Phil Collins details heartbreaking reason he couldn’t visit New York home ‘for years’
Phil Collins has opened up about his life for a BBC Radio show (Image: BBC)
Music superstar Phil Collins has revealed why he didn’t travel to the USA for years as he opened up about his life in a chat with Vernon Kay on BBC Radio 2. Phil, 75, was a frequent visitor to America in his heyday and even owns an apartment in the Big Apple, which he purchased in 2006. However, despite shipping all his awards and other items over he confessed he had been unable to visit it until recently.
Speaking to Vernon on his show Tracks of my Years he said: “I just came back from New York but I haven’t been travelling that much. I’ve been to Austria to see my son, Matt, play football, but I haven’t been to the States for years because of sickness and hospital,” he admitted. He added he finally felt up to returning recently and recalimed some of his awards, which were stored there. “I went back just literally last week and when I first bought this apartment, it was around just after the musical Tarzan,” he said. Phil won the Academy Award for Best Original Song for writing and performing the track You’ll Be In My Heart for the 1999 Disney Musical.
We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you’ve consented to and to improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and 3rd parties based on our understanding. You can unsubscribe at any time.
“I figured…they’re going to be calling me for another musical…but they didn’t and nevertheless at the time I shipped all my stuff over, I mean all the awards and things like that because I didn’t have anywhere else [to put them]….” he revealed.
“I brought a couple of things back with me [on this trip], a couple of Golden Globes and the Oscar and one of the Grammys and just took them in my suitcase,” he said.
“…Just a couple of them. I mean, I don’t see them because they’re in New York and I thought, well, I might as well take [them] over…
Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT
“I don’t drool over them. It’s nice to look at them and think oh that’s what your life is,” he reflected.
Phil Collins is Vernon Kay’s latest guest on the hit BBC Radio 2 show Tracks of my Years (Image: BBC)
The retired star has suffered several health setbacks in recent years and in May this year he admitted to BBC Breakfast: “The last 18 months have been fine, but before that, not so good.
Everything health-wise caught up to me at the same time. Whatever could go wrong did go wrong, but everything is fine now.”
The iconic star went on to say: “I had a problem with my knee, which I had for a while, but I played through it – toured through it.
“But eventually, I had to have a knee operation, and I had to have five – five times because it kept either getting infected or it broke, so I was inactive for a long time.”
