"My children came to say goodbye": After nearly dying, Phil Collins reflects on his excessive alcohol consumption

Singer Phil Collins has broken his silence on his excessive alcohol consumption and its consequences on his health, revealing that he nearly died in 2024 from complications.

Phil Collins sees the glass as half full. Having suffered from numerous health problems for years, the singer, who has sold over 100 million albums under his own name, spoke candidly about his former alcohol addiction, considering himself "very lucky" after an emergency room visit that nearly cost him his life.

The 75-year-old British artist had previously opened up about his alcoholism in his autobiography "Not Dead Yet," published in 2016. In it, the musician explained that he began to drink excessively after a period of hardship, the failure of his third marriage and his divorce in 2006, leading him down the slippery slope of alcohol.

"People came to say goodbye to me."

Although he had left alcohol behind, the Genesis singer broke years of sobriety by relapsing, leading to his admission to a Swiss hospital in November 2023. Although he was initially granted a discharge a few days later, the drumming virtuoso was readmitted shortly after and placed in intensive care for seven months.

“My kidneys were failing, my organs were simply shutting down,” Phil Collins said. “People were coming to say goodbye. But I don’t remember them coming. I had no idea what was happening. They were all afraid they might never see me again. It could have all gone very wrong,” revealed the singer, who narrowly escaped death. His five children, Joely, Simon, Nicholas, Matthew, and actress Lily Collins, were summoned to his bedside when he was unconscious.

They rushed to his side, thinking their father was about to die, and "were then faced with radical choices, like 'Should we keep Dad on life support?'" Phil Collins confided. "I was very lucky to have survived. Needless to say, I haven't touched alcohol since," he added.

A 24/7 home nurse

The former Genesis member has always been very candid about his health problems, which affect some of the most precious parts of a musician's body. First, his hearing, with a partial loss of hearing, then his back, with an injury sustained in 2007, a consequence of intensive drumming practice since childhood that now prevents him from touching the instrument again.

At the beginning of 2026, the artist told BBC Two that he had undergone five knee operations, and revealed that he had a nurse at home twenty-four hours a day to manage his medication.

But the singer of "Another Day in Paradise" seems to be enjoying better days, declaring in a more recent interview with BBC Breakfast that he was "healthier today than he's been in a long time" and that he often thought about getting back to recording and performing live. "I do think about it, yes. I keep telling myself I'd better get back to my studio at home," he said.

But before he can take to the stage again, Phil Collins is preparing the 45th-anniversary reissue of his first solo album, "Face Value," released in 1981, which propelled the hit single "In the Air Tonight" to the top of the charts. The box set, to be released on September 18 and titled "Face Value (Full Value)," will include four remastered discs and previously unreleased live recordings. The singer will also be in the spotlight in November with his induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist.