Phil Collins opens up about health struggles, says he’s under ’24-hour’ care

WASHINGTON — Phil Collins revealed new details about his “ongoing” health struggles in a new interview. 

The “In the Air Tonight” singer made an appearance on BBC Two’s “Eras” podcast ahead of his 75th birthday and shared that he has a live-in nurse for 24-hour care. 

“It’s an ongoing thing,” he said in the interview, per People and Rolling Stone. “I have a 24-hour live-in nurse to make sure I take my medication as I should do. I’ve had challenges with my knee. I had everything that could go wrong with me, did go wrong with me.” 

“I got COVID in hospital. My kidneys started to back up. Everything seemed to converge at the same time,” he said.

Collins explained that he has undergone five knee surgeries and currently has only one “that works.” 

“I’ve had five operations on my knee now,” he said. “I’ve got a knee that works, and I can walk, albeit with assistance, you know, crutches or whatever.”

The musician also revealed he recently celebrated two years of sobriety and gave insight into how his drinking over the years led to problems with his kidneys.

“I’d probably been drinking too much, and so my kidneys were messed up, you know, I mean, I enjoyed coming off tour. Coming off the road, but I thought, tight I’m going to do all those things that I couldn’t do,” he said. “I stopped drinking at six o’clock in the evening. I wasn’t one of those guys that sort of stayed up all night drinking, you know, I’d drink during the day, but I guess I had too much of it.

“I was never drunk, although I fell over a couple of times, but it is just one of those things that happened, and it all caught up with me, and I spent months in the hospital,” he said. “It’s just been a difficult, interesting, frustrating last few years, but it’s all right now.”

Collins retired from performing the drums after the final Genesis tour in 2022.