Philip David Charles Collins (born 30 January 1951) is an English singer, drummer, songwriter, record producer, and actor. He is best known as the drummer and later lead vocalist of the rock band Genesis, and for his highly successful career as a solo artist. Between 1982 and 1990, Collins achieved three UK and seven US number-one singles as a solo performer. His work with Genesis, his solo material, and collaborations with other prominent musicians resulted in more US top-40 singles than any other artist during the 1980s.
Born and raised in West London, Collins began playing drums at age five and completed training at a professional drama school. As a child actor, he secured stage and film roles, most notably playing the Artful Dodger in the West End production of the musical Oliver!. He transitioned fully to a professional music career in 1970 upon joining Genesis as their drummer. Following the departure of original frontman Peter Gabriel in 1975, Collins assumed lead vocal duties for their most commercially successful era, spanning progressive rock into mainstream pop rock until his departure in 1996 to pursue solo projects. He returned for their reunion tours in 2007 and in 2021–2022, their final as a band. Concurrently, he performed as the drummer for the jazz fusion band Brand X (1975–1979) and formed the Phil Collins Big Band in 1996.
Collins launched his solo career with the release of Face Value (1981), an album heavily influenced by his first marital breakdown and a deep affinity for soul music. This was followed by the multi-platinum albums Hello, I Must Be Going! (1982), No Jacket Required (1985), and ...But Seriously (1989), as well as international hit singles such as "In the Air Tonight", "Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now)", "Sussudio", and "Another Day in Paradise". He also became widely recognised for his distinctive "gated reverb" drum sound, which became part of 1980s pop and rock production. Following a five-year hiatus to focus on his family life, Collins returned in 2016 to release his memoir and completed the Not Dead Yet Tour.
One of the world's best-selling music artists, Collins has sold an estimated 150 million records worldwide across his solo and group career. He is one of only three recording artists, along with Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson, to have sold over 100 million albums both as a solo entity and separately as a principal member of a band. His extensive accolades include eight Grammy Awards, six Brit Awards and Ivor Novello Awards, two Golden Globes, and an Academy Award for the music of Disney's Tarzan (1999). Ranked by Rolling Stone as one of the 100 Greatest Drummers of All Time, he was inducted into the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame in 2012. Collins was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Genesis in 2010 and will be inducted as a solo artist in November 2026.
Philip David Charles Collins was born on 30 January 1951 at Putney Hospital in the Metropolitan Borough of Wandsworth, County of London, England. His mother, June Winifred (née Strange, 1913–2011), worked in a toy shop and later as a theatrical agent at the Barbara Speake Stage School, an independent performing arts school, while his father, Greville Philip Austin Collins (1907–1972), was an insurance agent for London Assurance. Collins is the youngest of three children; his sister, Carole, competed as a professional ice skater and followed June's footsteps as a theatrical agent, while his brother, Clive, was a cartoonist. The family had moved twice by the time Collins reached the age of three, settling at 453 Hanworth Road in the Municipal Borough of Brentford and Chiswick.
Collins was given a toy drum kit for Christmas at the age of five, and later, his two uncles made him a makeshift set with triangles and tambourines that fitted into a suitcase. These were followed by more complete sets bought by June and Greville as Collins grew older. Collins practised by playing along to music on the television and radio. During a family holiday at Butlin's, a seven-year-old Collins entered a talent contest, singing "The Ballad of Davy Crockett"; he stopped the orchestra halfway through to tell them they were in the wrong key. The Beatles were a major early influence on him, including their drummer Ringo Starr. Collins followed the lesser-known London band the Action, whose drummer, Roger Powell, he would copy and whose work introduced him to the soul music of Motown and Stax Records. Collins was also influenced by the jazz and big band drummer Buddy Rich, whose opinion on the importance of the hi-hat prompted him to stop using a second bass drum and start using the hi-hat.
Collins received basic piano and music tuition from Greville's aunt at around the age of 12. Collins studied drum rudiments under Lloyd Ryan and later under Frank King, and considered this training "more helpful than anything else because they're used all the time. In any kind of funk or jazz drumming, the rudiments are always there." Collins never learned to read or write musical notation and devised his own system, which he regretted in later life. "I've always felt that if I could hum it, I could play it. For me, that was good enough, but that attitude is bad."
Collins attended Nelson Primary School in Twickenham, Middlesex, until 1962, when he was accepted into Chiswick County Grammar School. There, Collins took to football and formed the Real Thing, a school band that had his future wife Andrea Bertorelli and friend Lavinia Lang as backup singers; both women would have an impact on Collins's personal life in later years. Collins's next group was the Freehold, with whom he wrote his first song, "Lying, Crying, Dying", and played in a group named the Charge. Collins was childhood friends with Jack Wild, who would become famous for playing the Artful Dodger in the musical drama film Oliver! (1968). June spotted Wild when he and Collins were playing football together in the park, and the boys both attended the Barbara Speake Stage School.
1963–1970: Early acting roles and bands
Collins quit school at the age of 14 to become a full-time pupil at Barbara Speake. He had an uncredited part as an extra in the Beatles' film A Hard Day's Night (1964), where he is among the screaming teenagers during the television concert sequence. Later in 1964, Collins was cast as the Artful Dodger in two West End runs of the musical Oliver! He was paid £15 a week, and called the role "the best part for a kid in all London". His days as the Dodger were numbered when his voice broke during a performance and had to speak his lines for the rest of the show. Collins starred in Calamity the Cow (1967), a film produced by the Children's Film Foundation. After a falling out with the director, Collins decided to quit acting to pursue music. He was to appear in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968) as one of the children who storm the castle, but his scene was cut. Collins auditioned for the role of Romeo in Romeo and Juliet (1968), but the role went to Leonard Whiting. In 1967, he travelled the UK teaching people the "crunch" dance made popular by a Smith's crisps advertising campaign.
Collins's enthusiasm for music grew during his acting years. He frequented the Marquee Club on Wardour Street so often that eventually the managers asked him to set out the chairs, sweep the floors, and assist in the cloakroom. It was here where Collins saw the Action and newcomers Yes perform, which greatly influenced him. When auditions for Vinegar Joe and Manfred Mann Chapter Three were unsuccessful, Collins secured a position in the Cliff Charles Blues Band and toured the country. This was followed by a stint in the Gladiators, a backing band for a black vocal quartet, which included Collins's schoolmate Ronnie Caryl on guitar. Around this time, Collins learned that Yes were looking for a new drummer and spoke to frontman Jon Anderson, who invited him to an audition the following week. Collins failed to turn up.
In 1969, Collins and Caryl joined John Walker's backing band for a European tour, which included guitarist Gordon Smith and keyboardist Brian Chatton. The tour finished, and the quartet formed a rock band, Hickory, which recorded one single ("Green Light"/"The Key"). Still in 1969, they were renamed Flaming Youth. They signed to Fontana Records and recorded Ark 2 (1969), a concept album written and produced by Ken Howard and Alan Blaikley that tells the story of man's evacuation from a burning Earth and its voyage into space. Each member sings a lead vocal.