Phil Collins is letting his fans in on his journey after his 2022 retirement from drumming.
The drummer-turned-singer, 74, shared with MOJO Magazine that it’s been difficult for him to pick up a drumstick.
“I keep thinking I should go downstairs to the studio and see what happens. But I’m not hungry for it anymore,” he explained. “The thing is, I’ve been sick. I mean very sick.”
The Genesis musician’s most recent solo album of new material, Testify, came out in 2002, the publication noted.
In 2010, Collins released Going Back, which featured covers of Motown and soul standards. He hasn’t had any new releases ever since.
Collins’ health conditions were also evident from his Genesis tour in 2022, where the In The Air singer performed from a chair on his final show while his son, Nic, took hold of the drums.
The eight-time Grammy winner previously spoke of his condition in the documentary Phil Collins: Drummer First, which came out in December.
“It’s still kind of sinking in a bit,” he said in the documentary, which was filmed in October 2022. “I’ve spent all my life playing drums. To suddenly not be able to do that is a shock.”
Collins, who’s been playing the instrument since he was 5 years old, explained that all those years of drumming had “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 not do anything,” he said. “If I wake up one day and I can hold a pair of drumsticks, then I’ll have a crack at it. But I just feel like I’ve used up my air miles.”
Collins once detailed in a Facebook post in 2017 that he suffered from drop foot “as a result of a back operation which makes it difficult to walk.”
