The past several years have been difficult ones for legendary rocker Phil Collins, as he has dealt with a series of health setbacks. But he’s on the mend and already thinking about the new music he’ll make, as he explained in a new interview with the BBC.
As Rolling Stone reports, Collins sat down with Zoe Ball for an interview on the BBC Eras podcast, which will drop on January 26th. Much of their conversation centered around the health issues that have plagued the eight-time Grammy winner since a dislocated vertebra in his neck caused serious nerve damage during Genesis’ “Turn It On Again” tour in 2007.
The “In the Air Tonight” singer described the past several years as a “difficult, frustrating” time, during which he has undergone five separate surgeries on his knee.
“I have a 24-hour live-in nurse to make sure I take my medication as I should do,” Collins explained. “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, you know, everything that started that could, all seemed to converge at the same time.”
The nerve damage was so intense that it led to mobility issues for the singer, rendering him unable to hold a drumstick. He has also regularly needed to use a wheelchair or cane to assist him with walking. A diabetes diagnosis and kidney issues have further complicated his recovery. But Collins, who turns 75 this month, is optimistic about the future. And despite retiring in 2022, appears to include some new musical ambitions.
“The things that are ahead for me would be, apart from just being back to being totally mobile and healthy, is go in there and have a fiddle about and see if there’s more music. Because you know, you tend to sort of feel, that’s it, I’ve done that. But you’ve got to start doing it to see if you can do it. Otherwise, you don’t do it. So that is something on my horizon.”
