Mar 15, 2016
Phil Collins retired from the music industry five years ago, disappearing into his Swiss chalet and vowing to fade into relative obscurity.
However, the Englishman has recently returned renewed and with a new wife (actually his previous third ex-wife) in tow. His whole solo collection is now getting reissued and there is even talk of a new album, his first in over a decade.
Rapper and big time fan Action Bronson was on hand to talk to the legend about everything from music to jalapenos recently for Stereogum.
The New York rapper began talking to Collins about their collective love for food, when Collins remembered the time he encountered a particularly spicy jalapeno.
“When I was living in Los Angeles, the Mexican food truck used to come around at lunchtime. There were these chilies — and I love jalapenos, but these were big ones. Well, I ordered two of them, went to the car, sat down in it, and I never felt so bad in my life.”
“I put the seat back and I thought, ‘Oh my god, I’m going to die.’ I mean this was the hottest thing. I couldn’t believe it,” he said.
Talk then quickly turned to Collins’ reluctance to become a front man in the first place. He explained how when Peter Gabriel left Genesis he, “was kind of pulled, screaming and shouting, to the front of the stage because I didn’t want to do it. I wanted to stay behind the drums, but we literally couldn’t find another singer.”
The unusual interview then took a turn for the weird when Bronson opened up about his fascination with pimple popping YouTube videos, while Collins revealed that Pharrell had turned down his offer to let him remix his whole album Face Value.
Image: Ryan Muir