Phil Collins’ beef with Paul McCartney is so “Yesterday.”
During an interview on “Piers Morgan Uncensored” on Friday, the “In the Air Tonight” singer once again recalled the squabble he had with the “Maybe I’m Amazed” singer that began 24 years ago — and shared how they squashed their feud.
The inciting incident between the two musicians occurred at the Queen’s Jubilee Concert at Buckingham Palace in 2002 when, during rehearsals, Collins presented a rare first edition of Hunter Davies’ book on The Beatles and asked McCartney to sign it.
The former Genesis drummer claims that’s when McCartney remarked to his then-wife Heather Mills, “He’s a big Beatles fan, is our little Phil?”
“I thought, ‘You arsehole,’” he recalled to Morgan. “I couldn’t help it. That’s just what I thought. I probably made more of it than he meant; I did make more of it.”
But time heals all wounds, as the old adage goes.
Collins, 75, told Morgan that McCartney, 84, recently called him up after hearing he was asking fellow musicians if they had any memorabilia they’d be offering to donate to the Kings Trust charity auction he was organizing.
During their phone conversation, Collins said McCartney brought up their estrangement and asked, “What is all this about?”
“I said, ‘I wish I’d never said it, Paul. I wish I’d never said it,’” he recalled. “He said, ‘I thought we were good.’”
“So we kissed and made up,” the “You’ll Be in My Heart” singer concluded, though he still took another dig at McCartney.
“I said I was sorry,” Collins said. “Obviously this had been bugging him because he likes to be liked, as we all do … maybe him more than some other people. But we all like to be liked, and I understand that.”
Morgan then asked if McCartney saying the word “little” was what triggered him nearly a quarter of a century ago, which Collins affirmed.
While promoting his memoir “Not Dead Yet” in 2016, Collins — who has not closed the door on new music despite health issues — recounted the tiff to the Sunday Times, alleging that McCartney had always treated him “condescendingly.”
“McCartney read this and emailed him, saying, ‘I’m a bit disappointed, blah blah,’ He said don’t be so … ‘sacrosanct’ was the word he used. I’m not sure what that means, but anyway it kind of left a bad taste in my mouth and obviously left a bad taste in his,” Collins said in a 2026 interview with the Sunday Times.
Collins also recounted their reconciliation while chatting with the outlet, saying he’s glad because McCartney is “part of [his] life.”
“I wish I hadn’t said it, although it did happen,” he explained. “But we’ve made up, he’s happy about the fact that we discussed it, and I’m happy we discussed it, so it was just really lovely that it’s gone full circle now.”
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