Phil Collins shared a candid update about his ongoing health issues on Wednesday and revealed that he requires a live-in nurse to help him take medication and to assist with mobility. The 74-year-old explained the extent of his health problems on BBC's Eras Podcast and admitted how difficult the last several years had been.
"It's an ongoing thing," he said on the show. "I have a 24-hour live-in nurse to make sure I take my medication as I should do. I've had challenges with my knee. I had everything that could go wrong with me, did go wrong with me."
"I got COVID in hospital. My kidneys started to back up. Everything seemed to converge at the same time," Phil continued, before adding that he only has one knee "that works" following five knee surgeries.
© Getty Images"I can walk, albeit with assistance, you know, crutches or whatever," he clarified. The Genesis star admitted that his kidneys were also "messed up" due to "drinking too much" in the past, and shared that he had been sober for two years.
"I enjoyed coming off tour. Coming off the road, I thought, right, I’m gonna do all those things that I couldn't do," he said. "I guess I had too much of it. I was never drunk, although I fell over a couple of times. But it is just one of those things that happened, and it all caught up with me, and I spent months in hospital."
Phil concluded that while it had been "A difficult, interesting, frustrating last few years," it was "all right now". The father of five, whose youngest daughter is Emily in Paris star Lily Collins, added that while he had put down his drumsticks for the final time, he still had some ideas that would bring him back into the studio.
© David Wolff - Patrick"I've got some things that are half-formed or were never finished, and a couple of things that were finished, which I like, so you know. Maybe life in the old dog. Yeah. You'll see," he finished.
See Phil's daughter Lily in action below...
Phil has been open about his ailing health in the past, after suffering a spinal injury in 2007 that caused nerve damage and caused "drop foot", which refers to difficulty lifting the front of the foot when walking, causing it to drag. He also lives with type 2 diabetes.
After the "You'll Be In My Heart" singer could no longer play the drums due to his ailments, his son, Nic Collins, stepped in and replaced him on the drumkit for Genesis' final tour from 2020 to 2022.
© RedfernsThe drums took a physical toll on Phil's body, forcing him to give them up and to hand the reins to Nic. "It's still kind of sinking in a bit…I've spent all my life playing drums. To suddenly not be able to do that is a shock," the British native said in the documentary Phil Collins: Drummer First.
"Drumming has taken its toll on my hands and legs," he continued. "If I can't do what I did as well as I did it, I'd rather relax and not do anything. If I wake up one day and I can hold a pair of drumsticks, then I'll have a crack at it. But I just feel like I've used up my air miles."
