"I had everything that could go wrong with me, did go wrong with me”
By Damian Jones 21st January 2026
Phil Collins and Zoe Ball CREDIT: Will Ireland/Concord Music Group
Phil Collins has given an update on his health revealing that he has had a “difficult, frustrating few years”.
The former Genesis drummer was speaking in a new interview with Zoe Ball on BBC’s Eras podcast, which is due to drop on on BBC Sounds and BBC iPlayer at 6am next Monday (January 26).
AdvertisementLast year Collins shut down unfounded rumours that he was being placed under hospice care and “on his deathbed”. It is unclear where the rumours originated, and no evidence was shared to support the claims.
At the time Collins’ team said he had been hospitalised for knee surgery.
Now, he has confirmed that was the case telling Ball: “You know, I have a 24-hour live-in nurse to make sure I take my medication as I should do. I’ve had challenges with my knee… I had everything that could go wrong with me, did go wrong with me.”
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Collins went on to reveal that he has undergone five surgeries on his knee and now has one “that works” and “I can walk, albeit with assistance, you know, crutches or whatever”.
RecommendedHe has been suffering from health issues in recent years, following a spinal injury back in 2007. At Genesis’ final shows in 2022, he performed from a chair while his son Nic took on drum duties.
Collins also revealed that he recently celebrated two years of sobriety, adding: “It’s just been a difficult, interesting, frustrating last few years… but it’s alright now.”
He went on: “I enjoyed coming off tour. Coming off the road… I thought, right, I’m gonna do all those things that I couldn’t do.”
Collins said he began drinking during the day, adding: “I guess I had too much of it. I was never drunk, although I fell over a couple of times. But it is just one of those things that happened and it all caught up with me, and I spent months in hospital.”
AdvertisementHe said that aside from being back to being “totally mobile and healthy”, he would like to go into the studio and “have a fiddle about and see if there’s more music… you’ve gotta start doing it to see if you can do it”.
That comes after Collins previously said he is “not hungry” enough to make any new music in February 2025.
Prior to that, Collins shared an update on his health through the documentary Drummer First in 2024, though it had been recorded two years prior. In that clip, he was seen talking to popular YouTube drumming channel Drumeo, where he shared that he was still adjusting to not being able to drum anymore, and said that he’d rather take time away from the kit than be unable to play like he did before. “If I can’t do what I did as well as I did it, I’d rather relax and not do anything,” he said.
“If I wake up one day and I can hold a pair of drumsticks, then I’ll have a crack of it. But I just feel like I’ve used up my air miles,” he added. “It’s still kind of sinking in a bit… I’ve spent all my life playing drums. To be suddenly not be able to do that is a shock.”
“If I wake up one day and I can hold a pair of drumsticks, then I’ll have a crack of it. But I just feel like I’ve used up my air miles,” he added. “It’s still kind of sinking in a bit… I’ve spent all my life playing drums. To be suddenly not be able to do that is a shock.”
This wasn’t the first time that Phil Collins had shared an update with fans and revealed his ongoing struggles to perform. Back in 2021, he revealed that he could “barely hold a stick” due to health issues.
