Phil Collins has had a rough go of it lately, with a number of health problems preventing the “In The Air Tonight” legend from performing or even playing the drums he is so well-known for. However, Collins recently got to feel what it was like to play his iconic Gretsch tom kit again for the first time in over 10 years in a new video from Drumeo.
The 73-year-old Genesis icon has struggled with his physical health since around 2007, when he suffered a serious spinal injury. As a result of the injury, he has struggled with a symptom known as drop foot, which makes it difficult to lift the front part of the foot. He also suffers from chronic neck tenderness, a common symptom experienced by drummers. Naturally, his injuries have made it difficult to play the drums.
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Phil Collins Briefly Tests Out His Old Drum Kit in New Drumeo Documentary
Drumeo sat down with Collins for his new documentary, Phil Collins: Drummer First. The doc details Collins’ history as one of the most legendary drummers of his generation and also gets honest about Collins’ physical limits and how he has coped with them. The bulk of the doc features Collins and his similarly musical son, Better Strangers drummer Nic Collins.
Drumeo posted a clip from the documentary, which shows Nic Collins and Drumeo host Brandon Toews attempting to put together Collins’ long-stored drum kit. The kit is a pretty famous one that Collins used during his legendary 1992 We Can’t Dance Tour with Genesis.
After putting the kit together, Nic is the one to test it out first. He does a solid job at testing the kit out, going as far as to play the famous drum fill from Collins’ hit 1981 song “In The Air Tonight”. However, it is worth noting that this particular kit is not the one Collins played in the original recording of the hit song.
Nic noted in the video that the position of the drums required his father to lean forward in order to play properly. This, he hypothesized, is what led to Collins’ poor posture and neck pain in his later years.
Toward the last few minutes of the video clip, Collins approaches his old drum kit and sits behind it. He gives the drums a few testing taps before saying “That’s enough of that” and getting back up.
You can watch the entirety of Drumeo’s documentary Phil Collins: Drummer First via YouTube:
Photo by David Wolff-Patrick/Redferns)
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