He might not be making a musical comeback, but as he prepares to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame next month, Phil Collins has certainly been making his presence felt on the interview circuit.
His latest chat was with Piers Morgan on his Uncensored show. Inevitably, Morgan was keen to hear Collins’ thoughts on fellow Hall of Fame inductees Oasis – Noel Gallagher once referred to Collins as “the antichrist” – and to hear about the former Genesis man’s falling out and subsequent reconciliation with Paul McCartney. However, the pair also got around to discussing Collins’ music, including some of the songs he’s most proud of and one that he has a title for but hasn’t written yet.
As far as the Genesis back catalogue goes, Collins was happy to agree with Morgan that 23-minute 1972 opus Supper’s Ready would be a great introduction to the band for anyone who wants to know what its early iteration was all about.
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While not specifically saying that it’s his favourite Genesis song, Collins did agree that it’s “up there in the top 15, top 20,” and described it as “lots of little songs strung together”.
“It’s got some pieces on it which I still love very much to this day,” he added. “There’s a thing called Apocalypse in 9/8, which is an instrumental thing, and then the end, a very triumphant, very elegant piece of music. Those two pieces are, and they’re joined together in the song, amongst my favourites.”
Turning to his solo work, Collins named 1993’s I’ve Forgotten Everything as a standout. “It was on Both Sides, which was my most personal album, written during a great sorrow,” he recalled. “That song, I remember very distinctly, I’d been to see Harry Connick Jr at the Albert Hall, and he sang a Hoagy Carmichael song, I Get Along Without You Very Well. It’s a beautiful song, and I went back home – I was living on my own because… you know, my divorce, we were separate… and that song just came, and I didn’t even write the words down. I just sang them.”
What about the song he wishes he’d written, though? The answer to that one seemed to come pretty easily to Collins: Mike Reid and Allen Shamblin’s I Can’t Make You Love Me, which was first recorded in 1991 by Bonnie Raitt.
“She had the best version of it,” said Collins.“Bruce Hornsby’s on piano. Beautiful, beautiful piano player. That is my favourite song that I wish I had written. I mean, there’s probably half a dozen Beatles songs I wish I’d written, too, but that.”
I Can’t Make You Love Me is undeniably a modern classic, and has since been covered by the likes of George Michael, Prince, Adele and Bon Iver.
Whether we’ll ever hear Collins’ take on it remains to be seen, but those hoping for new material from him may be disappointed, as he says he no longer writes songs and – now that he’s unable to play – no longer has a drum kit at his house, either.
“I don’t even have a stereo at home,” he told Morgan. “I listen to things on my phone. I don’t listen to music that much at all.”
That said, Collins does the title for one potential new tune: “I’ve got a song that’s waiting to be written called Fat People With Guns, which is about America. I just wrote that phrase down so I don’t forget it. And at some point, I might write a song around it.”
