Phil Collins performing in 2016. Gustavo Caballero/Getty Images Phil Collins has revealed that he nearly died from alcohol abuse a little over two years ago.
The singer-drummer told the U.K.’s Sunday Times magazine that in April 2024, he was in the hospital, after years of alcohol abuse, unconscious, when his manager summoned his five children to his bedside as it seemed he was on the verge of dying.
“Because there were some decisions to be made about ‘Do we keep Phil on life support?’ kind of thing,” he recalled. “My kidneys were packing up, my organs were just seizing up. People were coming to say goodbye. But I don’t remember them coming, I didn’t have no idea this was going on. They were all worried that they wouldn’t see me again. It could all have gone so terribly wrong.”
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Collins added that since he was discharged from the hospital, after having spent seven months there, he hasn’t had a drink.
Still, the U.K. Times reports, his pancreas is scarred and kidneys are barely functioning after years of alcoholism, which he wrote about in his 2016 autobiography.
Collins is also dealing with type 2 diabetes, nerve damage that has left him unable to hold drumsticks and and has to use crutches after back and knee surgeries. And he has a 24/7 live-in nurse.
But he’s grateful he made it through his time in the hospital, calling himself “very lucky” and spent four memorable days with his family at the end of last year.
He recalls a moment with his daughter, Emily in Paris star Lily Collins, in which she “was sitting beside me in tears, saying, ‘I never thought I’d get these moments.’ We had an incredible time. I can’t overemphasize how fantastic it was.”
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