Phil Collins is happy to have “kissed and made up” with Sir Paul McCartney.
The In the Air Tonight hitmaker fell out with the Beatles legend 24 years ago and he’s admitted that the feud began after he overreacted to a casual remark made by the Hey Jude singer at rehearsals for the Queen’s Golden Jubilee concert in 2002.
In an interview with Piers Morgan, Phil, 75, said: “It was the Queen’s Golden Jubilee concert at Buckingham Palace. I was the house drummer for everybody except McCartney and Brian Wilson, who had their own bands. I loved it, I was like a pig in s***! We rehearsed for two weeks.
“I had a rare first-edition Hunter Davies Beatles biography given to me by Jill, Lily’s mum, and I took it to the rehearsal so Paul could sign it. I was sitting on the side of the stage, and Paul came up with Heather Mills. I said, ‘Paul, could you sign this?’
“He said, ‘Oh yeah, yeah.’ And he probably didn’t mean it like it sounded, but he said, ‘He’s a big Beatle fan, is our little Phil.’ And I thought, ‘You a***hole…’ I couldn’t help it; that’s what I thought. I felt patronised…”
Phil had written about the incident in his 2016 memoir Not Dead Yet and Paul subsequently got in touch, but he ignored his message, only for the subject to come up between them again recently.
He added: “I wrote about it in my book. Then a journalist brought that quote up to Paul, and Paul sent me an email saying it was a bit sanctimonious, which I didn’t reply to. Years went by, with videos on YouTube asking, ‘Why does Paul McCartney hate Phil Collins?’
“A month or two ago, Paul asked my office for my number. He called me because I had written letters to everyone I’d ever played with asking for donations for the King’s Trust charity auction in November. On the phone, he said, ‘What is all this about?’
“I said, ‘I wish I’d never said it, Paul. I wish I’d never said it.’ So we kissed and made up. I said I was sorry.”
However, the former Genesis star couldn’t resist another dig at the Hey Jude hitmaker.
He added: “I said I was sorry.
“Obviously this had been bugging him because he likes to be liked, as we all do … maybe him more than some other people. But we all like to be liked, and I understand that.”
Piers asked if Paul saying the word “little” had been what upset him, and Phil confirmed it was.