Even in their 60s and onward, men aren’t ashamed to reminisce about a good old-fashioned dude fight from back in the day. Such is the case with Phil Collins, who used to and still does have animosity toward one Paul McCartney.
In an interview in the U.K. Sunday Times, Collins, 64, recalled meeting McCartney, 75, and picking up on an air of, let’s say, haughtiness. “I met him when I was working at the Buckingham Palace party back in 2002,” says Collins, who’s promoting his autobiography Not Dead Yet. “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 fuck, you fuck.’ Never forgot it.”
(To be clear, Collins is saying “You fuck” as in, “You are a fuck.” Not as in, “You fornicate.”) This encounter has been on Collins’s mind through the sands of time. The bitterness is locked in his heart forever and it’s felt it in the atmosphere.
“McCartney was one of my heroes,” says Collins. “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.’” What a sweet old petty man. The only possible response from McCartney would be: “I don’t know him.”
