The one band Phil Collins knew was out of his league: “I went cold”
There didn’t seem to be much that was off the table for Phil Collins once he went solo.
Being a part of Genesis was already going to be a major part of his legacy, but as soon as he started to see what he could on his own, he wasn’t afraid to work with anyone and everyone when he had the chance. But even if he seemed to hold his own next to rock and roll giants, Collins had to admit that there were more than a few musicians that were well beyond anything that he could have played by himself.
Granted, it’s not like Collins knocked it out of the park every single time he made one of his own records. He was the first to say that there are certain records that he doesn’t like to go back to all that often, and even if he had the magic touch when working with people like Eric Clapton or David Crosby, there was no reason for anyone to think that he could have taken on the same mantle as John Bonham in Led Zeppelin.
He was a fish out of water with the legendary hard rockers, but it’s not like Collins wasn’t cut out for the job. The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway features some of the best prog-rock drumming of all time, and even when Collins wasn’t playing with his main band, Brand X was the kind of strange jazz fusion idea that Collins fit right at home with. Jazz was already one of his first loves, and the thought of playing alongside the true fusion legends would have been a dream for him.
Buddy Rich had long been one of his drumming idols, but as far as Genesis is concerned, Collins was a lot more tasteful as to where he put his drum features. He and Chester Thompson worked off each other perfectly when they were playing together, but even if they had a shared brain sometimes when they were onstage, Collins did get a bit of a cold sweat at the thought of working with real jazz technicians.
Some of the biggest names in the genre had been studying under what Rich had done back in the day, and while Collins was definitely a student of that style of drumming, it’s a much different animal than prog rock. Anyone behind the kit needed to be as precise as they could while still locking into the groove, and while Collins was up for the challenge, he did know when to be a bit more careful around the legends.
The gig was supposed to be a Grammys Salute to Jazz, but the thought of getting together with people like Rich was both a dream and a nightmare for Collins when he was handed the sheet music, saying, “The phone call I got said if I would like to play with Tony Williams and Buddy Rich, and I said, ‘Yeah.’ I went into the rehearsal room and there was Buddy and his kit, Tony Williams, Herbie Hancock, BB King, Dizzy Gillespie, Stan Getz. All of these names. The guy handed out music and I went cold, and I thought ‘What do I do with this?’”
Collins was never the kind to transcribe any of his parts traditionally, so half of the time he was trying to keep up with what the rest of the band were doing. And since Rich was only given a bunch of brushes to work with, Collins was the one with the sticks in his hands praying that he didn’t have to look like an absolute fool the first time everyone counted the song in.
While he bravely made his way through the set, Collins walked out of that room with something to be proud of. He didn’t need to embarrass himself in front of his idols, but when looking at the way that he played off of them throughout the night, he could have practically worked with the greatest musicians of all time and held his own after those few minutes on the drum stool.
