Slightly more than a week before his 75th birthday, Phil Collins provided a health update, lamenting that he requires 24-hour care from a health professional.
“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,” the eight-time Grammy Award winner told Zoe Ball on the BBC’s “Eras” podcast series that aired on Jan. 19. “I had everything that could go wrong with me, did go wrong with me.”
Collins, who rose to fame with Genesis and then had seven No. 1 songs on the Billboard charts as a solo artist, said he has had five surgeries on his knee and that “only one works.”
“I can walk, albeit with assistance, you know, crutches or whatever,” Collins said. “I got COVID in (the) hospital. My kidneys started to back up. Everything seemed to converge at the same time.”
Phil Collins is speaking out about his health issues, revealing that he recently underwent five knee surgeries and developed kidney problems from drinking.
— Variety (@Variety) January 21, 2026
“It’s an ongoing thing. I have a 24 hour live-in nurse, um, to make sure I take my medication as I should do. Uh, I’ve had… pic.twitter.com/82Y30rLh01
Collins has been contending with complications from spinal surgery in 2007, according to Entertainment Weekly. The injury damaged vertebrae in his upper neck and caused nerve damage.
The pain was so severe, Collins said, that he told fans in 2021 that he could “barely hold a drumstick.”
He told Ball that he complicated his health while touring by drinking too much, which led to kidney issues.
“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. “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 (the) hospital.”
Collins, who also suffers from type 2 diabetes, stopped playing drums during Genesis’ final tour in 2022, singing from a seated position while his son Zac handled the sticks, Variety reported.
Collins’ musical achievements include 27 Grammy nominations and awards for Album of the Year in “No Jacket Required” (1986) and Record of the Year for “Another Day in Paradise” (1991).
Collins was also nominated for three Academy Awards, winning the Oscar in 1999 for the song “You’ll Be in My Heart” from the Disney movie, “Tarzan.”
Collins was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with his Genesis bandmates in 2010.
The five-part podcast series featuring Collins ends on Jan. 26.
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