“Peter Gabriel said as soon as he saw me sit down on a drum stool, he knew I was the drummer.”

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Phil Collins officially retired on March 26, 2022 after a 50-year career touring and recording both solo and with Genesis. And in October 2022 Phil shared his story with his son Nic Collins with a full camera crew in attendance.

New documentary Phil Collins: Drummer First is a fascinating and highly illuminating take on Collins’ life and career, co-produced with Nic Collins and published by Drumeo on their YouTube channel.

Collins Junior proves to be the perfect conduit for Collins Senior’s story, being sufficiently trusted and familiar with his father’s foibles to coax all the details out of a man who – quite frankly – like rock royalty and who has more than earned his accolades , just could say none.

Instead, he – and countless musical contemporaries – tells a fantastic story, packed with highlights and insights.

We learn about Collins’ career as a young actor and his first steps into music. “My dad was particularly proud of me being in the West End in Oliver, which was a huge show, and I was the Artful Dodger,” he explains. “So he’d been bragging about it. And suddenly I was going to be in a pop band. I decided that’s what I wanted to do and I became a ‘professional auditioner.’ I just answered on the back of Melody Maker , and when I went to auditions, the auditions were good, but I never seemed to get anything.

“Peter Gabriel said as soon as he saw me sit down on a drum stool he knew I was the drummer and I got a call to say I got the job. But it all went downhill from there,” he jokes.

We learn the secrets behind his kick drumming as Nic sets up an old kit and struggles to understand its kick pedal himself. “I used to play two kick drums. But then I just use the Speed ​​King pedal as well. They were pretty basic,” Collins explains.

“I remember I got a new DW 9000 double pedal and I was so excited about it,” says Nic. “I brought it to my dad and he said, ‘Well, it’s not a Speed ​​King, is it?’ It was my dad, (John) Bonham. All those guys swear by it. “And you can see , whether it’s an old one or a new one, because it gets played in, you know,” Collins explains. “And I love them.”

But what about the distinctive sound of Collins’ concert novels? There are more secrets to learn…

“My dad hated changing heads,” explains Nic. “It’s part of the sound – when they were recorded, you get that sound. When it’s a new head, break it in. (He hits a tom with a worn head) Yeah, sounds like they’re going to. Brad Marsh, the drum technician. would sit there before he would show up for sound check and step on them and beat them for two hours to make sure they were played for him.”

Similarly, Collins reveals a reluctance to tune drums: “That’s the In The Air sound. The two best gigs were Pearl. I remember the rest were premieres.” “You didn’t have to tune them. You just hit him harder?” Nic asks. “Yeah, I beat them into submission,” Collins admits.

Solo superstardom

But before solo success there was the small matter of taking the step from behind the kit to the front of the stage – a journey Collins had no intention of making. But when Peter Gabriel unexpectedly left Genesis, they were forced to make major changes.

“We were halfway through a tour of America, (Gabriel) told our manager, and I think Tony Banks caught wind of it. From then on, we knew Pete could leave at any time, but we had a 150-show tour to do.”

And that – incredibly – could have meant we continued without a vocalist: “I was the one who said when Peter left, ‘Okay, let’s do it instrumentally,'” says Collins. “And everybody jeered and told me to shut up and get back in my box. But you know, I see they were right.

“It wasn’t in my mind to be a singer. But no one else wanted the job. We had a long search for a singer who wasn’t so much. I used to sing all the songs at the auditions for the guys who came to audition. And I generally started to sound a little bit better than they did…”

“From the first show the fans loved him because he was already part of the band. It wasn’t like a new guy was going to come in and win over the crowd,” explains Nic.

“Yeah, my excuse was that my voice has always been there in the background, whether it’s backing vocals or the odd lead here and there,” Collins admits.

“The first gig I did as a singer was in London, Ontario and I kept going and I didn’t let go of the microphone stand. It became my drum kit. It’s a bit very creepy. I always missed being behind the drums, you know? I thought I was better at it than singing, so I missed it.”

Collins was soon writing and demoing his own songs with his lead vocals, but still needed another confidence boost. “I remember very clearly that Ahmet Ertegun (co-founder and president of Atlantic Records) was in London, and he and I always got on well,” explains Collins.

“So I went up to his house and we had a couple of drinks and I said, ‘I’ve got a tape here if you want to hear it.’ He said, ‘I’d love to hear it.’ So I put it on, and they were just my demos, you know. And he said, ‘Whatever you do with this, I want to be involved,’ which gave me the kind of confidence I needed, so I went home pretty full of myself.”

But what about the origin of Collins’ unique drum sound and – gulp – that drum fill?

“We were at the Townhouse, which had this living room. I’d done three or four tracks with Peter (Gabriel) and realized that if you put the mics in the corners and compressed them, it sounded great. And he said, “What is that? ” I said, ‘Nothing. I’m just playing with the sound’. And he said, ‘Give it to me for 10 minutes’. So I played it, no deviations, no fillers, and it became The Intruder. And I said to him: ‘Can I have a copy of that drum loop?’ He wasn’t very happy, but I just wanted to remember the sound.

“So when me and (producer) Hugh Padgham had gone in to do my tracks, In The Air came up on the list and there were no drum fills,” Collins explains. “The flaw with the In The Air stuff is that it was all carefully thought out. But it’s just the stuff I did on that particular roof that day.

“I mean I must have done four or five different fills while Hugh was doing his tricks. And that was it. I went in to listen to it. We all agreed we didn’t need to do it again. Yeah , it changed my life.”

In The Air Tonight was to become Collins’ signature song and a key component of his live performances, always with a special presentation.

One such elaborate tour trick involved a solo Collins on stage starting the song alone, bringing emotion into an audience whose attention is captured by the complete absence of a set on stage. Then, with the fill looming large, a drum kit would magically rise from the stage and Phil would beat the hell out of them with seconds to spare. “And the place would go crazy.”

But things didn’t always go according to plan. “It was the ’96, ’97 Dance Into The Light tour,” says Collins. “I used to walk around the stage, but I walked around and didn’t see the usual lights coming up. And I thought it was strange… And there was no drum kit…

“It was on an elevator, but it was still on the floor inside this hole in the middle of the stage and I didn’t know what to do… So I jumped into the hole and I played fills and sang… And no one in the audience could see me!

“Eventually I got out of the hole and explained to the audience what had happened.”

Collins today is of course retired, and it is clear that ill health has brought his musical career to an early end.

“It’s still sinking in a bit,” he admits. “You know, I’m 71. I’ve spent my whole life playing drums, to suddenly not be able to do it is a shock. Drumming has taken its toll on my hands, legs.

“If I can’t do what I did as well as I did it, I’d rather relax and do nothing. If I wake up one day and I can hold a pair of drumsticks, I’ll have a crack at it. But just, you know, I just feel like I’ve used up my air miles.

Perhaps bassist and regular band member Leland Sklar sums up the end of this story best: “If you were walking down the street and you met Phil, and he had no idea who he was, and you struck up a conversation and said to him, so what do you do? He would say, ‘I’m a drummer’ before anything else.

“Man, he’s a happy camper sitting in the back. And that’s also one of the real heartaches, the fact that he lost it.”

Phil Collins: Drummer First is can be seen on YouTube now.