FOR THE SUS-SUS-STUDIO AGAIN

But today, he looks trim and fit and is considering going back into the studio and even touring.

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He says: “I have a 24-hour live-in nurse to make sure I take my medication.

“I've had five operations on my knee. But now I've got a knee that works and I can walk, albeit with crutches.

“I'm not dead yet.

“The things that are ahead for me would be, apart from just being back to being totally mobile and healthy, sort of maybe go in there [the recording studio] and have a fiddle about and see if there's more music.

“So that is something on my horizon. I've got some things that are half-formed or were never finished, and a couple of things that were finished, so you know there's maybe life in the old dog yet.

“Never say never.”

With three UK No1 singles, two Golden Globes, six Brit Awards and eight Grammys under his belt, Phil has had an incredible career.

He has also had a very colourful love life with divorce settlements reportedly costing him a total of £42million.

Orianne, who he married in 1999, was his third wife. His second marriage from 1984 to 1996 was to Jill Tavelman and his first, from 1975 to 1980 was to Andrea Bertorelli. Phil is immensely proud of his resulting five children - Joely, 53, Simon, 49, Lily, 36, Nicholas, 24, and Matthew, 20.