
“I gotta explain really the way I write lyrics. 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.


While this makes an interesting story, none of these variations ever happened. 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. However, there was a man that was very close to the drowning victim who just stood there and watched.” He tried to save the man, but was too far away and couldn’t get to the man in time. 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. 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 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. 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.
