Phil Collins once picked his drumming “hero”
From the start of his career, Phil Collins has been known as a student of the drums. Starting with his work in various English rock bands, it wasn’t until his work with Genesis that he became a drum god, playing intricate snare rolls while also pulling off the harmony and later lead singing once Peter Gabriel left the fold. Although Collins could play among the best in the world, there was one drummer who helped him find his true calling.
Before he had even picked up the sticks, Collins had been working in the entertainment world since he was a child. Famously getting a role as an extra in The Beatles’ A Hard Day’s Night, Collins knew that he wanted to be a musician shortly afterwards. While the dream of The Beatles continuing forever may have stalled out, Collins found one of his drumming teachers once he heard Led Zeppelin for the first time.
Forming out of what used to be The Yardbirds, Jimmy Page created one of the biggest supergroups in England, featuring the monstrous John Bonham behind the kit. Coming in alongside singer Robert Plant, ‘Bonzo’ was responsible for the most ferocious percussion attacks of any drummer before him, having a jazz-like sense of rhythm with a caveman level of intensity.
Though Bonham may have laid down the perfect backbeat to every one of Zeppelin’s songs, what Collins took with him to Genesis was a bit of a different beast. While the intensity of Bonham’s playing was still intact, his knack for weaving the most complex chord changes together with his drums made for a spectacle whenever they played live, coupled with Gabriel’s outrageous costumes that he donned onstage.
After crossing paths throughout most of the 1970s, things suddenly came to a standstill before Led Zeppelin went on tour for the album In Through the Out Door. Having been partying the night away at Page’s house, Bonham passed away the next morning due to alcohol poisoning, bringing any hope of a Zeppelin tour to an abrupt halt.
Not wanting to continue the band without Bonham, Led Zeppelin split up, with Robert Plant moving on to a solo career, John Paul Jones keeping busy with session work and a solo career, and Jimmy Page eventually creating The Firm with Bad Company’s Paul Rodgers. Although Plant had trouble coming to grips with his old mate’s death, he admitted that Collins helped him through the troubling time.
Recalling to Vulture, Plant remembered how compassionate Collins was, saying, “He came on tour with me and basically said, ‘Robert, the guy that sat behind you for all those years was my hero’. That was it. He said, ‘Anything I can do to help you to get back into fighting shape again, I’m here’. That was when ‘In the Air Tonight’ came out. Yet he was mixing and working with me while kicking off a particularly impressive and successful time.”
While juggling performing with Plant, his solo career, and occasionally returning to Genesis, Collins would be known for his tireless work ethic at the time. Even after his solo career took off, the drummer still found time to return to Genesis and play in a reunited version of Led Zeppelin at Live Aid. Though Page doubted Collins’s proficiency when it came time to play Bonham’s parts, it was never about measuring up to the legend. It was about doing justice to the drummer who turned Collins’s world inside out.
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