ROCK STAR SOBER, FIT & READY FOR SUSS-SUSS-STUDIO AGAIN

WHEN his assistant walked in with a balloon in the shape of the number two, Phil Collins was confused.

- BY JACKIE ANNETT

"Who's two?" he asked her. She said: "No, it's two years since we had a drink."

It's a massive achievement for Phil, whose drinking led to pancreatitis so severe that his will was discussed while he was in hospital - in front of his children. He admits: "It's been a difficult, interesting, frustrating last two years."

Describing his drinking, he continues: "I wasn't one of those guys that stayed up all night drinking, I'd drink during the day. But I guess I had too much of it and it all caught up with me."

Phil, who turns 75 on January 30, is speaking to Zoe Ball for an exclusive interview to be aired on Radio 2 in early February.

He talks frankly about his cocktail of health problems, starting with a spinal injury during the 2007 Genesis tour, which triggered nerve damage affecting his hands and legs, forcing him to stop drumming and retire from touring in 2022. He has also had knee operations - plus he has type 2 diabetes and hearing loss from a virus he picked up in 2000.

After moving to Switzerland in 1997, he finalised his divorce from third wife Orianne Cevey in 2008although they reconciled in 2016 and then parted again in 2020.

Phil says being single escalated his drinking, as he had too much time on his hands.

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