantastic drummer, but he has the ability to sound like early Phil. “That was always fairly thrilling for Mike and me,” Genesis band member Tony Banks stated.
“It means you can play certain tunes you haven’t played in a long time with Phil as the drummer.”
Nicholas Collins will handle the drums, albeit it was subsequently revealed that this is due to his father’s inability to do so. The iconic musician said on BBC Breakfast that he will not be playing the drums due to health issues.
“I can’t even hold a stick.”
“I’d love to, but, you know, I can hardly hold a stick in this hand.” “So there are some physical factors that get in the way,” he explained, adding that this may be his final trip.
“We’re all men our age, and I think it’s probably putting it to bed to some extent,” Phil Collins stated. “I’m certain; I just don’t know if I want to go out on the road anymore.”
Phil Collins is a musical legend. We hope he and his kid have a fantastic time on the Genesis tour, and we wish him the best of luck in the future. Nothing matters more than your health.