Phil Collins has put an end to a quarrel with Paul McCartney that stretched across more than two decades. The Genesis singer detailed the story on Piers Morgan Uncensored on Friday, recalling an encounter at the Queen’s Jubilee Concert at Buckingham Palace in 2002.
Collins had brought along a first edition of a Hunter Davis book on The Beatles, which he had received from Jill, Lily’s mother. He wanted McCartney to sign it during rehearsals. While sitting beside the stage, Collins asked McCartney to sign the book, and he agreed.
Then McCartney turned to his then-wife Heather Mills and said, “He’s a big Beatles fan, is our little Phil?”
Collins said, “I thought, ‘You arsehole.’ I couldn’t help it. That’s just what I thought.” He admitted he made more of the remark than McCartney likely intended, but the moment stayed with him. He later wrote about it in his memoir while promoting it in 2016.
The Road to Reconciliation
After McCartney emailed Collins to resolve the matter, the Genesis musician did not reply. The dispute cooled between the email exchange and the charity-auction call. Then, earlier this year, McCartney heard that Collins was asking fellow musicians for memorabilia to donate to a charity auction he was organising.
McCartney called Collins up. During the conversation, he brought up their disagreement. Collins recalled, “And he said, ‘While we’re on the phone,’ and I thought, oh, here we go. So he said, ‘What is all this about?’ I said, ‘I wish I’d never said it, Paul, I wish I’d never said it’. He said, ‘I thought we were good, you know.'”
“So we kissed and made up,” Collins concluded. “I said I was sorry… Obviously this had been bugging him because he likes to be liked, as we all do, you know, and maybe him more than some other people. But we all like to be liked. And I understand that. And we kissed and made up.”
What Happened Next
In August, Collins spoke to the Sunday Times about his near-fatal battle with alcoholism. He said he was first admitted to a Swiss hospital in connection with his alcohol use in November 2023. He was initially discharged before Christmas but was readmitted a few weeks later and placed into intensive care, where he lay unconscious.
The artist ultimately spent seven months in the hospital recovering. “I was very lucky to have come out of that,” Phil told the Sunday Times.
| Event | Date |
|---|---|
| Book signing incident | 2002 |
| Memoir promotion | 2016 |
| Email exchange | Not specified |
| Charity auction call | Earlier this year |
| Sunday Times interview | August |
The story carries a plain lesson. Collins carried the grievance for years, even writing about it in his book. What finally ended it was not a public statement or a press conference but a phone call about a charity auction. McCartney called to organise something practical, and the quarrel dissolved in the middle of it.
This is a story about pride and forgiveness, told in the plainest possible terms. McCartney wanted the matter settled, and Collins wanted the matter settled.
The key facts break down like this:
- Collins was admitted to a Swiss hospital in November 2023
- He was initially discharged before Christmas
- He was readmitted a few weeks later
- He spent seven months in intensive care
The timeline shows a sequence of events that led from a snub in 2002 to a reconciliation call earlier this year.
Source material: “Phil Collins Says He ‘Kissed and Made Up’ With Paul McCartney After Snub From Decades Ago,” Rolling Stone.
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