“I didn't think I needed a drum machine, so I gave mine to one of the road crew”: Phil Collins reveals that he gave his brand-new Roland CR-78 to a roadie, then got it back and created "the record that people think of when they think of me”

Portrait taken on September 13, 1982 shows British singer and drummer Phil Collins. Phil Collins combined his career as a drummer and singer with the band Genesis and a successful solo career.

The drum fill in Phil Collins’ 1981 hit In The Air Tonight is deservedly iconic, but it’s not the only notable rhythmic element in the song. In fact, the beat is driven not by any live playing, but a pattern from the Roland CR-78 drum machine which plays throughout.

It’s fair to say, then, that without the CR-78, In The Air Tonight might never have existed, but in a new interview with Eddie Trunk’s Trunk Nation podcast, Collins says that, when he first brought his unit home from Japan, he thought he wouldn’t need it and so gave it away.