"Everything health-wise caught up with me at the same time. Whatever could go wrong did go wrong." Phil Collins is feeling a lot better, but won't be performing at his Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction
"They asked me if I would perform. I said, No."
Phil Collins has stated that he won't be performing at this year's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony.
Already in the RnRHoF as a member of Genesis, on November 14, at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles, Collins will be inducted into the Rock Hall for his solo work. Other artists set to be inducted on the night include Iron Maiden, Oasis, Billy Idol, Wu-Tang Clan, Joy Division/New Order and Sade.
But as with Iron Maiden (who'll be on tour), and the original members of New Order (who remain bitterly divided), Collins won't be performing on the evening.
"They asked me if I would perform," Collins tells BBC Breakfast, "and I said, No, because you've got to be match fit to do something like that. You can't just go on stage... you have to rehearse, and by that point if you've not been singing, your voice is going to be shot and that's not going to be good. So, I'd rather not do it."
Asked if he thinks he might ever perform again, "I can't really see it happening, but I'm healthier now than I have been for quite a while."
"The last 18 months, say, has been fine," he revealed. "Before that, not so good. Everything health-wise caught up with me at the same time, and whatever could go wrong did go wrong.
"I had problems with my knee," Collins explains, "which I had for a while but I played through it, toured through it. But eventually I had to have a knee operation, and I had to have it five times because it kept either getting infected or it broke. So I was inactive for a long time. But I do physio three times a week with a very stern Australian lady: you've got to have someone that bullies you, and she bullies me!"
Earlier this month, former Joy Division / New Order bassist Peter Hook insisted that that was zero chance that he would reunite with his former bandmates Bernard Sumner, Stephen Morris and Gillian Gilbert to perform at the ceremony.
"I’d rather die," he told MOJO.
Additionally, no-one knows whether or not Oasis will show up on then night, given the extreme sarcasm that vocalist Liam Gallagher has employed every time he's asked about the honour. "Ever since I was a little kid and singing in the shower I’d dream about 1 day being in the RnR hall of fame," he posted on X earlier this year, with tongue firmly in cheek.
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A music writer since 1993, formerly Editor of Kerrang! and Planet Rock magazine (RIP), Paul Brannigan is a Contributing Editor to Louder. Having previously written books on Lemmy, Dave Grohl (the Sunday Times best-seller This Is A Call) and Metallica (Birth School Metallica Death, co-authored with Ian Winwood), his Eddie Van Halen biography (Eruption in the UK, Unchained in the US) emerged in 2021. He has written for Rolling Stone, Mojo and Q, hung out with Fugazi at Dischord House, flown on Ozzy Osbourne's private jet, played Angus Young's Gibson SG, and interviewed everyone from Aerosmith and Beastie Boys to Young Gods and ZZ Top. Born in the North of Ireland, Brannigan lives in North London and supports The Arsenal.
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