Phil Collins Did Not Write “In the Air Tonight” About a Guy Who Watched Another Guy Drown
Myth: Phil Collins wrote “in the air tonight” after a friend of his drowned and a person on shore could have saved him, but didn’t.
Phil Collins did not write the song In the Air Tonight about a guy who could have saved another guy from drowning, but chose not to do so. Twists on this urban legend include stories such as: “Phil Collins was on a boat with a friend when his buddy fell overboard. Phil Collins couldn’t swim, so called out for a guy on a nearby dock to come save his friend, but the guy just sat there and watched while the man drowned.” (One wonders why, in that scenario, he wouldn’t just toss his friend a life jacket or other flotation device from the boat.) Alternatively, “Phil Collins saw a man drowning as he was walking along a beach. He tried to save the man, but was too far away and couldn’t get to the man in time. However, there was a man that was very close to the drowning victim who just stood there and watched.”
Most of these stories include an ending where Phil Collins eventually invites the offending guy to one of Collins’ concerts, giving him a front row seat, then sings In the Air Tonight and reveals to the crowd how this man stood by and let someone die when he could have saved him.
While this makes an interesting story, none of these variations ever happened. In fact, Phil Collins himself notes that he isn’t really sure what In the Air Tonight is about. He didn’t write it in the traditional way most musicians write songs. Rather, he set the basic chords and music and then just started singing whatever came to mind at that given moment.
At the time, Collins was going through a pretty devastating divorce with his wife, Andrea Bertorelli, whom he had been married to for about four years and whom he had a son with. After returning home from tour, he found out she was having an affair with their painter/interior decorator. The song itself came out of the anger he was feeling about that situation, though he states it wasn’t specifically about anything. It was just a song about being angry. As Collins stated in a BBC interview:
Bonus Facts:
- Interestingly, this isn’t the only song Phil Collins wrote somewhat spontaneously. Unlike most artists who take lyrics, whether they wrote them or someone else did, and then put them to music, Collins typically does the opposite. “I gotta explain really the way I write lyrics. Because 70-80% of the lyrics I write, I sing. I don’t write them. And after I’ve got a verse and a chorus or after I’ve got something that I like, I will then sing into a microphone anything that I think.”
- Before devoting himself more or less exclusively to music, Phil Collins was a child actor, appearing in various rolls, including: playing The Artful Dodger in the London production of Oliver!; an extra in the Beatles’ A Hard Day’s Night; one of the extras in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang; and various other minor roles.
- While Collins says it’s just coincidence, he once appeared in BBC‘s Top of the Pops where he sang In the Air Tonight with a paint bucket and brush near the piano (in reference to his wife having an affair with someone who was doing paint work for him).
- Collins has been married three times and divorced three times since 1975. While I couldn’t find any figures on how much he paid out for the first divorce, in the latter two, he’s had to pay out and estimated $84 million in divorce settlements resulting from a grand total of 19 married years, between those latter two wives. This makes a divorce settlement average of just shy of $4.5 million per year married, not including whatever they spent while he was married to them. Those were some expensive wives. 😉
- Despite having had to pay out around $84 million in divorces, today Phil Collins’ net worth is still estimated to be well over $300 million and he states he still is open to marrying again.
- Collins has had a variety of health problems in the last decade including losing his hearing in his right ear and dislocating vertebrae in his neck, which ultimately made it so he could no longer play the drums or piano.
- Another popular misconception surrounding Phil Collins is that he divorced his second wife by sending her a fax. In fact, he states this is “complete nonsense”. While there were faxes exchanged concerning a divorce settlement, the actually initiation of the divorce was not done by fax and wasn’t a surprise, given the state of their relationship at the time.
- Another common misconception, mainly in England, is that he once threatened to leave the country if the Labor party was elected to power in 1997. He states he’s neither a Tory nor a Labor and only voted once in his life, preferring to stay out of politics. He moved to Switzerland around that time simply because the woman who he had fallen in love with lived there.
- The $46.68 million that Phil Collins had to pay his third wife in a divorce settlement broke the British law record previously held by Paul McCartney at $45.37 million when he divorced Heather Mills.
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It’s obvious from the lyric itself that this is not about an actual drowning, but a metaphorical drowning.
The lyric is:
“Well if you told me you were drowning,
I would not lend a hand … ”
If you were literally drowning, as in a big body of water, why would you have to *tell* Phil you’re drowning? He could *see* that you’re drowning.
There’s our clue that this lyric represents a metaphor, as in:
“Oh my god, Phil, I’m so in over my head on this I’m, like, drowning, man. I need your help.”
“Sorry, man, no can do.”
In my opinion the words from the song “In the air tonight” the words match the man who could have saved life bc the lyrics say ‘IIf you said you were drowning I would not lend a hand’ say a Lot of it
Who the he’ll thought that was what the song was about anyway? I’m totally ignorant of any of the lyric meaning or urban legends surrounding this song, but lyrically, I thought it was about an important statement or question that one person needs to tell the other. It’s causing tension because they can ‘feel it coming’. Not once did somebody drowning ever cross my mind!?
You must be too young to have lived through the rumors before the internet. Word of mouth was powerful. I thought the part at the concert was true, but not because of the lyrics, from something else.
Wow. I’m a little devastated. Always heard and didn’t know any better than to believe the myth (story). I still enjoy the song and will continue imagining the mythical drowning incident anyway. I’m glad it didn’t happen though. For everyone’s sake.
Phill collins
I don’t blame you for making up a song and invite the guy who could have saved your friend from drowning but didn’t to a concert. Put the spotlight on him and sing in the air tonight to him. Because I know it must have been awful for you to watch your friend drown. Lizzie
Lizzie flint, you didn’t read the article. Why bother commenting if you won’t read the article?
some songs are deliberately ambiguous.
they are meant to be enjoyed by applying your own interpretation. (stairway and bohemian rhapsody are 2 examples)
to force the artist to explain them is to take the fun out of listening to them.
in a way, kooky stories like the “drowning man” interpretation of “in the air tonight” are actually a fulfillment of the song’s mandate.
I was always told the song was written because Phil Collins witnessed the murder of someone he knew as a child, and he killed the guy several years later.
Cocaine is a hell of a drug
Lmao!
My sister was killed at 23 by her much older ex husband. He had gotten her preg at 13 when he was a skate guard and they ran away together. He got away with the death because police let him take stuff from the scene and other reasons. By the time it was ruled nit accidental it was too late. YESTURDAY he died at 47. No one claimed him and he was cremated and put in a mass pile!! This song was sent to me with a note to listen with my sister in mind…. Another way to think if it!
I’m almost certain that the rumor originally applied to a different musician. Think about it: the story starts within a smaller fandom but begins to dwarf the fame of the original subject, so it morphs into an account of an unspecified rock star whose fame becomes increasingly exaggerated over time, and finally inspires a related rumor that the song in question is ‘In The Air Tonight’ by Phil Collins which itself becomes popular enough to merge with the original rumor. In some of the weirder musical subcultures, particularly more punk-flavored ones such as glam and emo, you get some strange over-the-top characters who become the subject of much lore which is often cultivated by them to some degree; think about how many people probably believe right now that Marilyn Manson is the guy from The Wonder Years, and that he removed one of his ribs so that he could perform autofellatio. And then, contrast this with the adult contemporary stylings of Phil Collins. To me, it just doesn’t add up.
John Lennon actually guys. For I believe john Lennon never really did get 5 bullets to his chest and there for never died. Listen to near enough to the drumbeat . just listen to the song ya know.
Nope, sorry handsome Pete, the myth began with this song and this artist. I was around when it began, before the internet.
me personally I would love just to meet Phil Colin one day . and I have a true story he might want to listen . and I myself can proof . I have question and all . this song really get me . and I would love to let him know that song is what I was in and the turn out of it and then he see something and I have really need to let off something…