World-renowned musician Phil Collins grew up in the outskirts of London in the 1950s. At age 5, he watched a popular Walt Disney five-episode television series about American frontiersman Davy Crockett. Young Phil became so enthralled that he dressed as the folk hero with a coonskin cap and toy musket. He showed little or no fascination with any British historical figures.
Collins later became equally enthralled with John Wayne’s depiction of Davy Crockett in the 1960 movie The Alamo. In time, young Phil grew obsessed with the legendary Texas battle.
Playing drums took precedent in his life, however, and he achieved fame with the 1970s progressive rock band Genesis before having his own solo music career.
While on tour in the 1980s, Phil went shopping and came upon a historical letter written by Davy Crockett. He bought it. So began his collection of all manner of items associated with the Alamo.
Decades passed. Marriages came and went, but Phil maintained his hobby.
His third wife gave him a present - a written receipt for a saddle purchase made by John William Smith.
Not only was Smith a prominent figure in Alamo lore, he later also became mayor of San Antonio, Texas.
At age 44, Smith scouted the Mexican Army’s impending attack on the Alamo. He then was sent as messenger to warn of the upcoming siege. As a result, Smith did not partake in the fighting but returned to discover the deadly aftermath.
The next year, Smith was elected mayor of San Antonio, Texas. He served for several years until just before his death at age 52.
Phil Collins treasured the artifact from his wife.
2004: A spinal injury prevented Collins from playing drums, so he went on a farewell musical tour (not his last, which took place in 2022).
On a visit to San Antonio, he entered a gift shop adjacent to the Alamo and befriended the owner, Jim Guimarin, who suggested that Alamo relics might exist beneath his store.
Collins bought the property.
He and Guimarin later removed floorboards and dug into the earth beneath the shop. They found several odds and ends, including spent ammunition. Collins shipped the artifacts to his Swiss home where he stored numerous other Alamo relics: a knife belonging to Jim Bowie, Santa Ana’s sword, a pouch belonging to Davy Crockett, and handwritten letters from the siege.
He routinely visited the Alamo every March for years to commemorate the historic battle.
There he met a Native American woman named Carolyn Raine.
She is the author of a Native American cookbook, a psychic, and a believer in reincarnation. Like Collins, she is also an Alamo enthusiast. She informed him that after performing a dowsing, she had believed that Phil was the reincarnation of John William Smith.
Although Collins has been wary of publicly discussing it, he reportedly suspects that the psychic was correct.
2012: Collins published a 400+ page coffee table book entitled The Alamo and Beyond: A Collector’s Journey. It contains photos and drawings, and it details his fascination with the historical event.
2014: Collins gifted his entire trove of memorabilia to the Texas governmental agency that oversees the Alamo. But there was a caveat. He asked in return that taxpayers build a museum to house the relics. That hasn’t yet happened.
The holdup is due in part to doubts about whether some of his artifacts are authentic. Lawsuits were filed.
If and when the museum opens, however, the public will be able to view the antiquities and maybe come to understand the famous collector’s obsession.
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