Phil Collins joined Genesis in 1970 as their drummer but five years later, in 1975, when the vocalist Peter Gabriel decided to leave the band he also became the band’s vocalist. It was a turning point in their career since years later their sound became more commercial and took the band to another level of success. Mixing Pop and Progressive Rock, the Genesis era with Collins, Tony Banks and Mike Rutherford was crucial to make them one of the best-selling bands of all time.
In a new documentary called “Phil Collins: Drummers First” (Transcribed by Ultimate Guitar), Collins explained how he ended up becoming the vocalist. He recalled that they auditioned many other singers before.
Phil Collins explains how he ended up becoming Genesis’ vocalist
“I was the one, when Peter left, who said, ‘Let’s do it instrumentally,’ and everybody jeered and told me to shut up and get back in my box. But I can see that they were right.”
“It was not in my mind to become the singer. It was just that nobody else really wanted the job. We had a long search for a singer that didn’t amount to much. I used to sing all the songs to the guys who were coming to audition. And I started, in general, to sound a bit better than they did. My excuse was always, ‘My voice has been there in the background, whether it’s backing vocals or the odd lead vocal here and there,'” Phil Collins said.
His first show as Genesis vocalist was in London, Ontario, Canada back in 1976. At the time the band still wasn’t a trio, since they still had the guitarist Steve Hackett and Mike Rutherford was the bassist. In 1977 Hackett decided to leave the band and Rutherford started to play the guitar live and record both bass and guitar in the studio.
Besides the success with Genesis, Collins also became one of the most successful solo artists of all time, reportedly selling more albums on his own then Genesis.