<P> Collins wrote the song amid the grief he felt after divorcing his first wife Andrea Bertorelli in 1980 . In a 2016 interview , Collins said of the song 's lyrics : `` I wrote the lyrics spontaneously . I 'm not quite sure what the song is about , but there 's a lot of anger , a lot of despair and a lot of frustration . '' In a 1997 BBC Radio 2 documentary , the singer revealed that the divorce contributed to his 1979 hiatus from Genesis until the band regrouped in October of that year to record the album Duke . </P>
story of i can feel it in the air tonight
grief he felt after divorcing his first wife Andrea Bertorelli in 1980