In a new interview on the UK’s BBC Breakfast, Phil Collins ruled out performing at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame when he’s inducted as a solo artist in November. “They asked me if I would perform,” he told host Charlotte Gallagher. “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.”
Collins hasn’t played live since the final date of the Genesis Last Dominio? tour in March 2022. He’s faced numerous health challenges since that time, but he told Gallagher that he’s been on the mend. “I’m healthier than he has been in a while,” he said. “I had a problem with my knee, 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 five – five times because it kept either getting infected or it broke, so I was inactive for a long time.”
“The last 18 months have been fine, but before that, not so good,” he added. “Everything health-wise caught up to me at the same time. Whatever could go wrong did go wrong, but everything is fine now.”
As far as returning to the road at some point, Collins seems torn. He initially told Gallagher that he “can’t really see it” when asked about touring again, but moments later gave a slightly more hopeful answer. “Whether I would go out again,” he said. “I would contemplate.”
He’s also contemplating putting together new music, which could possibly lead to his first album of new material since 2002’s Testify. “I’m constantly saying to myself, ‘I’ve got to go back down into my studio at home,’” he said. “I’ve got lots of lyrical ideas that I write down, and there are things that are half-formed and a couple of things that are finished. So there’s something that I can get my teeth into to start working on.”
Earlier this month, Collins went on Eddie Trunk’s SiriusXM show Trunk Nation, where he said he was surprised when he learned about the Hall of Fame induction. “I’ve always followed up after [Genesis were inducted in 2010],” he said, “the results of who got in and who didn’t. But I’d kind of thought that that was it for me. I didn’t expect it. And I’m very, very flattered and pleased that I was thought of, and enough people on the panel. I guess it is—I don’t know how this thing works, but it’s very nice to be there, and I’m very pleased.”
