Legendary Artist Performed at Live Aid in Two Different Cities and Got ‘Caught in a Toxic, Dysfunctional Web of Led Zeppelin’

Legendary Artist Performed at Live Aid in Two Different Cities and Got ‘Caught in a Toxic, Dysfunctional Web of Led Zeppelin’ originally appeared on Parade.

Perhaps no look back at Live Aid on its 40th anniversary is complete without focusing on the herculean task of Phil Collins on July 13, 1985.

The Genesis singer-drummer and solo artist was the only artist to play the historic fund-raising concert in both London and Philadelphia.

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Amazingly, Collins first performed and played drums for Sting and Branford Marsalis in London at Wembley Stadium and then he traveled by helicopter to Heathrow Airport from where he flew on the Concorde to New York City and then jumped on another helicopter to Philadelphia.

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Once in Philly, he performed a solo set and played drums with Eric Clapton and the reunited Led Zeppelin.

With Sting in London, the Police singer started his set with two Police songs, “Roxanne” and “Driven to Tears” before Collins joined to perform his hit “Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now,” the Police’s “Message in a Bottle,” Collins’ “In the Air Tonight” and “Long Long Way to Go,” and the Police’s “Every Breath You Take.”

At JFK Stadium in Philadelphia, Collins did his own two-song solo set consisting of “Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now)” and “In the Air Tonight,” then backed Clapton on the Cream song “White Room,” Clapton’s “She’s Waiting” and Derek and the Dominos’ “Layla.”

But he wasn’t done. He also backed Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant, Jimmy Page andJohn Paul Jones on a three-song set featuring “Rock and Roll,” “Whole Lotta Love” and “Stairway to Heaven.” Drummer Tony Thompson was also on hand because apparently it took two drummers to fill the shoes of the late John Bonham.

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“It’s just great to be part of something like this,” Collins told reporters backstage at the Wembley show, per Music Radar. Later, he was interviewed in the Concorde’s cockpit while in transit, Collins said, “Basically the reason I’m doing this is because it can be done. It’s good fun isn’t it?”

However, Collins would later have second thoughts.

Initially, Plant, Page and Collins were possibly going to perform, but it eventually turned into a full-scale Led Zeppelin reunion.

“’You, me and Jimmy maybe doing something together' had become the second coming of history’s greatest rock band. This is a development for which I am blissfully ignorant. Robert hasn’t called, so I don’t know that John Paul Jones is coming too. All of a sudden, it’s Led Zeppelin,” Collins said.

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He went on to further detail the experience in his 2016 autobiography, Not Dead Yet.

“I didn’t come here to play with Led Zeppelin, I came here to play with a friend of mine who has morphed back into being the singer of Led Zeppelin -- a very different animal to the one that invited me,” Collins wrote. “Now I’m caught up in the ceaselessly toxic, dysfunctional web of Led Zeppelin interpersonal relationships”

Collins admitted he knew things weren’t going well during the short set.

“I know the wheels are falling off from early on in the set," Collins wrote in his book. “I can’t hear Robert clearly from where I’m sat, but I can hear enough to know that he’s not on top of his game. Ditto Jimmy."

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Despite the honor of playing the gig and making history that day, Collins admitted it ended on a sour note.

“If I could have left that stage, I would have left, half-way through ‘Stairway,’ if not earlier,” he wrote.

Legendary Artist Performed at Live Aid in Two Different Cities and Got ‘Caught in a Toxic, Dysfunctional Web of Led Zeppelin’ first appeared on Parade on Jul 11, 2025

This story was originally reported by Parade on Jul 11, 2025, where it first appeared.