Phil Collins Would Have Left Genesis For This Band

Phil Collins would have joined another band and left Genesis before going solo.

Collins entered the music industry after starring in The Beatles' film "A Hard Day's Night" as an extra. He saw the ad regarding Genesis' search for a new guitarist and drummer after Anthony Phillips left the group following the "Trespass" release.

Despite having a more prominent role in Genesis after Peter Gabriel's departure, he admitted in an interview that he would have left his bandmates for another band.

Phil Collins Would Have Joined This Band Instead

Speaking in a previous discussion with The Guardian, the legendary drummer opened up about his love for The Who and how he would have given up his position in Genesis to play with his "heroes."

"Absolutely would have joined The Who. I would have left Genesis to join The Who," he declared. "But they've got a great drummer now in Zak Starkey, he's fantastic. Someone with the balls that Keith Moon had."

While The Who was striving harder to become a more popular band after Moon's death, Collins also started working as a frontman to fill in Gabriel's shoes after the latter left following their "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway."

He left a great impression when he auditioned for Genesis alongside his pal, guitarist Ronnie Caryl. He eventually joined Gabriel, Tony Banks and Mike Rutherford and earned approval from the members immediately.

"Mike also thinks that having auditioned at Gabriel's country house might have given Phil the impression that playing with Genesis would be a nice, relaxing job. In fact, they would spend their lives in the back of a van on the road for the next couple of years," Rutherford continued.

Phil Collins Now

Collins has been out of the spotlight since announcing his retirement during Genesis' O2 Arena Show. At that time, reports about his health surfaced as he told the crowd he wanted to "find a real job."

In his previous interview with "BBC Breakfast," the drummer said he could barely hold a stick after injuring his spinal cord stimulator due to the repeated pressure in his vertebrae caused by the way he drummed over the past decades.

"Somehow, during the last Genesis tour, I dislocated some vertebrae in my upper neck, which affected my hands," he said at that time. "After a successful operation on my neck, my hands still can't function normally. Maybe in a year or so it will change, but for now it is impossible for me to play drums or a piano."

Tags

Phil Collins, The Who, Genesis