Paul McCartney and Phil Collins have finally made up after their 25 year feud

3 August 2026, 11:46

Phil Collins and Paul McCartney finally bury the hatchet.

Phil Collins has long had a complicated relationship with The Beatles.

The Genesis man was a massive fan of the Fab Four growing up, and when he was 13 was hired as extra for an audience scene in the group's first film A Hard Day's Night (though his blink-and-you'll-miss-it appearance ended up on the cutting room floor).

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Phil was later the victim of a good-natured (and hilarious) prank from George Harrison, who briefly made him believe that he was sacked as a session player from All Things Must Pass for his supposedly terrible conga playing.

He took that gag in good spirit, but was much more miffed when he felt he was patronised by Paul McCartney when the pair crossed paths in 2002 at the Party at the Palace concert.

Collins told The Sunday Times in 2016: "I met him when I was working at the Buckingham Palace party 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'"

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He added: "I thought, 'You f**k, you f**k’. Never forgot it.

"He has this thing when he's talking to you, where he makes you feel, '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'."

When that story emerged, Sir Paul was apparently a little hurt by the way things came out and tried to smooth things over, but it didn't work.

Phil added to Billboard not long after: "I certainly didn't get any flowers from him; I got more of a 'Let's just get on with our lives'.

"And I'm sorry he's upset that I kinda said something nasty about him – well, it wasn't really nasty.

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"If people don’t tell people that sometimes their attitude could be a bit better then you're not gonna get any better, y’know?”

But nearly 25 years later, Phil and Paul have finally made up.

Collins has now told The Sunday Times: "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."