Phil Collins
Phil Collins
Philip David Charles "Phil" Collins LVO is an English singer, songwriter, instrumentalist, record producer and actor. He is known as the drummer and lead singer in the rock band Genesis and as a solo artist. Between 1983 and 1990, Collins scored three UK and seven US number-one singles in his solo career. When his work with Genesis, his work with other artists, as well as his solo career is totalled, Collins had more US top 40 singles than any other...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionRock Singer
Date of Birth30 January 1951
CityLondon, England
To see a lot of the smaller labels disappear or get gobbled up by the bigger labels, that's a shame. It was a bit of a shock at first to see the demise of the record stores.
As soon as you start making a record, things start getting lined up: the promotion, possibly even a tour.
I'll have the music, and then I'll just turn the microphone on, press Play and Record and sing. And whatever comes out ends up being the melody.
I'm usually going to make a record, finish a record, start a record or start a tour or between tours.
To be honest, producing records interests me less at the moment and I really don't want to get involved in album projects that are going to take up a lot of time
I wish it wasn't like this. I sit and watch stuff on the television, I think, 'Why, why, why.
We're all still good friends. We spent like 30 or 25 years of our life in the same office, ... Just because we don't play in the same band anymore doesn't mean we don't see each other and enjoy each other's company.
The difference between the American version of 'Live Aid' and the British one - in England, if you wanted a cup of tea, you made it yourself. If you wanted a sandwich, you bought it. In typical American style, at the American concert, there were laminated tour passes and champagne and caviar.
Yes, I am aware that I have become a caricature. I've thought about this. Conceptually, what I'd like to do is the equivalent of writing myself out of the script.
I've bought pretty much every book ever written about the Alamo, and I talk to my friends that I've made over the past 15, 20 years. It's just a constant learning and fascinating thing for me.
Originally, I thought the story of the Alamo was all these men defending their liberty when they could have left, knowing they were going to die. That's without a doubt what appealed to me, the romance and the nobility. But, as in life, the more you dig the more you find out that things weren't quite like that.
When I was five or six, I started dressing up like Davy Crockett.
The story of the Alamo has touched many more people than one would think. So, I would like to pay my respects to those men on both sides of the walls in those months of February and March 1836.
If a musician dares to get out of the box he's been put in, people get confused. They want people where they can find them! I am fortunate in some respects as I've always been known as someone who 'moves around' and tries different things. But generally, we are supposed to stay where we're put.