Credit: Patrick BallsAs he prepares to launch the North American leg of his Not Dead Yet! solo trek, Phil Collins tells Rolling Stone that he’d also be open to a reunion of his old band Genesis, which he last toured with in 2007.
“I wouldn’t say there isn’t not a possibility,” says Collins. “Me, Mike [Rutherford] and Tony [Banks] are pretty close, still. I can’t imagine what it would be like if I didn’t play the drums, but anything is possible.”
As has been widely reported, severe nerve damage issues has made it difficult for Collins to play drums, but he offers a good solution: having his current touring drummer, who happens to be his 17-year-old son Nicholas, fill in for him.
Phil points out that Rutherford and Banks both raved about his son’s drumming after seeing one of Collins’ solo shows in London last summer.
“Mike made the appropriate comment of…’He just gets what is needed and what is required and why you’re doing this for that song,'” Phil tells Rolling Stone. “I thought that was a wonderful thing to say…I think that, yeah, if we did anything I think it would have to be with Nic on drums because I don’t think I’m capable of it.”
He adds, “I think their opinion of Nic is high enough for them to take him onboard as part of the band.”
For Nic’s part, he told Rolling Stone in January 2017 that he’d “be ecstatic” if he were asked to play with Genesis, although he didn’t think another reunion was likely.
Meanwhile, Phil admits that he hasn’t “really said” anything to Banks and Rutherford about his potential idea for a Genesis reunion.
Collins’ solo tour kicks off October 5 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Copyright © 2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
