Phil Collins Remains Hopeful for Future Music Despite Health Challenges

LONDON (AP) - Phil Collins, the former Genesis frontman, says he remains optimistic about recording new music, even as he continues to face significant health challenges.

In a recent interview with Zoe Ball from BBC Radio Two, Collins, 74, spoke candidly about his ongoing medical issues, which have included a series of surgeries and complications in recent years.

"It's an ongoing thing," Collins said. "I have a 24-hour live-in nurse to make sure I take my medication as I should. I've had challenges with my knee. Everything that could go wrong with me did go wrong. I got COVID in the hospital. My kidneys started to back up. Everything seemed to converge at the same time. I had five operations on my knee. Now, I've got a knee that works, and I can walk, albeit with assistance, crutches or whatever."

Collins acknowledged that his kidney problems were likely related to alcohol consumption earlier in his life.

"I wasn't one of those guys that stayed up all night drinking," he said. "I'd drink during the day, but 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."

Collins said he has been sober for more than two years. Combined with his recovery from knee surgery, he said he is finally starting to feel better.

"It's just been a difficult, interesting, frustrating last few years," he said. "It's all right now."

Collins last performed in 2022 during Genesis' farewell tour. He has not played drums since 2009, after a surgery caused nerve damage, and remained seated throughout the band's final performances due to his health.

While a return to touring appears unlikely, Collins said he still hopes to return to the recording studio.

"The things that are ahead for me would be, apart from just being back to being totally mobile and healthy, maybe go in [the studio] and have a fiddle about and see if there's more music," Collins said. "You tend to sort of feel, 'That's it, I've done that.' But you've got to start doing it to see if you can do it. Otherwise, you don't do it. So that is something on my horizon."

Collins, a two-time Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee, added that he already has unfinished material that could lead to new music.

"I've got some things that are half-formed or were never finished, and a couple of things that were finished, which I like," he said. "So maybe life in the old dog. You'll see."