Phil Collins says 20-year Paul McCartney spat is over

Phil Collins says he and Paul McCartney have “kissed and made up” after a disagreement that lasted more than 20 years.

Collins gave the update during an interview on Piers Morgan Uncensored, as reported on 3 October by Rolling Stone. He said the two spoke by phone and cleared the air.

The story starts in 2002, at rehearsals at Buckingham Palace the day before the Queen’s Jubilee Concert. Collins brought a rare first edition of Hunter Davies’s book on The Beatles and asked McCartney to sign it.

McCartney signed it. Then, according to Collins, he turned to his then-wife Heather Mills and said: “He’s a big Beatles fan, is our little Phil?” Collins took it as a slight. He kept the account to himself for years.

He told it publicly for the first time in 2016 while promoting his memoir. The story travelled widely. McCartney emailed him afterwards to try to settle it. He did not reply.

The thaw came through charity work. Collins had been asking fellow musicians for memorabilia to donate to a King’s Trust charity auction. McCartney heard about the effort and called him.

On that call, Collins said he wished he had never repeated the claim. He apologised to McCartney. That conversation, he said, ended the spat.

Separately, Collins has also spoken about recording a cover of The Beatles’ “Tomorrow Never Knows” for a Beatles documentary, which was later removed. He suggested McCartney may have been behind the decision, according to NME. That comment was reported on 2 October, a day before the reconciliation interview was published.

For fans who have followed the anecdote for years, this means the story now has a closing chapter. A remark from a rehearsal room in 2002 became a memoir tale in 2016, then a missed email, then a phone call about charity. It finished, Collins said, with an apology.