Music legends Phil Collins and Sir Paul McCartney end decade-long feud thanks to charity donation
The pair fell out in 2016 after Collins said Sir Paul talked down to him when he asked the Beatle to sign a book
Music legend Phil Collins has ended his long-standing feud with Sir Paul McCartney.
The two stars fell out in 2016 after Collins said Sir Paul had talked down to him when he asked him to sign a book.
The former Genesis lead musician, now 75, claimed the former Beatle had been condescending towards him due to his status at the time.
But the pair appeared to have buried the hatchet after Sir Paul offered to donate memorabilia to a King’s Trust charity auction organised by Collins.
Collins told The Sunday Times: “We’ve made up, he’s happy about the fact that we discussed it.
“And I’m happy we discussed it, so it was just really lovely that it’s gone full circle now.”
Collins said he had looked up to Sir Paul but changed his views on him when the pair met at an event held at Buckingham Palace in 2002.
He previously told the newspaper: “I met him when I was working at the Buckingham Palace party at the palace thing back in 2002.
“McCartney came up with Heather Mills and I had a first edition of The Beatles by Hunter Davies and I said ‘hey Paul, do you mind signing this for me?’
“And he said ‘oh Heather, our little Phil’s a bit of a Beatles fan.’
“And I thought ‘you f***, you f***. Never forgot it.”
He said: “He has this thing when he’s talking to you, where he makes you feel like ‘I know this must be hard for you, because I’m a Beatle, I’m Paul McCartney and it must be very hard for you to actually be holding a conversation with me.'”
Collins also revealed that his loved ones were told to say their goodbyes while he spent seven months in intensive care.
It came after he started drinking again after several years of sobriety, which resulted in him being rushed to a Swiss hospital in November 2023.
His five children – Joely, 53, Simon, 49, Lily, 37, Nicholas, 25, and Matthew, 18 – were all summoned to his bedside as he lay ill.
He said: “My kidneys were packing up, my organs were just seizing up. People were coming to say goodbye.
“But I don’t remember them coming, I didn’t have no idea this was going on. They were all worried that they wouldn’t see me again. It could all have gone so terribly wrong.”
He admitted to being “very lucky” to make it out of intensive care and said he hasn’t touched alcohol since.