Phil Collins Hospitalized After Sustaining ‘Severe Gash’ in Hotel Bathroom Fall, Postpones Concert Dates
Phil Collins’s comeback tour has been halted just days after it began.
The 66-year-old singer and drummer, who kicked off his “Not Dead Yet” tour on June 2 (his first in over a decade), has been hospitalized after suffering a fall in his hotel bathroom. Collins, who walks with a cane, has a “severe gash” on his head — near his eye — and is being held for observation, according to his team.
“We unfortunately have to announce that Phil Collins’ performance at the Royal Albert Hall in London will be postponed tonight (June 8) and tomorrow (June 9),” read a statement on his Facebook page on Thursday. “Phil suffers from ‘drop foot’ as a result of a back operation which makes it difficult to walk. He rose in the middle of the night to go to the toilet and slipped in his hotel room, hitting his head in the fall on a chair. He was taken to hospital where he had stitches for a severe gash on his head close to his eye and is recovering well. He will be kept under observation for 24 hours.”
Collins is expected to return to the stage on Sunday, when he begins a five-day run in Cologne, Germany.
The legendary singer has dealt with health problems over the years, but a 2015 operation added to his troubles. In October, he told NME, “I had back surgery a year ago, I’d messed my hips up as well. That was a year ago and as of now I have a dropped foot, which means I have no feeling in it. I walk with a cane, but I’m hoping that gets better.” (It doesn’t seem that it has, as he has been performing seated during his shows.)
Collins, who retired from music in 2011, has been pumped up about his comeback tour, which features his 16-year-old son, Nicholas, on drums. In a recent interview with ABC News, he said that his youngest children were the ones who encouraged him to go on the road again.
“They were very, very keen,” the singer said of Nic and Matthew, his children with Orianne Cevey, whom he divorced in 2008 but has since reconciled with. “When … I was taking them to school, they’d always wanna hear ‘dad’s music,’ be it Genesis Live or a live CD that I had in my car of my ‘First Final [Farewell]’ tour. They’re always saying, ‘Oh, when you gonna go out again, Dad? When you gonna write some new songs?’ And I started to think, ‘Why aren’t I doing it?’”
Collins, who is also dad to actress Lily Collins, only has concert dates abroad — Liverpool, London, Cologne, Paris, and Dublin — during his brief run, and the tour was scheduled to wrap by June 30. However, now he’s rescheduled his two canceled London dates for November over the Thanksgiving holiday (perhaps to allow for Nic’s school schedule).
Here’s wishing him a speedy recovery so he can get back onstage and “Sussudio” again soon.
Read more from Yahoo Celebrity:
