Phillips has recorded twenty-eight albums[1] and worked with musicians including Donovan, Paul Buckmaster, J. Peter Robinson, Eric Clapton, Steve Winwood, Bernie Taupin, Tim Hardin, Manos Hatzidakis and many others.

[2][5] He played in folk clubs in the early 1960s, alongside singer-songwriter Tim Hardin, comedian Lenny Bruce, and others, and when in Saskatoon, Canada, met and taught guitar techniques to aspiring singer Joni Anderson (later Mitchell).

[5][4] In 2011, Philips rejoined Donovan at the Royal Albert Hall in London for a reunion of the Sunshine Super album, featuring guest star Jimmy Page.

[7] In 1967, he left England after his work permit expired and after a period in Paris moved to Positano in Italy, while continuing to tour.

He returned to England to write and perform, with The Djinn, the music for the controversial Jane Arden play Vagina Rex and the Gas Oven at the Arts Laboratory on Drury Lane in London in February 1969.

[8] Sponsored by Dick James, he also recorded material with Steve Winwood, Jim Capaldi and Chris Wood of Traffic.

The song with which he is most widely associated[citation needed] is "She Was Waiting For Her Mother At The Station In Torino And You Know I Love You Baby But It's Getting Too Heavy To Laugh", more commonly known as "Woman", from the Second Contribution album.

Phillips continued to tour and secured a double standing ovation for his impromptu solo performance in front of 657,000 people at the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival.

He moved to RCA Records, and released Transcendence (1978), produced by Michael Kamen, on which he hired Herbie Hancock's band The Headhunters to fill out the album with instrumental jam.

Phillips semi-retired from music in the early 1990s and certified as an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT), a Firefighter in Spicewood, TX.

His album No Category, containing a mix of new and unreleased music featuring his longtime collaborators Paul Buckmaster, Leland Sklar, and Peter Robinson, was released in 2002.

[2] On June 6, 2006 the Nashville Symphony Orchestra performed the suite "Disturbing Horizons: Events in the Life of a Prince" comprising nine of Phillips' classical compositions.

My "secrecy" is simply because none of the companies I have ever been affiliated with have cared enough to hire a national PR firm on an annual basis as part of the machine that creates the fame and popularity.

[4]A documentary series about Phillips' life and works has been in production since 2015, from filmmakers Alex Wroten and Lindsey Wolfe-Wroten of Well Dang!

[12] Before moving to Louisville, Kentucky in 2016 with his wife, Juliette, and then-12-year-old son Liam, (named after his younger brother) Phillips lived in Italy and in South Africa.