Gustavo Caballero/Getty ImagesAfter several years of retirement, Phil Collins is slowly making his way back into the spotlight — he’ll perform later this month at the kickoff of the U.S. Open tennis tournament, for example. But the former Genesis frontman will be shining a light on his personal life this October, when he releases his autobiography.
Phil tells The New York Times that the book, titled Not Dead Yet, will detail his three failed marriages, as well as the drinking problem he developed after he split with his third wife and retired. “I was left with this huge void. I didn’t want to work because I wanted to be with the kids, but the kids weren’t there anymore,” Phil tells the Times.
“You start drinking, and then you start drinking too much. Then it physically hurts you,” he adds. “I came very close to dying at that point. I’m being honest about that.”
Phil’s also honest about the physical ailments that have kept him from making music the past few years. His right foot is numb as a result of back surgery, and his left hand is affected by nerve problems that keep him from playing the drums. However, he’s determined to make new music.
“I’ve got a little studio…and at some point, I will turn it on and start fooling around,” he tells The Times. “That day is getting closer. I think about it a lot — I’ve got a lot of lyrical ideas, but I keep putting it off.”
In his absence, Phil’s solo work has been reissued, and is now being critically re-evaluated. Formerly a “whipping boy for the ’80s,” as he puts it, the singer says it’s “fantastic” that after the reissues came out, “people were able to say, ‘I re-looked at this, and it’s better than I thought.’”
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