And, you know, I never wanted to be a singer.
PHIL COLLINSAnd, you know, I never wanted to be a singer.
PHIL COLLINSAs a composer I approached the drums differently than a non-composing drummer. I embraced drum machines.
PHIL COLLINSWhy did I like simpler songs? Just times change. This is one of the repeated things I hear: even though people will read different kinds of books, they don’t read Lord of the Rings when they’re 30 even though they did at 15.
PHIL COLLINSOften there’s a BA crew, because half the time we stay at the same hotels, especially in Australia. I can remember spending quite a lot of time with crews around the pool there. They always make themselves known to us.
PHIL COLLINSI don’t own an ABBA album, and I never had the urge to go and buy one. If you’re just talking about well crafted pop songs, they were fantastic.
PHIL COLLINSThe stereotypical rock-star-trashing-a-hotel-room thing? Those days had passed by the time I was in a band big enough to do it.
PHIL COLLINSWhen destiny calls you, you’ve got to be strong. I may not be with you, but you’ve got to move on.
PHIL COLLINSI was talking to Australian press earlier, and they said: we never stopped playing you. I tended to forget about that. It brings a smile to your face that there is this continuing thing, that people like what you do.
PHIL COLLINSThere’s something perverse isn’t there, if you’re playing in front of 100,000 people and there’s 2000 people down the front who don’t like, you think: what is it that they don’t like?
PHIL COLLINSTo be honest, producing records interests me less at the moment and I really don’t want to get involved in album projects that are going to take up a lot of time
PHIL COLLINSWe stayed in some pretty shabby places in Europe.
PHIL COLLINSIt’s not often that an English drummer gets an Oscar. So I’m very, very proud of that.
PHIL COLLINSTo me, groups of musicians playing together, not fighting each other, but playing a groove together is one of the most exciting things to listen to.
PHIL COLLINSAnother time, we had three days off in Australia, so we went out of our way to fly to Ayres Rock.
PHIL COLLINSWhen you’re young you want to show people what you can do, no matter what the cost. Whereas when you’re older, and you realise that maybe a drum machine is better than you playing, then use the drum machine.
PHIL COLLINSI’d love to work with Disney again.
PHIL COLLINS