News : Phil Collins shares health update after difficult and frustrating few years

Phil Collins has shared a new update on his health, saying he has endured a “difficult, frustrating few years”.

The former Genesis drummer spoke during a recent conversation with Zoe Ball on BBC’s Eras podcast, which is set to be released on BBC Sounds and BBC iPlayer at 6am next Monday January 26.

Last year, Collins addressed and dismissed untrue reports suggesting he was receiving hospice care or was “on his deathbed”. The origin of the claims was never confirmed, and no proof was ever presented to back them up.

At the time, Collins’ representatives clarified that he had been admitted to hospital for knee surgery.

He has now confirmed that this 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.”

Collins went on to explain that he has undergone five operations on his knee and now has one “that works”. He added that he is able to walk again, although he still needs support, saying “I can walk, albeit with assistance, you know, crutches or whatever”.

In recent years, Collins has faced a series of health setbacks following a spinal injury in 2007. During Genesis’ final tour dates in 2022, he performed seated while his son Nic stepped in on drums.

He also revealed that he has recently marked two years of sobriety, explaining: “It’s just been a difficult, interesting, frustrating last few years… but it’s alright now.”

He continued: “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 admitted that he began drinking during the daytime, 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.”

He added that while he is not yet “totally mobile and healthy”, he would like to return to the studio to “have a fiddle about and see if there’s more music… you’ve gotta start doing it to see if you can do it”.

This follows comments made by Collins in February 2025, when he said he did not feel “hungry” enough to create new music.

Before that, Collins had spoken about his health in the 2024 documentary Drummer First, which was filmed two years earlier. In the film, he appeared in conversation with popular YouTube drumming platform Drumeo, where he spoke about adjusting to life without drumming and said he would rather step away than struggle to play as he once did. “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 was not the first occasion on which Phil Collins had updated fans about his health and the challenges he faces performing. Back in 2021, he revealed that ongoing issues meant he could “barely hold a stick”.