Why did Phil Collins leave Genesis?
For those operating from the inside, Peter Gabriel’s departure from Genesis in 1975 was a long time coming. While others observed from the sidelines, knowing that the band’s lineup change was imminent, Phil Collins fell into the role of the lead singer almost by mistake, soon learning that his attempts to switch things up would be met with longstanding resistance.
That said, of all the serendipitous affairs that have occurred in music history, Collins’ inclusion in Genesis seems almost prophetic. While Gabriel established the outfit as one rooted firmly in mystique, Collins established commercial longevity, stroking them with a lasting brush of success even if the slight pivot somewhat tarnished their pre-established reputation.
Collins’ accidental foray into the coveted frontman position wasn’t initially on the cards, but after an arduous and unsuccessful audition process, he and the others felt he was the only one who truly understood the vision enough to deliver it how it was supposed to be delivered. As he reflected in Phil Collins: Drummer First: “It was not in my mind to become the singer; it was just that nobody else really wanted the job. We had a long search for a singer that didn’t amount to much.”
More interesting was Collins’ transition from predominantly drummer to lead singer, which he did for the first time in Ontario in 1976. Armed with the band’s preceding theatricality while using the microphone stand as something to grip onto, he soon fell into the role with ease, embracing his new proximity to the audience with tentativeness before realising that, if Genesis were to continue, it was up to him.
So, why did Phil Collins leave Genesis?
This drive to make them even bigger and better than before also came from Collins’ innate alignment with all of Gabriel’s reasons for leaving: greater creative control. Without Collins, Genesis would have grown stale very quickly, leaving significant room for exploration and improvement. However, this also left Collins with an itch that was becoming increasingly difficult to ignore the longer he left it.
As a result, Collins’ departure from Genesis was somewhat gradual. At first, he started a side project, Brand X, which was designed as an outlet for him to let his creativity run freely with reckless abandon. Genesis, although flexible in many ways, wasn’t always the most rewarding for Collins, and Brand X enabled him to remain in the band while focusing his excess energy elsewhere.
A temporary halt came when Collins temporarily retreated to tend to personal matters, namely his failing marriage, before he returned and the band finally released Duke. However, given that Collins released Face Value the following year, it became clear that his power when channelling his internal turmoil into music fuelled his legacy, ushering him more forcefully into a solo career that would rival everything Genesis had worked for.
The following years saw Collins oscillate between his solo work and Genesis, a balance that seemed to work as he figured out the next phase of his artistic development. However, in 1996, the inevitable happened when it was announced that he was going to leave the band to focus more heavily on his solo career. That said, his commitment to the band spanned far longer than many media outlets anticipated, particularly after the almost immediate success of Face Value, which saw him exhibit a level of authenticity he hadn’t previously within Genesis or other projects.
And as he remained close to Genesis, at least in his unwavering respect and admiration, his name never really detached from their legacy. After all, following Gabriel’s departure, it was Collins’ intuition that enabled them to keep going and become forerunners in an industry that wasn’t yet well-versed with the new era of prog rock.
