Phil Collins: I quit music but no one will miss me
Singer and former Genesis drummer admits he was the most hated man in rock
Phil Collins at his home in Geneva with some of his collection of artefacts from the Alamo site in Texas Photo: Chris Brooks
Phil Collins says he is quitting music and believes "no one will miss me".
Collins, who lives in Switzerland, insists he is happy to be "written out of the script entirely" now that he has dodgy hearing and his hands are no longer able to grip a pair of drumsticks.
The singer and drummer no longer wants to be a pop star, play gigs or even be Phil Collins. "I don't think anyone's going to miss me," he told FHM Magazine. "I'm much happier just to write myself out of the script entirely..."
The former Genesis drummer went on to sell over 150 million records as a solo artist and play live with Led Zeppelin.
Last autumn he released a collection of faithfully re-recorded Motown standards called Going Back. He added: "I know that when I did interviews it came across like I could do everything, but I've never actually felt like that. I went through all my own VHS stuff recently and found mountains of old interviews with me and it was very, very hard to watch. I barely recognised the person I saw from that time.
Asked when he became 'the pop star that nobody likes', Phil replied: "Around the time that the music was being played so incessantly people wanted to strangle me. 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!"
He added: "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?"
Speaking about Noel Gallagher's famous criticism of his music, Phil said: "He definitely seems to consider me the Anti-Christ of music. There's nothing I can do to change that impression of me. I have, at times, been very down about it."
Asked if he had ever felt suicidal about his critics, Collins added: "Tony Hancock's suicide note read, 'Too many things went wrong too often...' That's something I find hard to forget."
The hearing in his left ear is ruined; he has a dislocated vertebra in his neck and nerve damage in his hands. He said: "I think of it like Air Miles - it's all part of the job. I'm not worried about not being able to play the drums again, I'm more worried about being able to cut a loaf of bread safely or building things for my kids. My doctors tell me it's a work in progress, that it'll take about a year for me to recover. They're not strong enough to play the drums. I don't think I'll ever be able to do that again."
Asked if he is officially, an ex-rock star now, Phil replied: "It feels like a good time to stop for a while. David Letterman wanted me to go on his show on a Monday night recently but I said, "No. Can't do it. I have the kids on a Monday." And my label said, "But this is Letterman!" And I was like, "Guess what? I. Don't. Give. A. F---!"
The full interview appears in this month's FHM Magazine, on sale now.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/music-news/8357227/Phil-Collins-I-quit-music-but-no-one-will-miss-me.html