In Rare Genesis Interview, Phil Collins Says He’s Too Sick To Make New Music, While Peter Gabriel Teases O/I Album

Just before Peter Gabriel left the great British prog band Genesis, that group made the classic double album The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway. In June, Genesis will release a 50th anniversary box set edition of that album, and its members have gotten back together for a rare Mojo interview. That feature includes some big news from both Phil Collins and Peter Gabriel, two Genesis members who went on to become massive solo stars.

Phil Collins almost never does interviews these days. A Drumeo documentary with Collins was released in December, but it was filmed in 2022, and this Mojo story is Collins’ first interview since then. Collins’ health hasn’t been great recently. He suffered nerve damage in a 2007 spinal injury. When Genesis played their farewell tour in 2022, Collins’ son Nic had to take over for him on drums.

Collins hasn’t released any new solo music since 2003, when he made the soundtrack for the Disney movie Brother Bear. Recently, there were reports that Collins was working on his first solo music in 20 years, but that now seems unlikely. Collins tells Mojo, “I keep thinking I should go downstairs to the studio and see what happens. But I’m not hungry for it anymore. The thing is, I’ve been sick. I mean, very sick.”

But Collins’ former bandmate Peter Gabriel is still working. In 2023, Gabriel released i/o, an impressive solo album that came out one track at a time. Gabriel tells Mojo that he’s working on a followup, and he announces its title: “It’ll be called o/i. That’s i/o backwards.” Yeah, Peter Gabriel, we know.

When Genesis played their final show in London a few years ago, Peter Gabriel was in the audience. He tells Mojo, “Phil wasn’t in as great shape as he used to be, but they did a great job. Me going was a rite of passage, really. I’d been part of the creation of Genesis, so I wanted to be there at the end.

Coincidentally, last week Sia covered Peter Gabriel’s debut solo single “Solsbury Hill,” while Kiefer Sutherland covered Collins’ debut solo single “In The Air Tonight.”

The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway (50th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition) is out 6/13 via Rhino.