Kurt Cobain

When Collins first started gaining traction as a solo artist, the 1980s were just getting started looking ridiculous. Although Collins looks like one of the most average people ever to become a pop star, seeing him wear tie-dye shirts and/or a suit as he was crooning made rock and roll look like it reached peak middle age. Rock and roll was always a young man’s game, and Kurt Cobain couldn’t stand what Collins stood for.

When talking about the state of rock in 1992, Cobain talked about how much he hated the kind of music that Collins brought to the table, saying, “I hate Phil Collins, all of that while male soul. I hate tie-dyed tee-shirts, too. I wouldn’t wear a tie-dyed tee-shirt unless it was dyed with the urine of Phil Collins”. Even in the age when grunge was ruling the airwaves, Collins managed to respond by making one of the most predictable moves in history.

Listening to his next album, Both Sides, Collins seemed to sound even more out of touch than he did before, almost looking like the wise old uncle of rock and roll who occasionally tried his hand at getting down with what the kids were listening to. He could still write a hook, but once ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ happened, change was definitely in the air.

Roger Waters

Progressive rock bands have never been known to have the most cordial relationships with each other. If you look at any great prog band from the 1970s, there’s a good chance that almost every one of them had some sort of major fallout once they hit the big time. While Collins managed to be a team player in Genesis for as long as he could, Roger Waters didn’t think he had what it took to be a true rock star.

Although Waters had gone well past what rock was doing on albums like Radio KAOS, he admitted that Collins had nothing in common with what rock was all about. While he confessed to being a bit too hard on Collins throughout his career, he hesitated to call him a true rock star, considering most of his songs fell on the spectrum of easy listening.

There’s certainly nothing wrong with that, but it just speaks to the two separate versions of musicians that they both were. Waters was looking to make music that wakes people out of their stupor and talks about the real problems with the world, whereas Collins just wanted to make people dance in his eyes.

Led Zeppelin

Almost any drummer of Phil Collins’s generation has a healthy respect for John Bonham of Led Zeppelin. Even if you didn’t like what the band had to offer, it was hard to really ignore the animal in the background, which made his drumsticks sound like Thor’s hammer whenever he played. Collins may have had the opportunity most of his generation only dreamed of by jamming with Zeppelin, but it ended up going over a lot differently than he expected.

Collins already had the unenviable task of playing both stages of Live Aid across two different continents, but the true test of his endurance was playing behind a reformed Led Zeppelin for a few songs. While it would never be the same without Bonzo behind the kit, Collins remembered how cruel Jimmy Page was towards him throughout the day, saying that it was one of the few shows he wished he could have walked out on.

Page even doubled down on Collins’s experience, saying he wasn’t nearly practised enough to pull off classics like ‘Whole Lotta Love’ for the entire show. It’s already adding insult to injury by saying that he doesn’t know the songs, but hearing one of the biggest names in rock music say that you can’t hold a candle to John Bonham was bound to do a number on anyone’s ego.

Paul McCartney

Any rock musician would typically be happy to breathe the same air as Paul McCartney for a few minutes. Despite his Beatles days being over a half-century ago, there are still more than a few artists who would crumple into a ball if Macca so much as spoke their name. Even though most people can check their egos at the door whenever they are in front of their fans, McCartney wasn’t nearly as cordial as Collins thought he should have been when asking him for an autograph.

The drummer had already been a major fan of The Beatles when working as an extra on A Hard Day’s Night, but he remembered McCartney being ice cold when he troubled him for an autograph. According to Collins, McCartney did everything he could to belittle him, even treating him like a child when talking with his wife, Nancy.

Collins already had the privilege of working with McCartney on some of his 1980s material, such as ‘Angry,’ but this was one of the last times that he talked with the former Beatle. Everyone’s first lesson should be not to meet their heroes, but even when he was given respect as a songwriter, Collins still couldn’t catch a break from one of the greatest writers of all time.

Noel Gallagher

Half of what Noel Gallagher says usually involves slagging someone off. From the moment Oasis hit it big, Gallagher seemed to pick up where John Lydon had left off by making headlines for some of the most obnoxious and opinionated quotes to come out of a rock star. He was more than happy to hype up The Beatles, The Stones, and Oasis as the biggest bands in the world, but when he heard Phil Collins, he was convinced he was listening to the devil’s work.

In the documentary Supersonic, Noel mentioned that his definition of success would be to have the severed head of Phil Collins in his fridge by the end of the decade. He would even double down later when he told the press that he thought Collins was the antichrist of music for making his typical ballads.

While Collins tried to take the high road, he eventually aired his grievances about Noel, saying that they hardly had any talent and that he was confused about why they were considered rockstars. Genesis was already up against the wall when the first punk wave hit, but just when Collins entered his elder statesman phase, Oasis was the next generation of punks looking to tear down his more pretentious track record.