Phil Collins Reconciles With Paul McCartney — SkimNews
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- Phil Collins said on Piers Morgan Uncensored on Friday that he and Paul McCartney ended a 20+ year feud during a phone call earlier this year, after McCartney called about memorabilia for a King's Trust charity auction Collins was organizing.
- The original slight occurred at the 2002 Queen's Jubilee Concert at Buckingham Palace, when Collins asked McCartney to sign a rare first-edition Hunter Davis Beatles book — given to him by 'Jill, Lily's mum' — and McCartney obliged but remarked to then-wife Heather Mills, 'He's a big Beatles fan, is our little Phil?'
- Collins first aired the story in a 2016 Sunday Times interview promoting his memoir, and initially did not reply when McCartney emailed him to address the grievance.
- On the reconciling call, Collins told McCartney, 'I wish I'd never said it, Paul, I wish I'd never said it,' and McCartney responded, 'I thought we were good, you know' — Collins said they 'kissed and made up.'
- In a separate August interview with The Sunday Times, Collins revealed he nearly died in 2024 amid alcohol addiction, spending seven months hospitalized after being admitted to a Swiss clinic in November 2023 and placed in intensive care.
- Collins said of the ordeal: 'I was very lucky to have come out of that. Needless to say, I haven't had a drink since.'
Why it matters: Collins aired the grudge publicly during his 2016 memoir push, and McCartney tried to settle it then via email — but the rift didn't actually close until a phone call about a King's Trust charity auction earlier this year. The reconciliation also surfaces Collins's separate August disclosure that he nearly died in 2024 from alcohol addiction, which retroactively reframes the memoir-era candor as something he wrote while still drinking.
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