Phil Collins has suggested Sir Paul McCartney may have been behind his name being cut from The Beatles Anthology documentary, reigniting their decade-long feud.
The two music legends fell out in 2016 after Collins, 75, claimed Sir Paul, 84, had talked down to him years earlier when he asked the former Beatle to sign a book. Just weeks ago Collins said the two men had buried the hatchet after Sir Paul offered to donate some memorabilia to a charity auction organised by Collins.
Documentary edit claim
But speaking at an event in London, Collins claimed Sir Paul may have been behind the decision to cut him from The Beatles Anthology documentary, which initially ran on ITV but was re-released recently by Disney. He said he had been delighted George Harrison referenced his cover of Tomorrow Never Knows from his 1981 album Face Value on the doc, which aired in November 1995. But he said he watched it recently and it had been “taken out” and speculated McCartney was behind the move.
Speaking during a Q&A to celebrate 45 years of Face Value, Collins said: “The one feather in my cap, which I'll never forget, was with The Beatles Anthology....the three got the tapes out of 'Tomorrow Never Knows'. And they were playing it on the multi-track.”
Collins added: “I thought, ‘The Beatles mentioned my name.’ I went back to watch it recently and they'd taken it out. It's not there anymore. I don't know, maybe McCartney didn't like it.”
Feud origins and reconciliation
Collins first hit out at Sir Paul in a 2016 interview for being rude. Collins said at the time: “I met him when I was working at the Buckingham Palace party at the palace thing back in 2002. McCartney came up with 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---, you f---'. Never forgot it. He's been in touch about it because he was upset. I certainly didn't get any flowers from him; I got more of a 'Let's just get on with our lives.'”
However in August Collins claimed to have ended the feud. It came after the singer had contacted Sir Paul to ask him and other artists to donate memorabilia to a King's Trust charity auction in November. Sir Paul called to say he would donate and brought up the subject of their fallout.
Collins told the Sunday Times: “I knew where it was going, and said, 'Thank God, you've brought it up'. Because he's part of my life, you know? And I wish I hadn't said it, although it did happen.”
He added: “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.”
