Music superstar Phil Collins has revealed why he didn’t travel to the USA for years as he opened up about his life in a chat with Vernon Kay on BBC Radio 2. Phil, 75, was a frequent visitor to America in his heyday and even owns an apartment in the Big Apple, which he purchased in 2006. However, despite shipping all his awards and other items over he confessed he had been unable to visit it until recently.

Speaking to Vernon on his show Tracks of my Years he said: “I just came back from New York but I haven’t been travelling that much. I’ve been to Austria to see my son, Matt, play football, but I haven’t been to the States for years because of sickness and hospital,” he admitted. He added he finally felt up to returning recently and recalimed some of his awards, which were stored there. “I went back just literally last week and when I first bought this apartment, it was around just after the musical Tarzan,” he said. Phil won the Academy Award for Best Original Song for writing and performing the track You’ll Be In My Heart for the 1999 Disney Musical.

The iconic star went on to say: “I had a problem with my knee, which I had for a while, but I played through it – toured through it.

“But eventually, I had to have a knee operation, and I had to have five – five times because it kept either getting infected or it broke, so I was inactive for a long time.”

Phil Collins Tracks Of My Years on BBC Radio 2 and BBC Sounds from Monday 3rd -Friday 7th August (9.30am – noon) and will see him choose ten songs that have soundtracked his life as he reflects on his career and life.