Feature: Phil Collins

It's been six years between albums for Phil Collins, and the former Genesis singer confesses that he "wasn't sure if I was going to make another record," at least not one of his own.

And Collins had certainly found an alternative career path in the years leading up to his new release, "Testify."

Collins scored a rare triple crown -- Oscar, Grammy and Golden Globe awards -- for his 2000 soundtrack to the Disney animated feature "Tarzan." He was bolstered by the success -- "I felt like I drifted into another world that I liked very much," Collins explains -- and the idea of making another album for the fickle pop marketplace, which had embraced him during the '80s and cooled considerably in the '90s, seemed far less appealing.

"Some people have this kind of ego drive to prove they're still out there, doing it," says Collins, 51, a former child actor in England who joined Genesis in 1972, took over for Peter Gabriel as front man in 1975 and left the band during 1996.

As a solo artist he's sold more than 100 million worldwide and has won seven Grammys. Released Nov. 12, "Testify" debuted at No. 30 on the Billboard Top 200.

"I don't feel that (drive). There was all this interesting stuff I could do as a writer, so why do another record and just put yourself back in the same place again? Why come back into the marketplace and get hammered?"

Because of the songs is Collins' answer. A bucolic private life in Switzerland with third wife, Orianne, and their 19-month-old son Nicholas (Collins' fourth child) inspired the music on "Testify."

Coming off "Tarzan" and working in his home studio with a variety of electronic and musical "toys," Collins found himself writing songs that would only be appropriate for an album of his own.

"Working with computers for the first time really enabled me to be a lot more spontaneous and a lot more curious as to how I could do this and that," says Collins, who still claims to not know how to send e-mail. "I was writing lyrics like I usually do, off the top of my head, and then just honing everything.

"Spontaneity played a big key on this album. It was totally the opposite of working with Disney, where very word has to match the character or the plot development."

Collins is already back in that world, however. He's working on some new material for a stage adaptation of "Tarzan" and on songs for "Brother Bear," another Disney cartoon that is slated to hit theaters during 2004. He won't tour to promote "Testify" due to long-term hearing damage, but he'll do some odd shows and is also helping friends, "not all of whom are high profile," he notes.

He's also hawking "Testify" via Toyota, which is using the single "Can't Stop Loving You" in a new ad campaign.

"You have to take any port you have now," explains Collins, who's allowed his songs to be used in ads while in Genesis and on his own. "It used to be you had a choice and it was viewed as selling out. But people have to understand that if you can't get on MTV or VH1 because of how long you've been around, you have to look for ways for people to know you have a record out, and (ads) are one way that have proven successful."