Phil Collins has been dealing with health issues for years, but in a new interview with the U.K.’s The Times, he reveals just how bad things got.
The 75-year-old Collins, who has a history of alcohol abuse, tells the paper that in November 2023 he was hospitalized in Switzerland because of his drinking. While he was discharged just before Christmas, a few weeks later he found himself back in the hospital, where he was unconscious in the ICU.
“My kidneys were packing up, my organs were just seizing up,” he says. “People were coming to say goodbye. But I don’t remember them coming. I didn’t have no idea this was going on. They were all worried that they wouldn’t see me again. It could all have gone so terribly wrong.”
Among those people who came to say goodbye were his five children, with Collins noting, “There were some decisions to be made about ‘Do we keep Phil on life support?’ kind of thing.”
Collins wound up spending seven months in the hospital.
“I was very lucky to have come out of that,” he says. “Needless to say, I haven’t had a drink since.”
Collins also discussed his often rocky love life in the interview. Despite three marriages ending in divorce, it sounds like he’d like to find someone to share his life with again.
“I’d love to be in love again,” he tells the paper. “I would love a relationship. Kissing somebody, for example. You know, pretty basic stuff.”
But he doesn’t sound too hopeful that it would happen.
“I think it’s probably too late for that,” he says. “I’m not a very social person. I don’t, you know, I don’t go out.”
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