With a career that boasted a slow ascent and then followed with a perilously rapid descent, Phil Collins became an example of an artist who displayed both the best and worst of what fame and fortune could bring.
Collins began his musical career playing drums for the all-but-obscure band Flaming Youth and contributing incidental percussion to George Harrison's landmark solo effort All Things Must Pass. He advanced to the drum kit in Genesis, then still a fledgling outfit well outside the mainstream. Mainly a backup singer to lead vocalist Peter Gabriel, his role was largely relegated to playing drums and singing solo on only two songs prior to Gabriel's departure. These were "For Absent Friends" on Nursery Cryme and "More Fool Me," a track on Selling England by the Pound. Apparently, that was enough convincing for the band to thrust him into the spotlight once Gabriel left the group, and under Collins' stewardship, Genesis soldiered on.