Years of alcohol abuse brought rock icon Phil Collins to death’s door two years ago, with loved ones rushing to his bedside “to say goodbye,” the legendary singer and drummer said in an interview published over the weekend.
The Genesis frontman had been admitted to a Swiss hospital to treat his alcohol addiction. He was released in late 2023 and then re-admitted months later; he landed in the intensive care unit, where he was unconscious for long stretches of time.
His longtime manager summoned Collins’ family, fearing the rock icon was about to die.
“Because there were some decisions to be made about ‘Do we keep Phil on life support?’ kind of thing,” Collins told The Times of London in an interview Saturday night.
“My kidneys were packing up, my organs were just seizing up. People were coming to say goodbye. But I don’t remember them coming, I didn’t have no idea this was going on. They were all worried that they wouldn’t see me again. It could all have gone so terribly wrong.”
Collins said he’s now on the mend following that seven-month stay in the hospital.
“I was very lucky to have come out of that,” Collins said. “Needless to say, I haven’t had a drink since.”
The Collins family celebrated the end of 2025 by renting out an entire floor of the Mandarin Oriental in the Knightsbridge neighborhood of London, an opportunity to catch up and celebrate.
He vividly recalled how his daughter, “Emily in Paris” star Lily Collins, “was sitting beside me in tears, saying, ‘I never thought I’d get these moments.’ We had an incredible time. I can’t overemphasize how fantastic it was,” he said.
The 75-year-old musician has said he’s also been facing mobility issues lately, making it hard to get back onstage. He’s been frequently seen using crutches in recent public appearances.
“I had five operations on my knee now,” Collins said on the BBC’s “Eras” podcast in January. “I’ve got a knee that works and I can walk, albeit with assistance [from] crutches.”
The decades he’s spent playing the drums have also taken a significant toll on the eight-time Grammy winner and Rock & Roll Hall of Famer.
“If I can’t do what I did as well as I did it, I’d rather relax and not do anything. If I wake up one day and I can hold a pair of drumsticks, then I will have a crack at it. But I just feel like I’ve used up my air miles,” he said in a 2024 documentary “Phil Collins: Drummer First.”
