Philip David Charles Collins
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9
Awards
Phil Collins replaced Peter Gabriel as Genesis drummer and lead singer in 1975. His 1981 solo debut Face Value included the hit In the Air Tonight. Combined sales exceed 200 million albums.
Names, aliases, and relatives of Phil Collins — birth name, kin, and personal ties.
Phil Collins by the numbers — life, work, and family.
Phil Collins — early life, career, personal life, and legacy.
In Chiswick, London, a five-year-old Collins began drumming. He attended Barbara Speake Stage School and played the Artful Dodger in the West End production of Oliver! alongside Jack Wild, whom his mother June Strange had discovered. His mother worked as a theatrical agent; his father Greville was an insurance agent. That gave him an early entry into show business.
Collins joined Genesis on drums in 1970. After Peter Gabriel’s 1975 departure, he took over lead vocals. His first solo album Face Value 1981 was a worldwide hit, and In the Air Tonight gained fame after Miami Vice featured it in 1984. In 1985 he performed at both Live Aid concerts in London and Philadelphia on the same day using the Concorde. His 1985 album No Jacket Required won several awards and included hits like Sussudio and One More Night. He also played drums on Robert Plant’s first two solo albums and sang backup on Howard Jones’ No One Is to Blame.
Collins married three times: to Andrea Bertorelli 1975–1980, Jill Tavelman 1984–1996, and Orianne Cevey 1999–2008. He has five children: actress Joely Collins born 1973 and singer Simon Collins born 1976 with Andrea; actress Lily Collins born 1989 with Jill; and sons Nicholas born 2001 and Matthew born 2004 with Orianne. In 2009, a spinal injury forced him to stop drumming.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted Collins as a member of Genesis in 2010. He won the Academy Award for Best Original Song for You’ll Be in My Heart from Tarzan 1999. His song Another Day in Paradise 1989 drew attention to homelessness; he donated double the concert takings from his own pocket. With over 200 million albums sold worldwide, Collins helped define pop and rock in the 1980s and 1990s.
Browse the complete filmography of Phil Collins — every film, TV show, and documentary credit, ranked by popularity.
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Every award, honor, and recognition received by Phil Collins — Grammys, hall-of-fame inductions, civic honors, lifetime achievements.
Phil Collins's bibliography — every authored, edited, and co-written book, ranked by edition count.
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A wall of memorable lines from Phil Collins — lyrics, interviews, and off-the-cuff remarks captured over a lifetime.
I’m Not a Singer Who Plays a Bit of Drums. I’m a Drummer That Sings a Bit.
I Don’t Own an ABBA Album and I Never Had the Urge to Go and Buy One. If You’re Just Talking About Well Crafted Pop Songs, They Were Fantastic.
I Prefer Black Music in General.
Apart from Hugh Fielder, I Can’t Think of Any Journalist Who Actually Likes Genesis.
I Was Keen to Meet Some of the People Who Have Slagged Me Off, People Like Paul Morley at NME and Paul Colbert at Melody Maker Just to Show Them That I’m Not Actually What They Think I Am.
I Just Don’t Think of Myself as a Star. This Is What I Do for a Living; I’m Fortunate That I Make Ends Meet.
If People Listened to Genesis’ Back Catalogue They Might Be Surprised.
It’s Very Strange, When You Live in London or Live Around London and Get the Music Papers You Are Led to Believe That There Is a Certain Type of Music That Is Popular and Everything Else Is Not.
I Like Weather Report, I Like Stephen Bishop, I Like John Martyn. I Just Like All Different Kinds of Music and Artists.
I Recently Saw a TV Program in Which a Young, Radical Journalist Was Interviewing Ice T at His Home. and the Guy Asked, What Do You Got in the Record Collection, Ice? and Lo and Behold, All My Albums Were There. the Guy Said, Aw, Come On, Man, What Is This Bullshit? and Ice T Jumped on Him and Said, Don’t Mess with Phil, Man. Don’t You Fucking Mess with My Phil. What Can I Say? I Was Flattered That the Guy Even Knew I Existed.
Many People Think of Me as a Perfectionist, Someone Who Polishes and Shines Each Song and Performance. I’ve Always Been Bothered by That Assumption.
The Stuff That Really Gets Me Is the Comments About My Physical Appearance. I Guess It’s Easier to Write About Than the Kind of Songs I Play. I Mean, I Was Called the Ugliest Man Since George Orwell. What’s That Got to Do with the Music? And, by the Way, How Ugly Was George Orwell?
I Get Kicked Around by Critics All the Time. I Can Count on One Hand the Amount of Really Good Reviews I’ve Had for Anything I’ve Done in 25 Years of Genesis, 30 Years of My Own Career People Have Dismissed It Out of Hand.
There’s a Lot of Stuff There That Music Critics Just Don’t Go For. to Them, I’m Some Kind of Landmark of Middle of the Roadness, or I’m Not Edgy Enough, or I’ve Been Around Too Long to Be Taken Seriously.
I Won’t/can’t Take the Glory or the Blame for What Genesis Did Musically. We Wrote as a Band and We Lived with That Music for 4/5 Months Working on It Together. I’d Like to See Someone Try to Push Tony Banks into Doing Something He Doesn’t Want to Do! Just Doesn’t Happen. Same with All the Records Actually…..all Responsible for Everything Broadly Speaking.
It Should Go Without Saying I Suppose That Looked at Through British Media Eyes Circa 2004, My Appearance Anywhere on Anything Will Be Open to Ridicule and Instant Dismissal. Please Don’t Get Me Wrong . . . I Really Don’t Expect Everyone to Like What I Do, but It’s the Sheer Predictability of It All. I Just Don’t Understand Why Suddenly There Is This Tidal Wave of Abuse !! It Seems It’s Impossible to Open a Newspaper Without Reading Some Crap or Other. I Know Too That It Shouldn’t All Be Believed but . . . I Keep Out of the Way and Am Good with Children, I Play Well with Others! I Know I’ve Never Been Hip, and Most Critics Have Had Trouble with the Music, but Now It Seems Everyone Out There Who Writes for a Journal Actively Hates What I Do! Quite Disturbing and Mystifying and It’s Pissing Me off . . . Sorry About That.
A Lot of the Older Fans Think That Genesis Should Be a Brand Name for Progressive Rock or Whatever, but Actually Genesis Is the Name for a Group of Songwriters Who Have Always Done Whatever They Felt Like Doing Under That Banner.
It’s Actually Come as Quite a Shock to Learn Just How Many People Don’t Like Me.
I’ve Been Playing Drums for 50 Years, I’ve Had to Stop. My Vertebrae Have Been Crushing My Spinal Cord Because of the Position I Drum In. It Comes from Years of Playing. I Can’t Even Hold the Sticks Properly Without It Being Painful, I Even Used to Tape the Sticks to My Hands to Get Through.
There’ll Always Be People Out There Like Noel Gallagher Who Firmly Believe I’m the Antichrist.
I Never Used to Think of Myself as a Workaholic. I Used to Work Non Stop Because I Couldn’t Believe My Luck That I Was Able to Do All These Things That I Loved. I Was Everywhere, and I Can See Why That Must Have Been Annoying to Some People. Then I Reached a Point Where I No Longer Felt the Need to Go Zooming Around the World and Attend the Opening of Every Envelope. Basically I Stopped. I’ve Got a Nine Year Old and a Five Year Old. I Take Them to Football. I Like to Take Them to School and Pick Them Up. That’s My Life Now. I Love Doing the Things That Other People Probably Find Tedious Because They’ve Been Doing Them for so Long. I Never Did Those Things in the Past, as I Was Always Working Flat Out. That Was My Loss. Now I’m Able to Do All That and Also Have Time to Indulge My Passions.
I Moved to Switzerland Because I’d Fallen in Love with a Woman Who Lived on Lake Geneva. as I Said at the Time, I’d Have Moved to Grimsby If She Happened to Live There. Inevitably Everyone in Grimsby Turned Around and Said, Why’s He Having a Pop at Grimsby? If You’re Phil Collins It Seems You Just Can’t Win.
If My Missus Hadn’t Left Me I Suppose I’d Have Gone off and Made an Obscure Jazz Album That Nobody Would Have Bought and That’s the Last You’d Have Heard from Me. Instead I Started Writing the Songs That Ended up on Face Value. Nobody Was More Amazed by My Solo Success Than I Was. It Took Me Completely by Surprise. Everything I Touched Turned to Gold at That Time. Looking Back, the Only Mistake I Made Was Getting Trapped in a Persona. Maybe I Became a Parody of Myself. a Lot of People Saw Me as This Middle of the Road Kind of Guy, a Family Entertainer Like Cliff Richard. They Judged Me Based on a Handful of Songs That Were Played to Death on the Radio. in the Eighties There Was an Awful Lot of Vitriol Coming My Way. Some of the Criticism Hurt and I Would Respond by Writing Letters and Telephoning Journalists to Have It Out with Them. with Hindsight I Can See That I Was Oversensitive. but I Felt I Was Being Disliked for the Wrong Reasons, Reasons That Often Had Nothing to Do with the Music. There Are Still People Who Hate Me for Reasons That Have Nothing to Do with the Truth.
In the 1970S, Genesis Did Three American Tours a Year, Three European Ones and a Trip to Japan. My First Wife, Andrea, Told Me If I Toured Like That, the Marriage Wouldn’t Last. When I Got Back, She’d Left Me. If I’d Known Touring Would Cost Me so Dearly, I Wouldn’t Have Done It.
I’m Happy Being at Home. I’ve Said Yes to Things All My Life. Now I’m Learning to Say No. I Stay in Switzerland, as Orianne Is There, and We Share the Care of the Two Boys. I’m Not Totally Happy Being on My Own, Though. I’d Rather Still Be Married and I Think Orianne Feels the Same. She’s Re Married, but We Have a Fantastic Relationship. I Get on Well with All My Ex Wives. They Also Get Along with Each Other and My Girlfriend. It’s a Picture I Never Thought I’d See, but It Works Well.
My Life Has Never Been Revolved Around Money. I’ve Loved What I’ve Done and Fortunately, as It Happens, People Have Been Shoveling Money in the Bucket Behind Me, but I’ve Never Really Done Anything from a Financially Motivated Point of View.
It’s Hardly Surprising That People Grew to Hate Me. I’m Sorry That It Was All so Successful. I Honestly Didn’t Mean It to Happen Like That! I Look at the MTV Music Awards and I Think, I Can’t Be in the Same Business as This. I Don’t Really Belong to That World and I Don’t Think Anyone’s Going to Miss Me. I’m Much Happier Just to Write Myself Out of the Script Entirely. I’ll Go on a Mysterious Biking Holiday… and Never Return. That Would Be a Great Way to End the Story, Wouldn’t It?
It’s Been a Bit of a Handicap Not Being Able to Read Music But, on the Other Hand, Other Parts of Your Senses Come In.
Little-known facts about Phil Collins — origins, oddities, and behind-the-scenes details from a public life.
Originally proposed for the Genesis album Duke, In the Air Tonight was turned down by Tony Banks and Mike Rutherford. It became Collins’ first solo hit.
Against All Odds won the Grammy for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance in 1985 and was nominated for an Oscar. Collins was not invited to perform it at the ceremony; Ann Reinking sang instead, and his perceived negative reaction became a famous awkward moment.
Collins released Another Day in Paradise in 1989 to highlight homelessness. Critics called him hypocritical, but he collected money at concerts and donated double the amount from his own pocket.
His favorite guitarist is Eric Clapton, who played on If Leaving Me Is Easy and I Wish It Would Rain Down.
Collins started playing drums at age five.
He beat South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone for the Best Original Song Oscar in 1999. In retaliation, they mocked him in several episodes.
He was chosen to replace Peter Gabriel in Genesis because he had been singing backup for years and knew the band’s catalog well.
He played drums on Robert Plant’s first two solo albums and accompanied Plant on his first solo tour. He also sang backup on Howard Jones’ No One Is to Blame and played drums on Eric Clapton’s Bad Love.
Inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2003.
Announced in 2009 that he could no longer drum due to a spinal injury.
By 2006, he had sold 130 million albums as a Genesis member and over 100 million solo albums. In the UK alone, Genesis had 500 weeks on the album chart and 187 weeks on the singles chart; Collins solo had 846 and 235 weeks respectively.
In 1988, he was estimated among the 100 richest men in Britain. In 2009, the Sunday Times listed his net worth at $177 million.
His 1990 video for I Wish It Would Rain Down depicted him fictionally winning an Oscar. He later won one for You’ll Be in My Heart from Tarzan 1999.
A deep interest in the Alamo led him to write a book, The Alamo and Beyond: A Collector’s Journey.
Cameoed in George Harrison’s When We Was Fab holding a John Lennon album.
A fan of Earth Wind & Fire, he used their brass section on many songs, including Genesis tracks No Reply at All and Paperlate.
His children: Joely Collins born 1973 and Simon Collins born 1976 with Andrea; Lily Collins born 1989 with Jill; and Nicholas born 2001 and Matthew born 2004 with Orianne.
Plays the piano.
Had US number one singles with Against All Odds 1984, One More Night 1985, Sussudio 1985, Separate Lives 1985, A Groovy Kind of Love 1988, Two Hearts 1989, and Another Day in Paradise 1989. Genesis hit number one with Invisible Touch 1986.
Interested in the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas; visits often and collects artifacts. Provides narration for a Battle of the Alamo exhibit near the site.
In 1999, reunited with Peter Gabriel, Tony Banks, Mike Rutherford, and Steve Hackett for a re-recording of The Carpet Crawlers for the Genesis compilation Turn it on Again. It was the first time since 1982 the five performed together.
Easy Lover was co-written with Nathan East and Philip Bailey, featuring Collins and Bailey on vocals. The video was filmed in London.
Made a Lieutenant of the Royal Victorian Order in 1994 for services to music and charity.
The only artist to play at both Live Aid concerts on July 13, 1985: at Wembley Stadium in London and then at JFK Stadium in Philadelphia, flying by Concorde and helicopter. In Philadelphia, he drummed for Eric Clapton, performed solo, and sat in for John Bonham during Led Zeppelin’s set.
Son of talent agent June Collins, who discovered Jack Wild and Keith Chegwin.
The story that he left his second wife by fax originated from a Sun headline written by Andy Coulson, later a political figure who was imprisoned for phone hacking.
Chester Thompson played drums on Genesis and Collins solo tours, allowing Collins to roam the stage.
Never topped the UK singles chart with Genesis but had solo number ones with You Can’t Hurry Love 1983, Easy Lover 1985, and A Groovy Kind of Love 1988. He had UK number one solo albums with Face Value 1981, No Jacket Required 1985, But Seriously 1989, Both Sides 1993, Hits 1998, and Going Back 2010.
Awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6834 Hollywood Boulevard.
Founded the Little Dreams Foundation in 2000 to support children aged 4-16 in sports and arts.
Supports Tottenham Hotspur.
Dubbed the patron saint of ordinary blokes by journalist Mark Lawson.
Patron of the charity Children in Hunger, working to combat child poverty in Brazil.
First rose to fame as drummer and later singer of Genesis. Announced departure in 1996 to focus on solo career, but returned for the 2007 Turn it on Again tour.
Often said to physically resemble Bob Hoskins; both appeared in Steven Spielberg’s Hook 1991 though not together, and in Balto 1995. Collins was cast as Buster Edwards in Buster 1988 after Hoskins was considered.
Purchased a $33 million mansion in Miami Beach in June 2015 that was once home to Jennifer Lopez.
His favorite Genesis album is The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway.
Appointed Honorary Ambassador of Peace for the Harvey Ball Foundation along with many others.
Won the Brit Award for British Male Solo Artist in 1986 after No Jacket Required, in 1989 after singles from Buster, and in 1990 for Another Day in Paradise.
Voted the fourth most popular radio artist in France in January 1989, behind Kylie Minogue, David Hallyday, and Madonna.
Supports the Topsy Foundation in South Africa, donating all South African royalties.
Published a book titled The Alamo and Beyond: A Collector’s Journey.
In 2000, Mariah Carey and Westlife took a cover of Against All Odds to number one in the UK; it was also recorded by Steve Brookstein, Michael Ball, Barry Manilow, and Bonnie Tyler.
Was considered for the role of the DJ in a 1985 Doctor Who episode, eventually played by Alexei Sayle.
Credited with writing music and lyrics alone for three Genesis songs: Misunderstanding, Please Don’t Ask both from Duke, and Man on the Corner from Abacab.
Living in New York in December 2006 while preparing for the 2007 Genesis tour.
A popular tradition in Genesis live shows was the Drum Duet between Collins and Chester Thompson.
Became a trustee of the Prince’s Trust in 1983 and attended the wedding of King Charles III and Queen Camilla.
Performed at the BBC’s Children in Need charity event on 21 November 2003.
Sir David Jason, a top UK TV actor, dated Collins’ older sister before Collins was famous, according to Jason’s autobiography.
Quick answers to the questions readers ask most about Phil Collins.
Celebrities similar to Phil Collins — same craft, ranked by reach.
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