Phil Collins has said Taylor Swift "really deserves" her success and called her worthy of being "the hugest thing in the world," in a new interview for BBC Radio 2's Tracks of My Years.

Collins recalled meeting Swift at a Songwriters Hall of Fame event years ago, before her fame reached its current scale. Swift performed her song "White Horse" on stage that night. "It blew me away completely," Collins said. He told the programme he has "always had a soft spot" for the track, which appeared on Swift's 2008 album Fearless and won two Grammy Awards, including Best Country Song. (Billboard)

Collins also pushed back on the temptation to knock an artist at Swift's level. "It is easy to knock someone who has had so much success," he said, adding that he thinks she has earned every bit of it. Swift holds the record for the most No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200 — the main US album chart — among soloists, with 15. (Billboard)

The Radio 2 episode, available on BBC Sounds, features Collins discussing tracks he loves from Stevie Wonder, The Who, Swift, the Travelling Wilburys and others. (BBC Radio 2) Swift herself once sat in the same guest chair: she picked her own "final" Tracks of My Years selections in an interview with Ken Bruce first broadcast on BBC Radio 2 in 2011. (BBC Radio 2)

Collins also used the interview to revisit his own work. He revealed that his 1981 debut solo single "In the Air Tonight" was "pretty much 80% improvised." The song's atmospheric sound came from a Prophet-5 keyboard, and Collins said he "certainly didn't labour on it." (Billboard)

"In the Air Tonight" reached No. 19 on the Billboard Hot 100 — the US singles chart. Collins went on to score seven No. 1 singles on that same chart during the 1980s, including "Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now)," "One More Night," "Sussudio" and "Groovy Kind of Love." (Billboard)

What stands out is the generosity of the endorsement. Collins is an artist with his own stacked chart history choosing to single out a performer from a different generation and genre, and doing it without qualification. The shop where I grew up taught me that taste doesn't ask permission — a Genesis drummer can love a country-pop ballad, and neither side loses a thing for it.