Paul Collins is an American writer, author, music producer, and multi-instrumentalist. He is best known for his work in the power pop groups The Nerves and The Beat.

Paul Collins has released several solo projects with his alternative country group The Paul Collins Band, who play Americana music inspired by country rock and folk rock. Collins also continues to tour with his The Beat, his longtime rock group which combines power pop with Alternative rock and punk rock.

Paul Collins began his career as the drummer (and sometime singer & songwriter) in an influential Los Angeles power pop trio The Nerves, alongside Jack Lee and future Plimsouls frontman Peter Case. The band are best remembered for “Hanging on the Telephone”, a song later made famous by Blondie. After The Nerves’ demise, Paul Collins formed his own group as singer, rhythm guitarist, and songwriter for The Beat, sometimes called The Paul Collins Beat to avoid confusion with the British ska group also called The Beat (or The English Beat in the US).

Renamed the Paul Collins’ Beat in the early 1980s, the band became icons in the genre of indie rock Paul Collins’ Beat were in a constant state of touring and recording around the world. They appeared on Dick Clark’s American Bandstand and contributed a song to the Caddyshack soundtrack, alongside Journey, Bill Murray and Kenny Loggins. The band broke up in 1989, following the release of their sixth album, One Night. Paul Collins continues to perform to this day with a new version of Paul Collins’ Beat, in addition to his solo project, an all star country-rock band called the Paul Collins Band.

Since the early 1980s, Collins has been living on and off in Spain, where he has a particularly strong following, and spends most of his time performing in Europe and Japan, although he still holds citizenship in the United States. In fact, his two former wives are from Spain. During this time, he p