A representative for Phil Collins has assured fans that the 74-year-old music legend is not in hospice care, despite recent rumors.
Instead, the former drummer and frontman of British rock band Genesis is currently in the hospital after undergoing knee surgery, his spokesperson confirmed to The Independent.
Last week, unfounded rumors that the retired musician was on his deathbed went viral online. It’s unclear what sparked them; however, they came months after the eight-time Grammy-winning artist revealed that he was “very sick.”
“I keep thinking I should go downstairs to the studio and see what happens but I’m not hungry for it anymore,” Collins told Mojo magazine in February after his final concert with the group at London’s O2 Arena. The concert was billed as the band’s last ever together and saw Collins say goodbye to his fans.
“The thing is. I’ve been sick, I mean very sick,” he said.
“Phil wasn’t in as great a shape as he used to be, but they did a great job,” founding Genesis member Peter Gabriel added.
Though Gabriel didn’t perform with the rock group, he explained: “Me going was a rite of passage, really. I’d been part of the creation of Genesis, so I wanted to be there at the end.”
Collins announced his retirement from live shows in 2022, after having previously said he can “barely hold a drumstick” following a serious spinal injury in 2007. The injury damaged vertebrae in his upper neck and caused lasting nerve damage.
“I’m kind of physically challenged a bit, which is very frustrating because I’d love to be playing up there with my son,” he said in a September 2021 interview with BBC Breakfast.
Collins’ 24-year-old drummer son, Nic, filled in for his father during Genesis’s final The Last Domino tour in 2021. Nic regularly drums for the band Better Strangers.
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Collins, who has been married three times, is also a father to four other children: actor Joely, 52; drummer Simon, 48; Emily in Paris star Lily, 36; and soccer player Mathew, 20.
He was married to his first wife, Andrea Bertorelli, from 1975 to 1980, followed by his second marriage to Jill Tavelman from 1984 to 1996, and his third wife, Orianne Cevey, from 1999 to 2008.
