PHIL COLLINS: Top Billboard Billing

When Guns N’ Roses, Genesis, U2, Kris Kross and others appear on “The 1992 Billboard Music Awards” Wednesday on Fox, it will mark the first time the three-year-old awards have aired live (the West Coast sees it on tape delay). The show, from Universal Amphitheater, has another first: Phil Collins will host--the first time the Genesis and solo singer has ever handled such duties.

Genesis’ new “The Shorts” live-album release was kicked off by a pair of concert specials recently aired by Fox. Collins, 41, is no stranger to the Billboard Awards, having performed on it both solo and with Genesis. He’s also been on the show’s receiving end, winning for Album of the Year in 1990 for his “... But Seriously” album, among other awards. He spoke between London concert dates to writer Jim Washburn.

How is it you came to be hosting the Billboard Awards?

The show’s director and producer had done all our videos, and I was asked through them. It’s something I hadn’t tried before, so I fancied having a go. I’ve seen so many people do it badly that I wanted to see if it really was that hard.

Paul Shaffer was good at it the years he’s hosted it. But most of the presenters on all these awards shows--apart from Billy Crystal--are a little bit suspect. It seems to me they just go up and awkwardly read what is written for them. This show will be scripted, but I intend to change the script and make it as if it was me that was talking as opposed to me saying somebody else’s lines.

Some might say that a show dealing with something as ideally spontaneous as rock shouldn’t be a glossy, scripted affair.

Yeah, but then you get the other end of it, which was the MTV Awards, which I thought were absolutely awful. The world doesn’t really need another awards show, that’s for sure. But other than the Grammys, the Billboard thing seems the best, and worth doing well, because it’s based on statistics rather than the whim of a jury or some limited “public vote.” If these awards are important at all, which is down to personal taste, then going by the facts of sales statistics and chart positions really is the reflection of the public’s vote.

You’re none too shy about playing the host with Genesis and your own shows. Do you suspect you’ll be well-suited to hosting the awards?

I don’t know, though I suppose we’ll all know on the day after. I look at my life in terms of a whole bunch of things that are out there that maybe I could have a crack at, where I can force myself into changes a bit.

It was a big step forward for me when I came from behind the drums in Genesis when Peter (Gabriel, the original singer-turned-solo artist in 1975) left. It was a worry because Peter communicated with an audience very well. In Genesis’ intense early days a lot of people took us far too seriously--sort of grading our shows with score cards, with points for complexity--and Peter helped make people laugh a bit and relax. I think I took that a few stages further. The humor helps to deflate any kind of pompous attitude you may have in the audience’s eyes.

Are you curious to do any more acting? (Collins starred, to favorable reviews, in the 1987 British film “Buster.” As a child he had a stage role as the Artful Dodger in “Oliver.”)

I just did my second film the beginning of this year, called “Frauds,” which should be out in May or June. Then there’s a Goldilocks and the Three Bears-based story with Danny DeVito, Bob Hoskins and me that we’re hoping to make next year.

I’ve had scripts coming my way but a lot of them were, “You’re a disc jockey,” “You’re a roadie,” and I don’t want the easy way out, to bring people into the cinema who want to hear your music and then try to convince them you can act. As soon as the word “music” comes into the script, usually I close the book.

(After this interview, Collins was signed to join the cast of HBO’s upcoming version of Randy Shilt’s “And the Band Played On” as the owner of a bathhouse.)

Will this be cutting into your music career?

The acting thing won’t take too much time away from music. I’ve got loads of bits written already for an album, and I think I’d like to do something with an overall mood to it, a distinct atmosphere like the Blue Nile album had. Most of the things I have written at the moment are quite somber. Not that I’m particularly somber. I’m far from it at the moment. I just find that when I put my hands on the keyboard, that’s what happens. I’m sure the record company will be tearing their hair out wondering, “Where’s the hit single?”

What else does life hold right now?

My wife and I have a 3-year-old daughter who’s sprouting right up. We’ve bought a house in L.A. on Sunset that’s one of the few ‘20s houses left that haven’t been flattened. Cole Porter once lived there. We’re having great fun restoring it.

Life is pretty good at the moment to be honest. There are lots of things on the boil. I’ve just been working with David Crosby on his new album. I’d love to work with Peter Gabriel again. We went out to dinner in LA recently and had a great time talking and laughing. I’m very satisfied with the way my solo outlet has gone.

I do get a bit frustrated with the levity I’m treated with sometimes. I seem to have found myself in this hole that is very hard to get out of in terms of being taken seriously. I don’t want to be taken that seriously, but there’s a certain credibility I think I will always be missing, and that can start eating away and become a frustration at points. But I can stand up and be counted behind pretty much everything I’ve done.

“The 1992 Billboard Music Awards “ air Wednesday at 8 p.m. on Fox.