Phil Collins revealed that he’s under 24-hour care due to ongoing health issues.
The “You’ll Be in My Heart” singer, 74, gave the grim health update on Monday’s episode of the “BBC Eras” podcast.
“I have a 24-hour live-in nurse to make sure I take my medication as I should do,” Collins told host Zoe Ball. “I’ve had challenges with my knee… I had everything that could go wrong with me, did go wrong with me.”
The music icon confirmed that he’s undergone five knee surgeries and has only one knee “that works.”
“I can walk, albeit with assistance, you know, crutches or whatever,” he added.
Collins, who is two years sober and retired from touring in March 2022, also admitted that his heavy drinking affected his health.
“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 shared. “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.”
“It’s just been a difficult, interesting, frustrating last few years,” Collins admitted. “But it’s all right now.”
Collins has drop-foot, a condition that left him with no sensation in one of his feet. He has used a cane to walk since 2015 after undergoing a spinal procedure.
The Genesis drummer stepped away from performing four years ago due to lingering effects of a spinal injury from 2007.
Collins’ final show was on March 26, 2022 at London’s O2 Arena on Genesis’ The Last Domino? Tour. He performed the show sitting down and his son Nic, 24, took over on the drums.
Last July, Collins’ rep shut down the rumor that the singer was in hospice care after he underwent knee surgery.
Five months earlier, Collin told MOJO magazine that he was “very sick.”
“I keep thinking I should go downstairs to the studio and see what happens. But I’m not hungry for it anymore,” the Grammy Award winner added.
Collins also opened up about his health issues and how they’ve affected his drumming ability in his 2024 documentary “Phil Collins: Drummer First.”
“I’ve spent all my life playing drums. To suddenly not be able to do that is a shock,” he said. “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.”
