Phil Collins: Who Cares How Crockett Died?
Pop-music star and Texana buff Phil Collins doesn’t care if Davy Crockett died in the thick of battle at the Alamo–or pleaded with the Mexican army to spare his life. “I don’t think any less of [Crockett] if he went down that way,” Collins, a major collector of Alamo memorabilia, said last night during a talk to the Dallas Historical Society at Fair Park. That’s actually sort of smart–”talk your way out of it and live to fight another day,” added Collins (pictured in photo by Jeanne Prejean).
The subject came up because the ex-Genesis star’s daughter, Lily Collins, recently had a role in The Blind Side movie, which was directed by John Lee Hancock, who also made a revisionist Alamo movie called The Alamo. Hancock’s Davy Crockett was portrayed by Billy Bob Thornton as a reluctant hero who really wanted to escape over the wall, and later died on his knees after the battle was over.
Collins said he “gravitated” toward the Alamo legend from the age of 5 or 6, when he used to watch the Davy Crockett TV show on his family’s black-and-white set growing up in London. Later, as a multiple-Grammy-winning singer and drummer, he was able to indulge his fascination and now has visited the San Antonio landmark more than 30 times.
He’s also acquired over the years a collection of nearly 1,000 Alamo-related objects, including what’s purported to be Crockett’s pouch, two powder-horns and some musketballs. They were said to have been given by Crockett, begging for his life, to Jose Enrique de la Pena, a Mexican officer who was at the Alamo during the battle.
It was de la Pena’s writings that famously contradicted Crockett’s heroic image, contending that Crockett didn’t go down fighting, as legend has it, but surrendered and was later executed.
The 59-year-old Collins, who has a collection of Motown cover songs coming out in September, said a spiritualist once explained his fascination with the Alamo by telling him: “You were there.” Collins, the spiritualist went on, is literally the reincarnation of John W. Smith, an Alamo scout and the first mayor of San Antonio.
During a reception following his talk, we asked Collins whether he believes the theory. “I don’t want to make [the spiritualist] sound dopey. I don’t want to make me sound dopey,” he replied. “I don’t believe or disbelieve it. [When the spiritualist said it,] I was just an innocent bystander!”
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9 comments
Davy Crockett could feel it coming in the air tonight. Hold on.
He’d been waiting for that moment for all his life. Hold on.
(furious air drum solo)
I suppose Phil Collins is right, it doesn’t really matter if it’s all been a pack of lies.
that story reached in, and grabbed right hold of my heart.
Until this very moment, I’d never realized that “In Too Deep” is actually about the Alamo. What a cheeky, clever bastard!
Doesn’t say much for de la Pena if he took the things on offer for Crockett and then Crockett was executed regardless.
Anyway what happened to Tubbs?
(sorry couldn’t resist that one)
Phil Collins’ solo career seems to be more commercial and therefore more satisfying, in a narrower way. Especially songs like In the Air Tonight and Against All Odds. Sabrina, don’t just stare at it, eat it. But I also think Phil Collins works best within the confines of the group, than as a solo artist, and I stress the word artist. This is Sussudio, a great, great song, a personal favorite.
How come past life readings always reveal eminent personage? Nobody ever owned a mini-mart or was the town drunk or a penny-ante thief or a repeated failure in ill-conceived business enterprises in a past life.
Yo Glenn Campell! I just busted a gut reading that. I love that whole scene and to see it tossed in here threw me for a loop. Bravo!
Why do these atricles keep writing that Crockett was “begging for his life” even if the Mexican officer’s writing are true (it’s debatable) his writings say only that Crockett was overtaken and captured…. Then he said Crockett was honorable and died without complaining or humiliating himself before his killers. That may be even More heroic than dying in battle.