Genesis

August 1970. Peter Gabriel picks up the phone and calls a young drummer he'd just met: "Hello, Phil? It's Peter Gabriel, from Genesis. The spot's yours, if you want it." At the time, the English band had found themselves without a drummer following the departure of John Mayhew, the third to leave the lineup after Jonathan Silver and Chris Stewart. Determined to find a replacement, Genesis organised a series of auditions. It was on that very occasion that they met Phil Collins. The English musician himself told the story during an interview on Ultimate Classic Rock Nights.

Collins met the rest of the band at the London office of Tony Stratton-Smith, manager and patron of Charisma Records. He would later recall with a touch of irony: "The meeting went really well. What struck me most was finding out that Genesis had a weekly wage of ten pounds: basically double what I was used to."

At the time, Collins was used to going to countless auditions, almost all of them unsuccessful. Ironically, the one with Genesis was probably the one he prepared for the least, yet it proved decisive. "I'd never listened to Genesis," he admitted, "I'd only heard about them."

Before rehearsals resumed at the end of August, Genesis took a two-week break. Collins, waiting it out and short on cash, reinvented himself as a house painter. The auditions were held at the farm belonging to Peter Gabriel's parents, on a gorgeous sunny day. There were plenty of candidates, and while waiting for his turn, Collins spotted the estate's swimming pool. It was Gabriel himself who suggested he take a dip while he waited. "So I went for a swim," Phil recalled, "and in the meantime I listened to the songs the others were playing. That's how I learned the songs without even realising it. When my turn came, I sat down behind the drums feeling confident: I already knew the songs, and the audition went great. And that's how I got the job!"

That seemingly trivial dip in the pool ended up changing the course of one of the most important bands in rock history. Gabriel himself acknowledged the newcomer's immediate impact: "Something clearly changed when Phil joined. He was a real drummer, he had a presence and a touch we'd never had before."

From that moment on, Genesis began their metamorphosis: a path that would, within a few years, turn them into an essential landmark of progressive rock and, later, one of the most popular bands in the world.

A documentary running roughly two hours, entirely dedicated to Phil Collins, was recently released on the drummers' channel Drumeo. Collins is currently dealing with the health issues that forced him into a definitive stop of his professional career. At the heart of the film, titled "Phil Collins: Drummer First", is an interview originally recorded in 2022, the year in which – after an extraordinary 50-year career of touring and recording – the former Genesis drummer announced his retirement from the stage following the band's final show in London.

The footage was shot at Château de l'Aile in Switzerland, Phil Collins's home, where he tells his son Nic – who took his place during the band's last Genesis live shows – many previously unheard details about his career and the gear he used.

From the groundbreaking work with Genesis to the pop hits of his solo career, the two Collins trace the story of one of the greatest drummers of all time. Along the way, countless fellow musicians share how Phil Collins's music influenced them, regardless of genre. From Chad Smith to Mike Portnoy, from Matt Cameron to Eloy Casagrande and Billy Cobham, many are on hand to explain Collins's impact on their music and creativity.

Watch the documentary "Phil Collins: Drummer First" below.

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10/02/2026