So Phill Collins, the epic musician who followed me around one summer (long story), has apparently got some skeletons in his closet, much like everyone else.
Collins, who has kind of remained out of the spotlight for awhile, has come forward to discuss something important to him, and something that he’s battled with off and on for the past few years: depression. The Genesis singer/drummer sat down recently with Rolling Stone magazine and claimed that suicide was not out of the question during his darkest days, and who knows, it still might not be.
On the topic of suicide and how it applies to his everyday life:
“I wouldn’t blow my head off. I’d overdose or do something that didn’t hurt. But I wouldn’t do that to the children. A comedian who committed suicide in the Sixties left a note saying, ‘Too many things went wrong too often.’ I often think about that.”
On a series of photos depicting ‘orbs’ which were taken at the Alamo, and becoming spiritual and supernatural these days:
“It’s paranormal energy,” he explains, nothing that a psychic recently told him he fought at the fort in a previous lifetime. “I don’t want to sound like a weirdo. I’m not Shirley MacLaine, but I’m prepared to believe. You’ve seen the pictures. You can’t deny them, so therefore it’s possible that I was there in another life.”
On the injury that left him unable to drum, or even sometimes use his hands for basic things (like wiping his backside in the bathroom, as the original Rolling Stone article quips):
“I was going to stop drumming anyway,” he says. “I had stopped. I don’t miss it.”
Collins, who left the spotlight over ten years ago when his last album dropped, lives in Switzerland with his two sons. Scary. I’m kind of worried about this guy. He sounds sort of out there, and desperate to retain some kind of happiness, as we all are … but old Phil just isn’t sounding that great.
Genesis just did a worldwide tour 2 years ago. Which included Phil Collins drumming for about half the show.
I’m not quite sure where you come up with him dropping out of sight 10 years ago.
Phil, I am your age and have some heavy-duty depression myself, and with all these fairly well-known people dying of overdoses and/or committing suicide, it’s very difficult sometimes to maintain a clear head and NOT think about those things, especially when you’re alone and everything is quiet. I keep myself busy with TV, the internet and “making” things to try and shut off the depression, but it IS very hard. I wish someone could get to Phil and tell him to talk to friends, get a hobby, pray, to whomever, but don’t give up and let the depression win. It’s much harder to live life than it is to give up and “go to sleep”, but I know Mr. Collins is strong, and he can LIVE. And he cannot do that to his children; they will never get over it, and perhaps, never forgive him.
Isn’t it funny how people who believe they’ve led “previous lives” never led dull, boring ones? “I fought at the Alamo”, “I was an Egyptian princess”, etc. and so on. No one was ever, say, a shoe cobbler in Denmark or a blacksmith’s assistant in Kansas City. And the “orbs” thing…LOL, uh yeah, right, sure thing.
Good point. Next time I’m trying to convince someone that I lived a previous life I’m going to tell them I was a shoe cobbler in Denmark. As for Phil he’s just depressed because he was once young and had the world at this feet and now he doesn’t. The best thing that ever happened to me was having to go to hospital a few years ago for an operation and when I was recovering my wife came in with my two sons and I felt sad because all I wanted was to be well enough to play with them. Then I got to thinking that one day I’ll be old and my kids will be grown up and I’ll look back on this time in my life and wish I could go back to it. Seeing my life that way keeps me grateful.
I feel sorry for Phil collins going through the awful pain of depression. Isuffer from depression also and can sympathise with Phil’s feelings of having days when i think iwish i wouldn.t wake up.i just wish i could give him a hug and make thesefeelings disapear.
I feel sorry for Phil collins going through the awful pain of depression. Isuffer from depression also and can sympathise with Phil’s feelings of having days when i think iwish i wouldn.t wake up.i just wish i could give him a hug and make thesefeelings disapear.