PHIL COLLINS On Performing At 1985's Live Aid With LED ZEPPELIN - "It Was A Disaster, Really"
November 3, 2014, 9 years ago
Phil Collins recalls performing at Bob Geldof's global charity event Live Aid, in 1985 with Led Zeppelin in a new interview with Q magazine.
Collins, the former Genesis drummer, joined Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, and Chic's Tony Thompson, filling in for the late John Bonham, and states, "It was a mistake - I was not welcome."
Collins believed Page didn't want him on the stage and that fellow percussionist Tony Thompson was hampering the drummer's efforts to keep time.
He tells Q" "I thought it was just going to be low-key and we'd all get together and have a blow, have a play. But something happened between that conversation and the day, and it became a Led Zeppelin reunion. I turned up and I was a square peg in a round hole. I was not welcome. Robert was happy to see me, but Jimmy wasn't.
"I went out there and as soon as we started I thought, 'This is a mistake.' You could sense that I wasn't welcome and Tony was not making life easy and if I could have walked off, I would have done. But then we'd all be talking about why Phil Collins walked off of Live Aid. So I just stuck it out. It was a disaster, really. Robert was not match-fit with his voice and Jimmy was out of it, dribbling. It wasn't my fault it was crap."
