When Phil Collins quit Genesis in 1996, he was replaced by a 27-year-old singer from a Scottish grunge band. Ray Wilson tells us what it was like in our latest 'King for a Day' interview.
The album sold well enough in Europe that the band was able to play arenas and a few festivals, but the reaction was so dismal in America that they had to cancel a planned theater tour, just a few years after packing football stadiums the last time they crossed the Atlantic. Not long after the European run, Wilson was given his walking papers.
Stiltskin got off to a very strong start when “Inside” hit. Do you remember first hearing the original version of that song? When they heard me sing, I think they heard a bit of the Gabriel thing in my tone. I had this overdrive. I could belt it out a bit. Of course, I sound nothing like Phil. But they could hear a bit of the Peter Gabriel thing. And I think Mike and Tony, they were both wanting to go a little bit more retro with Genesis at the time. They felt I could fit their new vision.
That was the first audition. I didn’t hear anything, I think, for about four or five weeks after that. I thought, “Well, OK, it hasn’t worked.” Then I got the call to say that they wanted me to come and start on the new album with them. At this point, they actually had two singers. It wasn’t only me. There was another guy involved as well [David Longdon], who sounded more like Phil. I think it was Mike Rutherford’s idea because Mike and the Mechanics had Paul Carrack and Paul Young as singers.
There were a lot of musical ideas that Mike and Tony put together with a drum machine. They had basic demos, and they had some melodic ideas, some lyrics. It was a work in progress. But like I said, it was maybe a little too far down the line. It would have benefitted from us starting the creation together again with the whole band.
In the U.K. at that time, Radio One was the main up-to-date modern music station. It was where Genesis would have been placed. It’s where you would have heard Bryan Adams and Bon Jovi and so on. And the format completely changed. A lot of the DJs were kicked out and they went for this younger demographic, which of course was not Genesis at that time.
That’s true. Like I said, there was a change in the radio formatting, and everything else was changing as well. So it really was a bad time. But for me, it kind of passed me by. So much was going on in my life at that time. It was overwhelming. Every day I was doing something like an interview with Howard Stern or talking to DJs that I listened to as a kid.
Then, of course, there’s the personality onstage. Phil is an actor. He had these kind of cheeky, London characteristics to his personality. I was kind of a Scottish, sarcastic, rock guy. I was a different person. It took time to settle into that. Yeah, it was obviously very disappointing. And even though the European tour sold quite quite well, it would perhaps have been a good idea to have gone smaller to begin with. Maybe we should have sold out a theater tour rather than going for the arena thing and trying to pretend you still had Phil Collins in the band.
I have some video footage of it on a little digital videotape. It was a great night even though it was raining like hell. People were jumping around in the rain and enjoying the gig. I remember when we did the very last song…and I have this on film. My brother filmed it. I was walking offstage. Tony Smith was standing on the side of the stage. I said to him, “Is this it?” And I meant, “Can we do another song?” He said, “Yes.
But as I said, it would have been nice to call me up and go, “Hey Ray, how are you doing? We’ve decided not to carry on.” It would have taken five minutes. That was the only thing that kind of upset me a bit. It was just the way that that Mike and Tony Smith dealt with it. I didn’t think that was very nice. But Tony Banks was the opposite. He was a true gentleman.
They did that big BBC documentary a few years later with Steve and Phil. It didn’t mention your time with them at all. During that two-year period, I did one isolated concert with the Scorpions. I was friends with them since I did a tour with them with my own band. Klaus [Meine] and Rudy [Schenker] invited me to sing at a concert with them in Hanover at the Expo. It was a fantastic concert with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. It was very prestigious, really nice.
That would have been a real shame. You’re a singer and it would have been sad if you stopped using your voice. I’ve got a very good band. I’ve got my own PA, lighting, sound equipment, and stuff that I use for my tours, and transportation. I’ve got my own small touring world that people enjoy. You can’t ask for more than that in life. That’s as good as it gets.
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