Phil Collins has detailed his recent battles with alcoholism in a wide-ranging interview with The Sunday Times published on Sunday (Aug. 3). In it, the 75-year-old reflected on large portions of his career, discussed his personal life and spoke on mending his relationship with Paul McCartney.
Collins revealed that in April 2024, he was hospitalized in Switzerland following a relapse with alcohol and that his manager of 50 years summoned his five children to see him at his bedside.
“Because there were some decisions to be made about ‘Do we keep Phil on life support?’ kind of thing. My kidneys were packing up, my organs were just seizing up,” Collins said. “People were coming to say goodbye. But I don’t remember them coming, I didn’t have no idea this was going on. They were all worried that they wouldn’t see me again. It could all have gone so terribly wrong.”
The former Genesis member discussed his alcoholism in his 2016 memoir Not Dead Yet and was sober at the time of writing; in 2012, he’d previously been admitted to intensive care with acute pancreatitis and got sober as a result.
After this period of sobriety, which Collins attributes to the medication Antabuse, the singe/drummer began abusing again, but cannot remember when. “When I was drinking, the calendar goes out the window,” he said.
“But I’d have wine when I woke up. That was what I’d want for breakfast, a glass of wine. But I didn’t drink into the night, you know. So I wasn’t really aware of having a problem, to be honest.”
In November 2023, Collins was rushed to hospital and discharged three days later; several weeks later, Collins was rushed back into intensive care and spent seven months in hospital. “I was very lucky to have come out of that. Needless to say, I haven’t had a drink since.”
Collins last performed live in 2022 as part of Genesis’ farewell tour. He is no longer able to drum due to nerve damage and numerous knee and spine surgeries.
Elsewhere in the interview, Collins discussed healing a rift with former Beatle McCartney after he said in a previous interview that the latter treated him “condescendingly.” McCartney read the interview and reached out, “saying, ‘I’m a bit disappointed, blah blah’. He said don’t be so … ‘sacrosanct’ was the word he used. I’m not sure what that means, but anyway it kind of left a bad taste in my mouth and obviously left a bad taste in his.”
An upcoming charity auction involving Collins and the King’s Trust helped mend the relationship, when McCartney agreed to donate an item after Collins wrote him a letter. “I wish I hadn’t said it, although it did happen. But we’ve made up, he’s happy about the fact that we discussed it, and I’m happy we discussed it, so it was just really lovely that it’s gone full circle now,” he said.
Collins will be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as a solo act in November alongside Billy Idol, Iron Maiden, Joy Division/New Order, Oasis, Sade, Luther Vandross, and the Wu-Tang Clan. “I think people on the board thought I was already in,” Collins said on his belated entry. Had he not ever been inducted, “I’d have just put it down to being English and just being invisible.” Collins was inducted as part of Genesis in 2010.
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