Phil Collins opens up about his past battles with alcohol addiction in a new interview with British music magazine MOJO, revealing that fellow rock star Eric Clapton once talked him into a not-wholly-successful stay at his Crossroads Centre rehab facility in Antigua.
Collins has previously written about his battle with alcoholism in his revealing 2016 autobiography Not Dead Yet. The former Genesis man turned successful solo artist spoke of turning to alcohol to fill the "gaping void" in his life following the breakdown of his third marriage and subsequent divorce in 2006.
"Night after night I find myself lying on the bed, staring out of a skylight at grey Swiss skies, rueing my life," Collins wrote in his memoir. "I'm all alone, save for my good friends Johnnie Walker and Grey Goose."
"It took me until the age of 55 to become an alcoholic," he added. "I got through the heady 1960s, the trippy 1970s, the imperial 1980s, the busy 1990s. I was retired, content, and then I fell. Because I suddenly had too much time on my hands."
"But it was something I lived through, and I was lucky to live through it and get through it. I was very close to dying."
In his interview with MOJO's Mark Blake, Collins reveals that, in the 2010s, he was encouraged to check into rehab by his longtime friend Clapton. Collins was supposed to stay at the Crossroads Centre for six weeks, but checked himself out after a month as he had a tour booked.
"The nurse who took me to the airport gave me a note and told me to read it on the plane,” he remembers. "It said, 'If you have a drink, you will die. And it’s terrible to say, but I had a glass of wine."
Collins will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for his solo career in November. Earlier this year he revealed that he had turned down the opportunity to perform at the ceremony, which will be held at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles on November 14.
"They asked me if I would perform," he told BBC Breakfast. "I said no. You’ve gotta be match fit to do something like that. You can’t just go onstage. You’re going to have to rehearse. And by that point, if you haven’t been singing, your voice is going to be shot, and that’s not going to be good. I’d rather not do it."
