Not Dead Yet: The Memoir

by Phil Collins

Overview

Phil Collins pulls no punches—about himself, his life, or the ecstasy and heartbreak that’s inspired his music.

In his much-awaited memoir, Not Dead Yet, he tells the story of his epic career, with an auspicious debut at age 11 in a crowd shot from the Beatles’ legendary film A Hard Day’s Night. A drummer since almost before he could walk, Collins received on the job training in the seedy, thrilling bars and clubs of 1960s swinging London before finally landing the drum seat in Genesis.

Soon, he would step into the spotlight on vocals after the departure of Peter Gabriel and begin to stockpile the songs that would rocket him to international fame with the release of Face Value and “In the Air Tonight.” Whether he’s recalling jamming with Eric Clapton and Robert Plant, pulling together a big band fronted by Tony Bennett, or writing the music for Disney’s smash-hit animated Tarzan, Collins’s storytelling chops never waver. And of course he answers the pressing question on everyone’s mind: just what does “Sussudio” mean?
 
Not Dead Yet is Phil Collins’s candid, witty, unvarnished story of the songs and shows, the hits and pans, his marriages and divorces, the ascents to the top of the charts and into the tabloid headlines. As one of only three musicians to sell 100 million records both in a group and as a solo artist, Collins breathes rare air, but has never lost his touch at crafting songs from the heart that touch listeners around the globe. That same touch is on magnificent display here, especially as he unfolds his harrowing descent into darkness after his “official” retirement in 2007, and the profound, enduring love that helped save him.

This is Phil Collins as you’ve always known him, but also as you’ve never heard him before.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781101907474
Publisher:	Crown Publishing Group
Publication date:	10/25/2016
Pages:	384
Sales rank:	1,145,699
Product dimensions:	9.20(w) x 6.50(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

Born in the United Kingdom, Phil Collins rose to fame as the drummer and frontman of Genesis, before establishing himself as a solo artist, and selling hundreds of millions of records throughout his career.

Read an Excerpt

1
(Continues…)

---

Excerpted from "Not Dead Yet"
by .
Copyright © 2016 Phil Collins.
Excerpted by permission of Crown/Archetype.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

---

Table of Contents

Prologue 1

1 Not Drowning but Waving 7

2 Traveling to the Beat of a Different Drum 25

3 "Drummer Seeks Band; Has Own Sticks" 43

4 The Ballad of All Things Must Pass 63

5 The Genesis of Genesis 77

6 From Blue Boar to Fox's Head 89

7 Lamb Lies Down, Singer Flies Off 105

8 Family Man, Frontman 121

9 The Divorce That Roared 141

10 Ace Value 157

11 Hello, I Must Be Busy 173

12 Hello, I Must Be Busy II 189

13 Live Aid: My Part in Its Downfall 203

14 The Great Brain Robbery 217

15 But Seriously, Folks 235

16 Faxgate 251

17 Taxgate 269

17 Big Band, Big Apes, Big Love 279

19 Goodbye to All That 297

20 Turn It In Again, Turn It Off Again 317

21 Straitjacket Required 335

22 Not Dead Yet 355

Acknowledgments 367

Photo Credits 369

Editorial Reviews

05/15/2016
Having racked up 280 million record sales worldwide in a career encompassing performance with Genesis and on his own, Collins has a lot to say about the music scene and his fellow musicians. And about himself, of course, including the seemingly inevitable battles with drugs and alcohol.

Library Journal

2016-12-04
Of beat-keeping, boozing, and stardom: Genesis drummer and solo star Collins tells…well, something approaching all. Two things are evident from the beginning of this amiable tour of a life in pop music. The first is that the author is a somewhat reluctant star, glad of the successes of others and mistrustful of his own: "I ha[d] to follow a solo album that wasn't meant to be an album, far less a hit," he writes of his early 1980s breakthrough. "Writing another may not be a task I'm up to." The second is that Collins is a true-blue fan of rock, having first tasted it as an extra on the set of the Beatles' 1964 movie A Hard Day's Night, his scene left on the cutting-room floor for reasons he winningly explains. Throughout, the author skirts some of the tender issues that broke up the monster band Genesis, sending Peter Gabriel to a solo career and Collins from the drummer's stool to center stage as lead singer. When he criticizes, it is mostly himself in the cross hairs, and when he writes of the dynamics resurrected in a reunion some years back, it is gingerly: "Peter will therefore, unavoidably, take charge of some aspects of the operation. And with the best will in the world, there might be some resentment from some quarters at this." Collins writes with sensitivity of his alcoholism and shrugs off some of the angst that propelled his biggest hits. "If I was feeling that much pain night after night," he writes, "I'd be a crackpot." And he doesn't toot his horn overmuch, though anyone who can listen to The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway without being moved and grooved has no soul. As for "Sussudio," granted, not so much…. Though without the gruff nastiness of Keith Richards' Life or the raw poetry of Bruce Springsteen's Born to Run, this is a pleasing entry in the pop-confessional genre.

Kirkus Reviews