Phil Collins gives rare health update on losing ability to play drums

Originally appeared on E! Online

Phil Collins is speaking out about his health.

The “In the Air Tonight” singer got candid about the long-term effects of his decades of drumming, which eventually left him unable to play the percussion instrument.

“It’s still kind of sinking in a bit,” Collins said in the documentary “Phil Collins: Drummer First,” which was filmed in October 2022 and released Dec. 18. “I’ve spent all my life playing drums. To suddenly not be able to do that is a shock.”

The former Genesis frontman explained that the physical toll of drumming for so many years had impacted his hands and legs, which led him to formally retire from drumming in 2022.

“If I can’t do what I did as well as I did it, I’d rather relax and not do anything,” he continued. “If I wake up one day and I can hold a pair of drumsticks, then I’ll have a crack at it. But I just feel like I’ve used up my air miles.”

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Before calling it quits, the 73-year-old — who won the Oscar for Best Original Song in 2000 for “You’ll Be in My Heart” from the movie “Tarzan” — reunited with Genesis for their Last Domino tour, where his son Nic Collins played the drums on his behalf. His daughter, “Emily in Paris” star Lily Collins, paid tribute to the music icon on social media after attending the band’s final concert in London.

“To have witnessed this last show was truly the memory of a lifetime and an event I shall hold in my heart forever,” she wrote on Instagram at the time. “Endlessly grateful doesn’t begin to do it justice.”