Phil Collins is blaming years of playing the drums and bad posture for causing his current mobility problems.
“The drumming has taken its toll on my hands, legs,” Collins 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 was the lead singer and drummer of the progressive rock band Genesis. He won multiple Grammy awards, and the hit songs he’s known for include “I Don’t Care Anymore,” “Sussudio,” “Easy Lover,” and “One More Night.”
“It’s still kind of sinking in a bit,” Collins said in the interview that was recorded in 2022. “I’ve spent all my life playing drums. To suddenly not be able to do that is a shock.”
In 2022, he performed his final show with Genesis in London after being diagnosed with drop foot in one of his feet.
The Mayo Clinic defines drop foot as numbness or paralysis of either one or both feet that results in dragging the foot or having difficulty lifting the front part of the foot when walking.
“If I can’t do what I did as well as I did it, I’d rather relax and not do anything,” Collins said. “It just feels so strange to hold a pair [of drumsticks].”
Collins was born and raised in West London, where he attended drama school. His father, Greville Collins, was an insurance agent, while his mother, June Collins, was an agent at the independent performing arts school called the Barbara Speake Stage School in East Acton.
In the documentary, Collins said he received a plastic drum set for Christmas when he was 3 years old and vividly remembers sitting and playing with the drum.
“I took to it instinctively, I think,” he said. “Then, when I was 4 or 5, they made me a little drum kit with crosswood and poles sticking out. It was a small drum. It was something I could sit at and thrash along to the television.”
At drama school, Collins acquired a white pearl drum kit from the son of one of the teachers who played with the late Joe Cocker.
Cocker, an English singer, is known for hit songs such as “You Are So Beautiful” and “With a Little Help From My Friends.”
“I know he wishes he could sit behind a kit and just play the way he could,” Collins’s 23-year-old son, Nic Collins, said in the documentary.
Before he stopped playing music, the older Collins had been using a cane to help him walk since 2015.
Collins did not respond to requests for comment, but his son, who is also a drummer, revealed that his father had surgery on his neck.
“That stemmed from all those years playing drums and just bad posture and stuff, which caused him to have drop foot, which basically means that in one of his feet, he has like no sensation, which is why he can’t really play drums,” Nic Collins said.
In addition to drop foot, Collins has had nerve damage in his hand since 2007 from a dislocated vertebrae.
“He was great at playing drums, and that worked, and that setup was great, and he could do everything he could do,” his son said. “I don’t think he was necessarily thinking about it taking a toll on his back in the long run.”
Playing drums requires the drummer to sit on a throne, which is typically a round, cushioned seat without armrests, according to Santa-Ana-based Bob Bradley, a former full-time musician who toured for five years.
“You have to lean into the drums and use your whole body to play the instrument,” Bradley told The Epoch Times on Dec. 22. “Bending like that is likely not the best for your back, and over the years, that probably didn’t help Phil’s hands, legs or feet to stay in the best condition.”
Bradley, who played drums and bass guitar and sang backing vocals in a rock band, noted that he would frequently cut himself from playing drums and the bass guitar intensely.
“You have to hold these sticks sometimes very tightly, and as you hit the drum heads, the vibration can lead to strain on the muscles and tendons in the wrists and hands,” Bradley said.
“If you don’t have good technique, a drummer can experience these issues along with the occasional pain, blisters, and cuts that drumsticks and playing drums daily can cause.”
