The legendary singer, songwriter and drummer Phil Collins is one of the few artists in the history of music who were able to sell an estimated amount of more than 100 million records worldwide both as a solo act and as part of a band. He first achieved fame as the drummer in Genesis and after the singer Peter Gabriel decided to leave in 1975, he had the chance to become their vocalist. Obviously, everything started to really change when the group was a trio with Collins, Tony Banks and Mike Rutherford. Because that was when they started to have a more commercial sound. In the 80s, Collins himself became a huge solo artist and the success of his career really went to a whole different level.
Over the decades he talked a lot about many other artists, including the late singer, songwriter and guitarist Tom Petty. Collins even revealed once which is one of his favorite songs from the American artist.
The Tom Petty song that Phil Collins said is one of his favorites
By the time Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers released their self-titled debut album in 1976, Phil Collins was already Genesis‘ vocalist and Rock and Roll was changing a lot. As the British artist revealed in an interview with Ken Bruce in the BBC Radio show Tracks of My Years back in 2016 (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage), he was a fan of Petty for a long time. And one of the songs he chose as one of his favorites was “Learning To Fly”. That track was released on his praised studio album “Into The Great Wide Open”, made with The Heartbreakers. The song was also released as a single at the time. It peaked at number 1 on the United States Mainstream Rock charts.
“I’ve loved Tom Petty’s stuff for a long, long time. He is very cynical, which I kind of understand, you know. It’s very English in some respects. I always loved his work with the Traveling Wilburys. But he has that 12 string thing, it’s just that reminds me a little bit of The Byrds, I think, from the 60s. I just find him very edgy, keeps reinventing himself, big fan,” Phil Collins said.