Phil Collins

Philip David Charles Collins (born 30 January 1951) is an English singer, drummer, songwriter, record producer and actor. He was the drummer and later became the lead singer of the rock band Genesis and had a successful solo career, achieving three UK number one singles and seven US number one singles as a solo artist. In total, his work with Genesis, other artists, and solo resulted in more US top-40 singles than any other artist throughout the 1980s. His most successful singles from the period include “In the Air Tonight”, “Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now)”, “One More Night”, “Sussudio”, “Another Day in Paradise” and “I Wish It Would Rain Down”.

Born and raised in west London, Collins began playing drums at age five. During the same period he attended drama school which secured him various roles as a child actor. His first major role was the Artful Dodger in the West End production of the musical Oliver!. As an accomplished professional actor by his early teens, he pivoted to pursue a music career, becoming the drummer for Genesis in 1970, at age 19. He took over the role of lead singer in 1975 following the departure of Peter Gabriel. During the second half of the 1970s, in-between Genesis albums and tours, Collins was also the drummer of jazz rock band Brand X. Collins began a successful solo career in the 1980s, initially inspired by his marital breakdown and love of soul music, releasing the albums Face Value (1981), Hello, I Must Be Going (1982), No Jacket Required (1985) and …But Seriously (1989). Collins became, in the words of AllMusic, “one of the most successful pop and adult contemporary singers of the ‘80s and beyond”. He also became known for a distinctive gated reverb drum sound on many of his recordings. He played drums on the 1984 charity single “Do They Know It’s Christmas?, and in July 1985, he was the only artist to perform at both Live Aid concerts. He also resumed his acting career, appearing in Miami Vice and subsequently starring in the film Buster (1988).

Collins left Genesis in 1996 to focus on solo work; this included writing songs for Disney’s animated film Tarzan (1999). He wrote and performed the songs, “Two Worlds”, “Son of Man”, “Strangers Like Me” and “You’ll Be in My Heart”, the latter of which earned him the Academy Award for Best Original Song. He rejoined Genesis for their Turn It On Again Tour in 2007. Following a five-year retirement to focus on his family life, Collins released his memoir in 2016 and completed his Not Dead Yet Tour in 2019. He then rejoined Genesis in 2020 for a second reunion tour, ending in March 2022.

Collins’s discography includes eight studio albums that have sold 33.5 million certified units in the US and an estimated 150 million records sold worldwide, making him one of the world’s best-selling artists. He is one of only three recording artists, along with Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson, who have sold over 100 million records both as solo artists and separately as principal members of a band. He has won eight Grammy Awards, six Brit Awards (winning Best British Male Artist three times), two Golden Globe Awards, one Academy Award, and a Disney Legend Award. He was awarded six Ivor Novello Awards from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors, including the International Achievement Award. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1999, and was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2003 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Genesis in 2010. He has also been recognised by music publications with induction into the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame in 2012, and the Classic Drummer Hall of Fame in 2013.

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