Phil Collins: I’ve ended feud with McCartney
Phil Collins: I’ve ended feud with McCartney
Cameron HendersonSun, August 2, 2026 at 2:00 PM UTC
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Phil Collins and Sir Paul McCartney fell out in 2016 - Richard Young/Shutterstock
Phil Collins has ended a decade-long feud with Sir Paul McCartney.
The two rock stars fell out in 2016 after Collins, 75, claimed Sir Paul, 84, talked down to him years earlier when the younger performer asked the former Beatle to sign a book.
The singer and drummer said shortly afterwards that Sir Paul was “upset” by his comments and had been in touch to say: “Let’s just get on with our lives.”
However, the two musicians appear to have buried the hatchet after Sir Paul offered to donate memorabilia to a charity auction organised by Collins.
“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 told The Sunday Times magazine.
‘He has this thing when he’s talking to you...’
The eight-time Grammy winner first revealed his antipathy for McCartney, who he once considered his hero, in a 2016 interview with the Sunday Times.
Collins said: “He has this thing when he’s talking to you, where he makes you feel …[putting on a condescending Scouse accent] ‘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.’”
The pair had first crossed paths in 1964 when Collins, still only a child, won a part as an extra in the Beatles film A Hard Day’s Night.
From the left: Elton John, Mark Knopfler, Sir George Martin, Paul McCartney, Eric Clapton and Phil Collins in 1997 - DTIJ/ON 2 Montserrat Concert
The former Genesis drummer said he was forced to re-evaluate his idol when they met at an event held at Buckingham Palace years later.
“I met him when I was working at the Buckingham Palace party at the palace thing back in 2002,” he previously told The Sunday Times.
“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.”
In an interview shortly afterwards, Collins claimed his account had caught the attention of Sir Paul, who responded by email.
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“He’s been in touch about it because he was upset. I certainly didn’t get any flowers from him; I got more of a ‘Let’s just get on with our lives,’” Collins told Billboard.
“And I’m sorry he’s upset that I kinda said something nasty about him – well, it wasn’t really nasty. If people don’t tell people that sometimes their attitude could be a bit better then you’re not gonna get any better, y’know?”
Phil Collins performing with Genesis in Nanterre in 2022 - Thomas Coex/AFP
Addressing the fallout this week, Collins said the rock icon had accused him of being “sacrosanct”.
According to Collins, Sir Paul emailed him in 2016, “saying ‘I’m a bit disappointed’, blah blah. He said don’t be so … ‘sacrosanct’ was the word he used. I’m not sure what that means, but anyway it kind of left a bad taste in my mouth and obviously left a bad taste in his.”
However, the singer recently contacted Sir Paul to ask him and other artists to donate memorabilia to a King’s Trust charity auction taking place in Los Angeles in November.
‘I wish I hadn’t said it’
Sir Paul allegedly called to say he would donate and delicately brought up the subject of their fallout.
“I knew where it was going, and said, ‘Thank God you’ve brought it up’. Because he’s part of my life, you know?” he told The Sunday Times Magazine. “And I wish I hadn’t said it, although it did happen.”
Collins is one of only three artists to have sold more than 100 million records as a band member and soloist.
Since joining Genesis in 1970, the drummer turned singer has made 10 No 1 albums, and won six Brits, two Golden Globes and an Oscar.
Elsewhere, Collins opened up about his near-death experience in 2024 after a bout of alcoholism left him with scarring on his pancreas and permanently damaged kidneys.
The father of five first retired in 2008 and has made two comebacks since. However, he can no longer hold a drumstick, owing to nerve damage, suffers from Type 2 diabetes and uses crutches to walk following numerous spine and knee surgeries.
He said he has also made up with his daughter, Lily Collins, who stars in Netflix drama Emily in Paris, after she wrote an open letter to him in her 2017 memoir describing the “sadness and anger” she felt towards him.
Collins said: “I was quite shocked and a little bit sad. But she’s told me why now, and she takes it all back. She wished she’d never done it. I have a wonderful relationship with Lily now. So everything has a happy ending, most of the time.”
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
