Phil Collins gashes his head slipping in hotel
Music icon Phil Collins is recovering after slipping in his hotel room and hitting his head on chair.
USA TODAY
For Phil Collins, decades of rock stardom have not come without a cost.
In “Phil Collins: Drummer First,” a new documentary released Wednesday, the musician opened up about the health toll of performing for so many years.
“The drumming has taken its toll on my hands (and) legs” the musician, now in his seventies said, holding his limbs up to the camera.
Collins rose to fame as part of the British rock band Genesis before breaking off to find his own success with solo hits like “In the Air Tonight” and “You’ll Be in My Heart” off the “Tarzan” soundtrack.
“It’s still kind of sinking in a bit,” Collins said of retirement. “I spent all my life playing drums. To suddenly not be able to do that is a shock.”
What illness does Phil Collins have?
His son Nic Collins, who helped create the documentary and sometimes performs alongside his father, told the cameras his dad had suffered several injuries in recent years. Pain in his back and neck and trouble with posture can be traced to years of drumming, Nic said, revealing his father had undergone a major neck surgery.
Collins also suffers from drop-foot, Nic revealed, a condition the Mayo Clinic describes as “difficulty lifting the front part of the foot.”
“In one of his feet, he has like no sensation, which is why he can’t really play drums and why he has to walk with a cane, because he doesn’t have that control that he used to anymore,” Nic said.
Drumming, which can be a physically all-inclusive activity, was even more so in the ’70s and ’80s, when Collins was at the peak of stardom. Groups like The Who and Metallica made body movement as much a part of their performance as the music itself.
That Collins struggles to make a drum kit his own the way he once did was reason enough to step away, the singer revealed.
“If I can’t do what I did as well as I did it, I’d rather relax and not do anything,” he told cameras.
“If I wake up one day and I can hold a pair of drumsticks then I will have a crack at it,” he said, “I just feel like I’ve used up my air miles.”
Genesis embarked on their final tour in 2021 − its first in the U.S. since 2007. Throughout the tour, Nic replaced his father on the drums while Collins performed seated.
“We spent a lot of time thinking about the vocals and slightly changed the emphasis of the set so it’s a bit less instrumental. Nic really plugs the gap very well and the visuals work in a way that a seated Phil isn’t as noticeable,” Tony Banks, the band’s keyboardist previously told USA TODAY.
Nic is only one part of Collins’ familial legacy in the entertainment world − the rocker is also father to Lily Collins, the star of “Emily in Paris.”
Contributing: Melissa Ruggieri