BS BULLETIN:
- Phil Collins told Piers Morgan he doesn’t think much of President Donald Trump, criticizing his manner as “unattractive.”
- The 75-year-old rock legend also revealed an unwritten song idea inspired by America: “Fat People with Guns.”
- Collins made the comments during a wide-ranging interview released Friday.
Phil Collins has a few things to get off his chest about President Donald Trump — and apparently an unfinished song about America waiting in the wings.
The Genesis frontman sat down for a wide-ranging interview with Piers Morgan, who asked him directly what he thought of Trump.
“Not a lot,” Collins replied.
The 75-year-old musician went on to contrast Trump’s style with the way he remembers previous American presidents carrying themselves.
“His whole manner is unattractive,” Collins said, arguing that presidents historically had been “eloquent and elegant” enough that people could respect them even when they disagreed politically.
Collins then delivered his assessment of Trump more plainly.
“But when someone like Trump is as nasty as he is, you end up feeling dislike for him,” he said.
The Trump discussion wasn’t Collins’ only observation about the United States.
While explaining how songwriting ideas sometimes come to him, Collins revealed one phrase he has been holding onto for a possible future song.
“I’ve got a song that’s waiting to be written called ‘Fat People with Guns,’ which is about America,” Collins said.
For now, it’s only an idea. Collins said he wrote down the phrase so he wouldn’t forget it and might someday build a song around it.
The comments came during Morgan’s extensive interview with Collins, which touched on everything from his health and inability to play drums as he once did to his relationships with Paul McCartney and Oasis.
Collins is also preparing to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist in November.
MY QUICK TAKE
There is something wonderfully old-fashioned about a British rock star lecturing Americans about presidential decorum before announcing that his working title for a song about the country is “Fat People with Guns.”
Apparently “eloquent and elegant” is the standard for presidents, but subtlety is optional for songwriters.
The more interesting political point is that Trump has spent more than a decade breaking precisely the presidential conventions Collins is talking about. His supporters have never mistaken him for a finishing-school graduate. They elected the guy who says the impolite part into the microphone.
Collins is perfectly entitled to dislike that. But after three presidential campaigns, two victories and roughly eleven billion headlines about Trump’s manners, America has probably heard this particular drum fill before.
Bleeding hearts and artists. nuff said.