hoagiepete wrote:Phil Collins is only 58? Geez, would have sworn he was more like 70. Never a big fan, didn't even know he HAD been drumming since his Genesis days. Thought he was out front towards the end of his career.
He was a drummer to begin with---and a VERY highly-rated drummer, at that. He'd been the drummer for Genesis for all of their career when lead singer Peter Gabriel decided to go solo in the mid 70s. After auditioning everyone under the sun, they gave Phil a try, and it worked. From that point on, he was both lead singer and drummer, but necessities involved having a 2nd drummer (usually Chester Thompson) for live shows so Phil could play frontman. He would usually play drums for the instrumental parts, and there were plenty of them with the Genesis songs.
Of course, Genesis eventually abandoned the progressive rock roots and eventually turned pop-rock. Then Phil did a solo career, and pretty much was frontman with a drummer, but went behind the drums for certain songs and a drum solo. Of course, he still did drums on the albums.
The sad part about all of this is that Phil Collins is an excellent drummer, who was always rated very highly in drumming circles. Of course, that fact got lost on people who thought he was only a pop singer.