Report: Phil Collins now requires around-the-clock health care
Phil Collins hasn’t been himself for a quarter-century. In 2000, while working at a recording studio in LA, he suddenly lost hearing in his left ear. Doctors initially said his case was hopeless, but it turned out to be a viral infection that was eventually resolved over the next couple of years.
In 2007, he noticed something wrong with his neck while on tour with Genesis. That didn’t resolve, so he had surgery in 2009. This instead resulted in a loss of feeling in his fingers. If he wanted to play drums, he had to have drumsticks gaffer taped to his hands. This sent him in a period of depression that got so bad he says he contemplated suicide.
The neck issue turned out to be a nerve problem, which required an operation 2015, but this didn’t solve any problems with his left hand–and Collins is left-handed.
Next up (after an acrimonious divorce) was type 2 diabetes in 2017, which resulted in an infected abscess on his foot. There was a fall in a hotel room that summer, a continuing problem with foot drop. Any subsequent shows featuring him walking onstage with a cane and sitting down for the entire performance.
Add in knee problems (five surgeries and only one knee works properly), COVID-related kidney issues, and a history of heavy drinking, and Phil finds himself in a bad place.
USA Today reports that his decline has continued. Phil, 74, needs around-the-clock care from a live-in nurse. He said this to the BBC’s Eras podcast: “I had everything that could go wrong with me, did go wrong with me.”
“I can walk, albeit with assistance, you know, crutches or whatever…I got COVID in (the) hospital. My kidneys started to back up. Everything seemed to converge at the same time.”
Talking about his drinking, he 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 hospital,” he said. “It’s just been a difficult, interesting, frustrating last few years. But it’s all right now.”
