Phil Collins believes Taylor Swift “deserves” to be the “hugest thing in the world”.
The In the Air Tonight hitmaker will never forget being “blown away completely” when he saw the Shake it Off singer perform for the first time back in 2010 and he is “so pleased” she has gone on to such great things with her career.
Speaking to Vernon Kay on BBC Radio 2’s Tracks of My Years, he explained why he had chosen Taylor’s song White Horse: “I was at an event, Songwriters Hall of Fame. This was way, way back. And Taylor Swift, I met her.
“And [my daughter] Lily introduced me, funnily enough, because she knew her. And I met her and I’d kind of known the name, but she wasn’t anywhere near the star she is today.
“This very nice lady then got up on stage with a guitar and sang White Horse, and it blew me away completely because not only was the song great, and the sentiment of the song really got me, but she sang it beautifully. And it was just so simple, you know, her on a guitar.
“I’ve always had a soft spot for this song since then and I’m so pleased that she’s the hugest thing in the world now because she kind of feels like she deserves it.
“I mean it’s easy to knock someone that’s got so much success, but I think she really deserves it.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Phil revealed his most famous single, In The Air Tonight, was largely improvised.
He said: “I suppose a lot of my lyrics come from somewhere. I very rarely sit down and think, what am I going to write about? I don’t ever do that.
“Normally, if I’m playing, something usually comes when I’m playing a piano and something will develop if I’m lucky and then what I’m going to sing comes along very soon afterwards.
“You only need a couple of lines, two or three lines, and you kind of know what it’s going to be about or what the feeling is, you know. And so a lot of the lyrics are kind of improvised. The classic example of that would be In The Air Tonight, which was pretty much 80% improvised.
“I had this chord sound on this keyboard that I had, Prophet-5 was the keyboard and I had this lovely sound which is the sound you hear on the record. It is the version of when I first kind of wrote it on the record.
“I mean I might have done it once or twice but I certainly didn’t labour on it…
“That’s why I was thinking of craft. It’s not crafting. That’s the scenario of luck, you know, and good fortune.”
Listen exclusively to Phil Collins on Tracks Of My Years on BBC Sounds and watch on Radio 2’s YouTube channel and BBC iPlayer now. And listen from 3-7 August on Vernon Kay’s weekday morning show (9.30am – 12 noon).