A persistent story holds that Phil Collins left Genesis because of his hatred for a single song: “Burning Rope.” The source for this claim is an interview Collins gave to Modern Drummer in 1997. There, he did complain that he felt “Burning Rope was “a period piece. It doesn’t make it in the 20th century. I know there are people who like this music, but I just couldn’t get up on stage and play or sing this kind of material anymore.” He also said that it was “[songs] like [that] that made me leave Genesis.” But he never claimed to hate “Burning Rope,” and the timeline is a little awkward for anyone wanting to pin his departure on the song — it was released in 1978, almost 20 years before he actually left Genesis.
The drummer gave more full explanation for why he left the group to The Baltimore Sun — and he brought up his solo album “Both Sides,” not any Genesis song, as a contributing factor. That album may not have spawned any hit singles and faced mixed reviews on first release (its reputation has improved since), but Collins was proud of it. “I felt that I’d arrived at a place, musically speaking, that really was the most fulfilling for me,” he said, and he was at an age where he no longer wanted to deal with the creative compromises that came with being in a band.
