Phil Collins Reveals 14-Year Feud With Paul McCartney

Bad blood! Phil Collins opened up in a new interview about his 14-year-feud with the Beatles’ Paul McCartney.

Chatting with the U.K.’s Sunday Times for a profile published Sunday, October 16, the 65-year-old musician recounted the incident that made him think less of McCartney, 74, who was one of Collins’ idols.

“I met him when I was working at the Buckingham Palace party back in 2002,” the “You’ll Be in My Heart” crooner told the publication. “McCartney came up with [his then-wife] Heather Mills and I had a first edition of The Beatles, by Hunter Davies, and I said, ‘Hey, Paul, do you mind signing this for me?’ And he said, ‘Oh, Heather, our little Phil’s a bit of a Beatles fan.’ And I thought, ‘You f–k, you f–k.’ Never forgot it.”

Collins told The Sunday Times that McCartney’s reaction was particularly hurtful since he had previously looked up to him for so long.

“McCartney was one of my heroes,” he continued. “But he has this thing when he’s talking to you, where he makes you feel [like], ‘I know this must be hard for you because I’m a Beatle. I’m Paul McCartney and it must be very hard for you to actually be holding a conversation with me.’”

During his chat with the newspaper, Collins also opened up about his former addiction to alcohol, which he writes about in his new autobiography, Not Dead Yet.

In his tome, the singer-songwriter writes about a near-fatal drinking binge that occurred while vacationing in Turks and Caicos years ago. “I nearly died,” he explained, adding that he was airlifted to New York City at the time after downing vodka for breakfast. “My organs were kind of f–ked. It was spirits, corrosive stuff.”

Collins — who is sober aside from the occasional glass of wine — is now focusing on family and his relationship with formerly estranged wife Orianne Cevey, with whom he shares two sons. Though the Grammy winner and Cevey divorced in 2008, they reconciled in February 2016 and now live together in Miami.

Collins, who first wed Cevey in 1999, told The Sunday Times that the couple’s relationship is a bit different now that he is older.

“She goes out and does stuff with her girlfriends,” the rocker (who has three other kids from previous marriages) said. “I can’t be doing all that. I said to her when we got back together, ‘You’ve got the older model now. I’m not going to go out and socialize, it doesn’t interest me.’ I don’t go to bed late — 9:30, 10. She sometimes doesn’t come back till 1 or 2 in the morning.”

For access to all our exclusive celebrity videos and interviews – Subscribe on YouTube!