Phil Collins’s stellar career came to a close on March 26, 2022, during the final performance of the rock band Genesis. The other members of the band, including guitarist/bassist Mike Rutherford and keyboardist Tony Banks, also performed.
Despite continuing health problems, 72-year-old Phil did not play drums for the last performance, but he did sing with the band. For what was probably Phil’s final performance, his son Nic Collins stepped in and played drums.
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“I think at the moment, he’s retired,” Nick told Rolling Stone in 2022.
“If you ask me on a serious level, I think that show in London was my dad’s last show. But then again, he said that in 2004 and we wound up doing a tour in 2018. You can never be sure. But I also do think that my dad is probably excited about the next step in his life. Music has given him so much, but he’s also given so much to it. His career has pretty much determined his life for the past 50 years. I think for him to be able to take a step back and not have that pressure that he’s had for decades, I think, is going to be nice for him. For me, I think that was that, but who knows?”
Nevertheless, Phil’s bandmate would subsequently claim that he was “more immobile” than before due to his continuing nerve injury, a year after the incident. However, the “In the Air Tonight” vocalist had already retired from drumming fifteen years before to his last performance, owing to a spinal injury he’d suffered. This is all the information we have regarding his health.
Phil Collins’ Spinal Injuries
In 2007, while on a Genesis reunion tour, Phil Collins dislocated his vertebrae in his neck, which started a chain reaction of health problems. Phil had to give up drumming after suffering permanent nerve damage from the accident. “After playing drums for 50 years, I’ve had to stop,” he wrote in 2009, per Daily Mail. “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.” Despite this, he ended the message on a positive note. “Don’t worry, I can still sing.”
“I was going to stop drumming anyway,” he told Rolling Stone in 2010. “I had stopped. I don’t miss it.” He also admitted to suicidal ideation in recent years. “I wouldn’t blow my head off,” he told RS. “I’d overdose or do something that didn’t hurt. But I wouldn’t do that to the children.”
A comedian who committed suicide in the Sixties left a note saying, ‘Too many things went wrong too often.’ I often think about that.” In a health update he provided in 2021, he mentioned that in addition to his nerve impairment, he is also fighting diabetes.
According to The Guardian, he expressed his frustration at not being able to play up there due to his physical challenges. “There are specific physical obstacles because I can hardly hold a [drum] stick with this hand.”
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How Long Has Phill Collins Been Injured?
Injuries have been a constant companion for Phil since 2007. In both 2009 and 2016, he had surgery to fix the problem. He needed a cane to walk after the second operation. He told NME in 2016 that he had back surgery a year prior. I had also screwed up my hips. A year has passed, and I still can’t feel my foot because of a dropped ankle. I use a cane to help me walk, but I believe it will improve with time.
“I’ll never play the way I used to,” he said during that press conference.
“Something happened on the Genesis reunion tour. At the end of each show, I had a drumming duel with Chester Thompson, and one night something happened. It just went. I tried everything – bigger drumsticks and so on, but it just never came back. It’s a mystery what happened, I just couldn’t get it back. But I’m 65, and I played drums since I was five. I’d like to have the choice about being able to play, but I’m not going to cry myself to sleep about it.”
A fall in the hotel restroom in 2017 sent Phil to the hospital. According to ABC News, Phil’s official Facebook page posted a statement stating that he had “drop foot” due to a back operation that made it difficult for him to walk.
Midnight potty breaks sent him tumbling across his hotel room, where he landed awkwardly on a chair and cracked his skull. He is doing fine after being stitched up for a serious gash near his eye and rushed to the hospital. His condition will be closely monitored for the next twelve hours.
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