Phil Collins has detailed his recent battles with alcoholism in a wide-ranging interview with The Sunday Times published August 3. The 75-year-old reflected on his career, personal life and reconciliation with Paul McCartney.
Collins revealed that in April 2024, he was hospitalized in Switzerland following a relapse with alcohol. His manager of 50 years summoned his five children to his bedside as his health deteriorated. “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.”
The former Genesis member first discussed his alcoholism in his 2016 memoir Not Dead Yet, when he was sober. In 2012, he had been admitted to intensive care with acute pancreatitis and subsequently got sober, a period of sobriety he attributes to the medication Antabuse. After a period of sobriety, he began drinking again. “When I was drinking, the calendar goes out the window,” he said. “I’d have wine when I woke up. That was what I’d want for breakfast, a glass of wine.”
Collins was rushed to hospital in November 2023 and discharged three days later, then readmitted to intensive care weeks later, spending seven months in hospital. “I was very lucky to have come out of that. Needless to say, I haven’t had a drink since,” he said. Collins last performed live in 2022 as part of Genesis’s farewell tour and is no longer able to drum due to nerve damage and multiple knee and spine surgeries.
In the interview, Collins also discussed mending a rift with Paul McCartney after previously saying the former Beatle treated him “condescendingly.” McCartney reached out after reading the comments, and the two reconciled following a charity auction involving the King’s Trust. “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,” Collins 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. He was previously inducted as part of Genesis in 2010.
Source: Billboard
