Steve Hackett recently opened up about the behind-the-scenes story of Phil Collins becoming Genesis’s lead singer. He shared candid details in an interview on the Word in Your Ear podcast.
Hackett revealed that Collins was initially resistant to stepping into a frontman role. Collins preferred to be seen as a drummer rather than a vocalist, and his path to becoming the band’s singer unfolded almost by accident.
“Phil, at that time, very much wanted to be a drummer. Now this might sound strange, because he’d been on stage playing the part of the Artful Dodger in Oliver. And so, Phil arrived with, he was a star,” Hackett said. “He arrived with all these girlfriends and a fur coat and everything. But then he said, ‘I don’t want to be a singer.’ He said, ‘I want to be a drummer because that’s a more respectable gig.’ Of course, history would tell a different story.”
Hackett recalled the moment he first noticed Collins’s vocal talent. That moment planted an early seed of confidence.
“He happened to be singing one day in the van, when we were pulling out for petrol. I said, ‘You’ve got a really good voice. You sound a bit like Steve Winwood.’ And he said, ‘Oh, do you think so?’ And I think gradually, it came – the confidence.”
The turning point came during a recording session at Trident Studios. The band was working without a lead singer at the time.
“We auditioned a number of people. And I think Phil got frustrated one night and we were actually in Trident [Studios] recording backing tracks for an album that had no lead singer. And he said, ‘Let me have a go.'”
“Tony Stratton Smith, who was Charisma’s label boss, stuck his head around the corner and heard a few bars that [Collins had] sung. He said, ‘Sounds like you’ve found your lead singer, chaps. So I’ll be off.’ And so the deal was done very, very quickly.”
Hackett also recalled an unexpected piece of advice he received from Yes frontman Jon Anderson at Collins’s first wedding.
“I met Jon Anderson for the first time, of Yes, at Phil’s first wedding. And he said, ‘Why don’t you make Phil the lead singer and get in another lead instrumentalist and get another drummer?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, I would. I’m not sure if the other guys will go for that.’ But then luckily, I think we all made the right choice collectively after that. And Phil was brilliant, of course.”
Collins went on to become one of rock’s most iconic frontmen. He led Genesis through some of the band’s most commercially successful years.
What Hackett’s account makes clear is just how close Genesis came to a very different outcome. Much of rock history hinged on a series of small, unplanned moments. The full scale of the challenge the band faced after Peter Gabriel’s 1975 departure only adds to the weight of that story.
When Gabriel left following the conclusion of The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway tour, Genesis found themselves without a frontman and facing an uncertain future. The band held an extensive search for a replacement and auditioned over 400 vocalists. None of them were the right fit. At one point, Collins himself reportedly suggested the band go fully instrumental rather than continue the search.
It was only after that exhaustive process failed that Collins reluctantly agreed to step into the role permanently. Neither he nor the rest of the band initially envisioned him as a singing drummer. Genesis brought in Bill Bruford and later Chester Thompson to handle drumming duties on tour.
The gamble paid off almost immediately. Collins’s debut as lead singer on A Trick of the Tail in 1976 was met with strong critical and commercial reception. It silenced doubts about whether Genesis could survive without Gabriel. The band followed it with Wind & Wuthering later that same year, cementing the new lineup’s credibility.
Collins officially fronted Genesis for the first time on March 26, 1976, at a North American tour date in Buffalo, New York. It was the band’s first U.S. run since Gabriel’s exit. The tour marked a definitive turning point, establishing Collins not just as a capable replacement, but as a frontman in his own right. What had begun with a reluctant drummer singing in a van had become one of rock’s most unlikely and enduring success stories.
