How Phil Collins saved David Crosby’s life: “He is a dear friend”
If you’d just woken up from a life-saving surgery and Phil Collins was the first face you saw, would you believe you’d been granted a second chance or had gone to hell?
That is a joke, obviously, before anyone comes for my neck, there is no personal vendetta against Collins here, despite the sizeable swathes of the world who might argue to the contrary, and deep down, putting some of his undisputed musical abominations to one side, he seems truly like one of life’s good guys.
Nothing better proves that statement than the story of what he did for David Crosby. No, he didn’t allow him to ride on his coattails for some rubbish collaboration, or even give him a loan of some cash. He genuinely saved the man’s life, giving him a second wind at life for not just a short time, but another three decades before he died.
The pair had been working together in the early 1990s, with the lead track ‘Hero’ from his 1993 album Thousand Roads having been co-written by Collins. But while the partnership could have been left as nothing more than a purely professional project, the pair clearly got under each other’s skin in some way.
This was due to the fact that, when Crosby had to undergo a liver transplant the following year, Collins was the first to step up to the plate. Don’t worry, not literally – sacrificing his life to give one of his organs over to his musical idol might have been a bit extreme – but he still seemed to help the CSNY singer in an unmatched way to anyone else.
While not making an attempt to taint the genuinely selfless act, it was clear that the standard healthcare waiting list was not a barrier here. He understandably didn’t want to divulge all the intimate details, but Crosby made his thanks evident when he told The Guardian in 2014: “Phil Collins did help me enormously. I’m not going to get into the specifics about how; it’s nobody else’s business but mine and Phil’s. But he did help me tremendously, and he is a dear friend.”
After years of battling against the effects of hepatitis C, as well as his drug and alcohol addictions, the toll of all of this combined had patently wreaked havoc on the state of Crosby’s health. The prospect of being granted a second chance at life, potentially with some form of helping hand from Collins, is a chance that anyone would jump at.
In the end, when Crosby did eventually pass away, aged 81, in 2023, he went to his deathbed with the satisfaction of knowing he had lived a truly fulfilling life, all thanks to the fresh liver he received the best part of 30 years prior, and that extra time allowed him to keep creating his own projects, form his new trio CPR, and continue fighting with CSNY… There was too much he could have missed.
Jokes aside, whatever act of kindness Collins did for Crosby, it was one that proved vital and extremely generous to a man looking to extend the life of his friend. There’s not many people who would have the humility – or the cash – to put their necks out on the line like that. Take that, Collins haters: bet you couldn’t match that one, could you?
