The one artist Phil Collins wasn’t good enough to play for: “I’m the only person in the world who can say that”
For being a living legend in rock and roll, Phil Collins was always fairly modest about his musical abilities.
He never wanted to be the big star that he turned into, and even when becoming one of the largest pop stars of his time, there were even a few moments in his career when even he was tired of looking at his stupid face whenever MTV came on. But that hasn’t stopped some of the biggest names in pop music from wanting a piece of whatever magic he possessed back in the day.
I mean, let’s look at the situation from a pop star’s perspective. Given how omnipresent Collins was on the charts and his second career becoming the go-to soundtrack man for Disney when Tarzan made it big, why would you not want to work with him? He had the perfect knack for melody that could touch people’s hearts, and even if he had a certain degree of chops behind him, it would be a dream to learn from him as well.
It’s not like he wasn’t appreciated outside of the standard rock realm, either. The biggest names in hip-hop, like Pharrell, thought that his music sounded pristine whenever he heard records like Face Value, and while there are a few forgettable Motown covers in his arsenal, it takes a special kind of dad rocker to be able to stand next to legends like Philip Bailey and Bone Thugz-n-Harmony and be able to hold their own.
But here’s the one problem: Collins never wanted to learn how to read music. He could definitely play along with whatever band he was working with and create the kind of massive drum fills that send all percussionists running scared, but when it comes to the true legends of the pop realm, he did get a little bit of cold feet when asked to perform next to a rising star like Adele.
Which is strange because it feels like it would be a match made in heaven in many respects. The soulful crooner fits right at home next to Collins’s heroes, and the more sophisticated approach she brings to all of her songs could have certainly benefited from having Collins on drums or maybe helping out with the occasional melodic line to tie the song up. But if you ask the drummer, he wasn’t willing to make that many plans.
Although he has worked with many people on production, he felt that he was nowhere near the level he needed to be to work with Adele, saying, “I’d never heard of her. Apparently, I’m the only person in the world who can say that. I’m not good at playing with other people on the piano. I’m very limited. I doodle around and play what I play.” But it’s not like you can’t see where that apprehension comes from.
Collins knew the spotlight all too well back in the day, so if he was there and didn’t hold his own, it was going to be noticed. Hell, he had already felt a little bit of uneasiness when he missed parts of the piano line when playing at Live Aid, so if he was going to work with her in any capacity, he was probably going to take the route of writing the music first and have someone else perform it for him.
Then again, it also has to do with the genre clashes. As much as Adele may have been delighted in hearing Collins on her song, her style doesn’t leave much room for error, and Collins didn’t want to have that kind of flop sweat on him before he had even played a single note. This was the kind of music that Sinatra would have been proud to call his own, so giving that role to a drummer in a rock and roll band was not going to be an easy choice.
