Phil Collins

Philip David Charles Collins, better known as Phil Collins, is an English drummer, singer, songwriter, record producer, and actor. He first gained fame as the drummer of the rock band Genesis before becoming its lead singer and later launching a highly successful solo career. 

As a solo artist, he achieved three UK number-one singles and seven US number-one hits. Throughout the 1980s, his work with Genesis, solo releases, and collaborations with other artists resulted in more US top-40 singles than any other artist of the decade. Some of his most iconic hits from this period include In the Air Tonight, Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now), One More Night, Sussudio, Another Day in Paradise, and I Wish It Would Rain Down.

Collins' discography includes eight studio albums, with 33.5 million certified units sold in the U.S. and an estimated 150 million records worldwide, making him one of the best-selling artists of all time. He is one of only three artists, alongside Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson, to have sold over 100 million records both as a solo artist and as a key member of a band.

In recognition of his contributions to music, he was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1999, inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2003, and joined the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Genesis in 2010. Rolling Stone ranked him 43rd on its list of the 100 Greatest Drummers of All Time, and he was later inducted into the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame in 2012 and the Classic Drummer Hall of Fame in 2013.

Phil Collins's early life laid the foundation for his successful music career.

• Philip David Charles Collins was born on 30 January 1951 at Putney Hospital in what was then the Metropolitan Borough of Wandsworth (now the London Borough of Wandsworth) in south-west London, England.
• He began playing drums at the age of five while also attending drama school, which led to various roles as a child actor.
• He considers the Beatles, and especially Ringo Starr, as a major influence.
• Collins attended Nelson Primary School until the age of 11 before moving on to Chiswick County Grammar School. There, he developed an interest in football and formed a school band called The Real Thing.
• The group featured Andrea Bertorelli, his future wife, and Lavinia Lang as backup singers, both of whom would later play significant roles in his personal life.
• At the age of 12, Collins received basic piano and music lessons from his father's aunt.
• He later studied drum rudiments with Lloyd Ryan and then Frank King, finding this training invaluable, as he believed these techniques were fundamental to his drumming style.
• At 14, Collins quit school to become a full-time pupil at Barbara Speake.
• Collins began his professional music career in 1970 as the drummer for Genesis, a band that had already released two albums at the time.

Phil Collins comes from a working-class family.

• Born to Winifred June (née Strange, 1913–2011) and Greville Philip Austin Collins (1907–1972).
• His mother worked in a toy shop before becoming a booking agent at the Barbara Speake Stage School, a performing arts school in East Acton, while his father was an insurance agent for London Assurance.
• The youngest of three children, Collins grew up with his sister, Carole, who was a professional ice skater and later became a theatrical agent like their mother, and his brother, Clive, who pursued a career as a cartoonist.
• By the time Collins was two years old, the family had moved twice before settling at 453 Hanworth Road in what was then the Municipal Borough of Brentford and Chiswick.
• As a child, Phil Collins was friends with Jack Wild, who later gained fame for portraying the Artful Dodger in the 1968 film Oliver!
• The two first met while playing football in the park, and after Collins’s mother noticed Wild’s potential, they both went on to attend the Barbara Speake Stage School.
• Collins has been divorced three times.
• His first marriage was to Canadian-born Andrea Bertorelli from 1975 to 1980.
• The two first met as 11-year-old students in a London drama class and reconnected in 1974 when Genesis performed in Vancouver.
• They married in England in 1975 at the age of 24. Collins later legally adopted Bertorelli's daughter, Joely (born 1972), who went on to become an actress and film producer.
• The couple also had a son, Simon Collins (born 1976), who became the former vocalist and drummer of the progressive rock band Sound of Contact.
• In 2016, Bertorelli pursued legal action against Collins regarding his depiction of their relationship in his autobiography.
• In 1984, Phil Collins married American Jill Tavelman, with whom he had a daughter, Lily Collins (born 1989), who later became an actress.
• During their marriage, Collins had an affair twice in 1992 with Lavinia Lang, a former drama school classmate, while on tour with Genesis.
• He and Lang had previously been engaged but ended their relationship before marrying.
• In 1994, Collins publicly admitted that he had fallen out of love with Tavelman and filed for divorce, which was finalized in 1996.
• In 1999, Phil Collins married Swiss national Orianne Cevey, who had initially worked as his translator during his 1994 tour when she was 22.
• The couple had two sons, Nicholas and Matthew. Nicholas pursued a career as a professional drummer, while Matthew was an aspiring footballer who played in the youth systems of Bundesliga clubs Hannover 96 and Astoria Walldorf.
• He later joined the youth squad of WSG Tirol and has since played in the club's regional leagues.
• In 2006, Cevey and Collins divorced.
• From 2007 to 2016, Collins was in a relationship with American news anchor Dana Tyler.
• In January 2016, Collins reunited with Cevey, and they lived together in Miami.
• In October 2020, Collins filed an eviction notice against Cevey after she secretly married another man in August.