The unpleasant experience Phil Collins had with Paul McCartney

The Genesis drummer and singer Phil Collins is a really huge fan of The Beatles and always shared his love for the band. They influenced him a lot and when he was young he even had the chance to be part of the crowd of their famous movie “A Hard Day’s Night” and a few years later he also was part of the recording sessions of George Harrison’s “All Things Must Pass”, although he wasn’t part of the final cut of the album. But he at least had the chance to share the stage with George Harrison, Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney in the following decades. So his relation with The Beatles really comes from before he even became a musician.

However, he didn’t have a pleasant experience with Paul McCartney once as he recalled in an interview with The Sunday Times back in 2016. That happened in 2002 when they were at Buckingham Palace.

The unpleasant experience Phil Collins had with Paul McCartney

“I met him when I was working at the Buckingham Palace party back in 2002. McCartney came up with (his then-wife) Heather Mills and I had a first edition of The Beatles, by Hunter Davies. I said, ‘Hey, Paul, do you mind signing this for me?’ And he said, ‘Oh, Heather, our little Phil’s a bit of a Beatles fan.’ And I thought, ‘You fuck, you fuck.’ Never forgot it.”

“McCartney was one of my heroes. But he has this thing when he’s talking to you, where he makes you feel (like), ‘I know this must be hard for you because I’m a Beatle. I’m Paul McCartney and it must be very hard for you to actually be holding a conversation with me,'” Phil Collins said.

Paul McCartney sent him an email after he read that interview

In an interview in the same year with Billboard, Phil Collins revealed that Paul McCartney e-mailed him after reading what he said. According to the Genesis member, the Beatle kind of asked them to just move on with their lives and not talk about that anymore.

“I’m afraid it happened, you know. I’m afraid it affected me the way it did and I’m afraid I wrote about it. I think maybe I should just brush it under the carpet and forget about it and move on. But it did happen.”

“He’s been in touch about it because he was upset. I certainly didn’t get any flowers from him. I got more of a ‘Let’s just get on with our lives.’ And I’m sorry he’s upset that I kinda said something nasty about him. Well, it wasn’t really nasty. If people don’t tell people that sometimes their attitude could be a bit better then you’re not gonna get any better, y’know?” Phil Collins said.

Curiously, there are only three musicians in the world who sold an estimated amount of more than 100 million records both as part of a band and as a solo artist. Phil Collins and Paul McCartney are on that list alongside Michael Jackson.