The band Phil Collins said was one of the best he ever joined: “One of the highlights of my life”
Phil Collins always wanted to challenge himself when he got behind the drumkit.
It made no sense for him to play the same kind of music whenever Genesis made a new record, but even when he turned into one of the biggest stars in the world during the 1980s, he knew that it was better for him to take chances with other bands whenever he had the chance.
But looking at his career schedule, you’d have to wonder how Collins managed to operate every project he worked on. He had already begun moonlighting in the fusion band Brand X when Peter Gabriel was still in the group, but with Genesis were reaching the highest heights of their career at the same time when ‘Sussudio’ was climbing the charts, there’s still no good confirmation of when Collins actually slept during the decade. With all that on his plate, the drummer still found ways to work on different projects if the opportunity struck him.
And the first order of business was for him to turn to films. He had already been working on soundtrack songs every now and again, but long before Disney came to him saying they needed a few tunes for Tarzan, songs like ‘Against All Odds (Take A Look At Me Now)’ was already climbing the charts a few years before. But even if acting wasn’t his greatest strength, he could still work magic as a producer.
He had already turned in some time on former ABBA frontwoman Frida, but the biggest challenge was going to come from him working with one of his heroes. Eric Clapton had already spent the 1970s as a soft-rock superstar, but after getting clean during the 1980s, Behind the Sun saw Collins both behind the board and behind the drumkit for a number of Clapton’s biggest comeback hits.
A lot of Collins’s songs weren’t nearly as earthy as tracks like ‘Forever Man’ from the same record, but that wasn’t his problem anymore. He was pretty much in heaven performing with one of the kings of British rock and roll, and even after working on the most complex music anyone had thought of in Genesis, Collins could have easily continued to play with Clapton for the rest of his days.
Genesis had already taken a few blows in terms of lineup changes, but Collins knew the chemistry that he had with Clapton’s band was something he wasn’t going to get anywhere else, saying, “Eric Clapton I love as a friend and as a musician. When I played in that band, for instance, that was one of the highlights of my life. It’s one of the best bands I’ve been in, so I get as much enjoyment out of that than when I play with my own band or with Genesis.”
The only real difference comes more from the amount of creative input Collins brings to the table. Writing a hit song is never going to be easy, but when he’s left to his own devices behind the kit with Clapton’s group, he can simply be a drummer and fade into the background as another guy in the band, which wasn’t going to be as common after ‘In the Air Tonight’ became one of the biggest tunes in the world.
So, really, the beauty of Collins playing with Clapton came more from having musicians that you could hang out with musician-to-musician a lot of the time. There was always going to be some weight that came with listening to Phil Collins the solo artist, but Phil Collins the drummer was the kind of lighthearted bandmate that understood what ‘Slowhand’ needed to fit into the age of MTV.
