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A representative for Phil Collins assures fans that the musician is not in hospice care, despite recent rumors. But the 74-year-old legend is “very sick.”
Phil Collins, music legend and former drummer and frontman of rock band Genesis, is currently in the hospital after undergoing knee surgery, his spokesman recently confirmed. Last week, rumors circulated that the musician was in hospice care—but his representative assures fans that isn’t true. However, Collins has been “very sick.”
In February, after his final concert with Genesis at London’s O2 Arena, Collins revealed that he hasn’t been well. “I keep thinking I should go downstairs to the studio and see what happens, but I’m not hungry for it anymore,” he told Mojo magazine. “The thing is, I’ve been sick—I mean very sick.”
Collins announced his retirement from live shows in 2022, after previously revealing he can “barely hold a drumstick” after a serious spinal injury in 2007. That injury damaged vertebrae in his upper neck, causing lasting nerve damage.
“I had an MRI, and my back and hips were just shot,” Collins said of his nerve damage in 2015. “The doctor had to go in there, work on the sciatic nerve and take my back apart and unscramble the mess.”
“I’m kind of physically challenged a bit, which is very frustrating because I’d love to be playing up there with my son,” said Collins in 2021. His 24-year-old drummer son, Nic, filled in for Collins during Genesis’ final tour that year. Nic is a regular drummer for the band Better Strangers.
“I know that my dad misses playing the drums, and I know the fans wish they could see him. I wish he could play as well,” said Nic Collins, explaining that during the Genesis farewell shows, Nic played the drums for his father while Phil Collins served as vocalist.
“The way we did it proved that despite his struggles health-wise, he was still able to sing brilliantly and we’re able to put on a good show. […] And people can come and celebrate the music that they’ve either grown up with or haven’t been able to hear live if they’re from a newer generation.”
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