Phil Collins rose to prominence as the drummer and lead singer of Genesis. During the 1980s, he became one of the world’s most successful musicians.
Collins is now 71 years old, and it appears time has taken its toll on the iconic vocalist.
Phil Collins offered a frightening health report to the BBC, claiming that he can barely grasp a drumstick.
Phil Collins has spent his entire life in the service of music. He was introduced to numerous instruments as a child, and music was all that mattered when he grew up.
Phil Collins, musical genius:
Collins has succeeded 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 simultaneously. 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 child.
Phil Collins’ childhood:
He was born in London, England, on January 30, 1951. His father and his mother was a talent manager and child actor agent.
Phil’s home 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 differed from what Phil was looking for. He was given a drum, and when he was five, his uncle fashioned him a piece of suitcase-sized drum equipment. Collins recalled that it was made 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 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.
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“When I first started playing, the English beat thing was just getting started with bands like the Shadows and others. “It was in the early 1960s,” 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.
Joining Genesis:
When this rock-and-roll thing was done, I imagined I’d have to make a career playing in a dance band. So I started to read drum music, but I discovered that my reading ability was nowhere near as good as my instinctive playing.”
Phil was offered the role of Oliver in a London performance when he was 13 years old! His parents decided to leave the institution where he was enrolled and enroll in the Barbara Speake Stage School in London.
Collins appeared as a background extra in The Beatles’ 1964 film A Hard Days Night. He possessed a talent that could have led him to a career in acting, but he was more interested in music.
With some classmates at Chiswick County School for Boys, Phil Collins formed his first band, Real Thing. He later joined the band Freehold, and it was during this time, he wrote his debut song, Lying Crying Dying.
However, Phil Colins’ life would change forever in 1970. He spotted an ad in the paper about a band called Genesis searching for a drummer who could also sing backup vocals.
The band had been created three years before by lead singer Peter Gabriel, and they desperately needed a musical shift.
Collins received the job, and everything changed in an instant. Genesis released studio albums and the United States over the next five years. When Peter Gabriel chose to leave the band in 1975, they desperately needed a new lead singer.
Phil Collins is the lead singer:
According to reports, the band interviewed approximately 400 singers. Regardless, Phil Collins became the band’s primary singer and drummer.
“I felt vulnerable. “I’d spent my entire life hiding behind the security blanket of a drum kit,” Phil Collins explained to LouderSound.
“And from the front, the band sounds different.
“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 old songs like Firth Of Fifth or something, and I ended up sounding better than everyone else,” he continued.
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“And 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?’ We couldn’t locate anyone and had to settle for me.”
Genesis continued their work despite Collins’ conflicted feelings about becoming the frontman. The group continued on their path to even greater fame with him at the wheel.
Outstanding solo career:
Genesis had begun as a prog rock band, but Collins and the other band members 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.
Phil Collins began to work on other projects. In 1981, he launched his solo career by releasing his first album.
He produced and recorded his songs as a solo artist, including his debut album’s big hit, In The Air Tonight.
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 the melody. And there was occasionally a scarcity of air. “Everything was very claustrophobic,” Phil Collins explained.
“And I’ve always wanted the space of an R&B record, 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.
Collaborated with Frida from ABBA:
It is an excellent example where you have an ambiance and a voice; if I’d given that to Genesis, it would have been much busier. “Certainly, some are busier than others — I mean, ‘Sussudio,’ you know, with all those horn parts.” In 1985, Phil Collins released the dance song Sussudio, which peaked at number one on the Billboard singles chart. Two years later, he wrote the title song for the film soundtrack Against All Odds. 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 decided to quit Genesis in 1996 to pursue other ventures.
Phil Collins’ private life:
“After 25 years with Genesis, I decided it was time to alter course in my musical life,” Collins wrote.
“For me, 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 in terms of new solo ventures and producing.
He’s been married three times and is famous for singing songs about his relationships. This includes 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.’
Phil Collins is no longer just a musician and producer with “a couple of successes”; he has six Grammy Awards.
Collins is also one of just three who sold more than 100 million records.
Phil Collins gives some health news:
Collins reformed Genesis in 2015, and the band announced a new UK tour last year. It was postponed to this year due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Phil revealed that his son, Nicholas, would do all the tour’s drumming. 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 can sound like early Phil. “That was always fairly exciting for Mike and me,” Genesis band member Tony Banks stated.
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“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 later revealed that this is due to his father’s inability to do so. The iconic musician told BBC Breakfast that he would not play the drumming due to health issues.
“I’m barely old enough to hold a stick”:
“I’d love to, but you know, I can hardly hold a stick in this hand. So certain physical factors get in the way,” he explained, adding that this could 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 believe yeah, I just don’t know that want to go out on the road.” Phil Collins is a musical legend. We hope he and his son have a great time on the Genesis tour, and we wish him the best of luck. Nothing matters more than your health.
