Phil Collins, the iconic drummer and singer of Genesis, opened up about the numerous injuries and surgeries that led him to retire.
“I have a 24-hour live-in nurse to make sure I take my medication as I should,” Collins, 74, told BBC’s Zoe Ball.
In an interview with Ball for BBC’s five-part Eras podcast series, the Grammy-winning musician detailed his ailments, including five recent knee surgeries and kidney problems stemming from a lifetime of drinking.
“I’ve had challenges with my knee... I had everything that could go wrong with me did go wrong with me. I got COVID in hospital. My kidneys started to back up. Everything seemed to sort of converge at the same time,” the singer said.
Though Collins can still walk, five knee operations left him needing help. “Now, I’ve got a knee that works, and I can walk, albeit with assistance: crutches or whatever.”
Collins first began experiencing chronic health conditions in 2007 after suffering from a spinal injury while on tour, which caused him severe pain. He got neck surgery in 2009, and again in 2015 on his spine, but lingering nerve damage hindered his ability to drum and left him with “drop foot”—a condition that limits his ability to straighten his foot. He has used a cane to walk for the past decade.
Following his years-long retirement, Phil said in the interview that he developed a drinking problem that eventually caused his present kidney problems.
“I’d probably been drinking too much, and so my kidneys were messed up,” he said. “I wasn’t one of those guys that sort of stayed up all night drinking. I’d drink during the day, but I guess I had too much of it. I was never drunk, although I fell over a couple of times.”
“It is just one of those things that happened, and it all caught up with me, and I spent months in hospital,” Collins added.
Collins said that he just celebrated his second year of sobriety. “It’s just been a difficult, interesting, frustrating last few years,” he told Ball. “But it’s all right now.”
In 2022, Collins retired from drumming due to health complications. He still completed Genesis’s final farewell tour from the stage, though seated in a chair. His son, Nic, played the drums in his place.
As for the future of his life in music, Collins isn’t sure if he’ll make a return.
“I’ve got some things that are half-formed or were never finished, and a couple of things that were finished, which I like. So you know, maybe life in the old dog,” Collins said optimistically.
The five-part series on Collins is available on the BBC. Its final episode, The Man Himself, will air on January 26.
