Phil Collins’ health is deteriorating.
“I keep thinking I should go downstairs to the studio and see what happens,” the retired Genesis musician, 74, told Mojo magazine earlier this week.
“But I’m not hungry for it anymore. The thing is, I’ve been sick, I mean very sick…”
The group performed their last concert in March 2022 as part of their “The Last Domino?” Tour. Although Collins’ former bandmate Peter Gabriel didn’t participate in the gig, he still attended the London show and observed the performance from afar.
“Phil wasn’t in as great a shape as he used to be, but they did a great job,” Gabriel admitted. “Me going was a rite of passage, really. I’d been part of the creation of Genesis, so I wanted to be there at the end.”
Collins sang while sitting in a chair as his son Nic Collins, 23, took over for him on the drums.
Seven months later, the duo spoke about their line of work and the struggles that accompany it in the documentary “Phil Collins: Drummer First,” which debuted on YouTube in December 2024.
“It’s still kind of sinking in a bit…” the Grammy winner admitted in one of his interviews.
“I’ve spent all my life playing drums. To suddenly not be able to do that is a shock.”
Having picked up his first set of drumsticks at 5 years old, the laborious activity “has taken its toll on [his] hands, legs,” Phil explained.
“If I can’t do what I did as well as I did it, I’d rather relax and not do anything,” he said of his retirement, adding, “I just feel like I’ve used up my air miles.”
Meanwhile, Nic pointed out that “musicians, people in bands in general, had this thought that they were invincible.”
The 23-year-old elaborated, “I think that’s really what it is with my dad — is just this kind of sense of ‘you’re a drummer, you’re invincible, you do what you do.’ But you don’t know it’s gonna take a toll in the long run.”
Nic noted that his father — who suffered severe nerve damage following a spinal operation in 2007 — underwent a “big surgery on his neck [in 2015] that stemmed from all those years playing drums and bad posture.”
Phil also suffers from drop foot, a condition that makes it difficult to lift the front part of one’s foot, making drumming nearly impossible.
At the time of the sit-down, he was using a cane in order to walk; his current mobility is unknown.
Six months before quitting music, the “In the Air Tonight” singer shared that his stamina was declining.
“I’m kind of physically challenged a bit, which is very frustrating ’cause, you know, I’d love to be playing up there with my son,” he lamented on “BBC Breakfast” alongside his bandmates in September 2021.
“I can barely hold a stick with this hand, so there are certain physical things, which get in the way.”
Speaking solely for himself, he added, “I don’t know if I want to go out on the road anymore.”
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