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Since the end of the Genesis reunion tour “The Last Domino?” He largely withdrew from the public eye at the beginning of 2022 and had to cope with significant health setbacks during this time. Now he has returned for a new interview with journalist Zoe Ball, i.eas will appear on the BBC Eras podcast on January 26th.
In the interview, Collins explains that he has had “a difficult, frustrating few years” caused by five separate knee operations.
“I have a 24-hour nurse who makes sure I take my medications as I should,” he says. “I had problems with my knee…everything that could go wrong, went wrong.”
Years of health setbacks
For the past 15 years, Collins has suffered from severe nerve damage stemming from injuries sustained during the 2007 Genesis reunion tour. Operations to correct these problems resulted in him losing feeling in his fingers and being unable to play drums or hold cutlery properly. In addition, he developed a gait disorder, the so-called foot drop, which meant he could no longer walk without help.
On his last tours, Collins sang sitting down. During this stressful phase, he temporarily resorted to self-medication with alcohol. However, in the new “BBC” interview he reports that he has been sober for two years. “I was never drunk, even though I fell a few times,” he says. “But it just happened and eventually it caught up with me and I spent months in the hospital.”
New confidence and looking forward
In recent photos released along with the interview, Collins appears healthier than he has in years. After recent knee operations, he describes himself as “fully mobile and healthy.” “I can walk,” he says, “albeit with support, i.e. with crutches or something similar.”
Collins is also thinking about returning to the studio. “I’d like to experiment a bit and see if there’s more music,” he explains. “You just have to start to find out if you can do it.”
Collins hasn’t released an album of new original material since 2002’s Testify. His last studio album was the 2010 Motown cover record “Goin’ Back”. However, he toured as a solo artist between 2017 and 2019, accompanied by his son Nic Collins on drums. Genesis finally returned for one final tour together between 2021 and 2022.