Pop star Robbie Williams presents a new album and confronts his biggest addiction – the feeling of being successful. A conversation before his performance in Germany.
During the Zoom interview, Robbie Williams is seated on a spacious cream-colored sofa and wears a white dressing gown with black vertical stripes. During the conversation he occasionally shows his bare legs. We have an appointment with Robbie Williams, who is actually still on vacation, because he will release his new album “XXV” on September 9th – on which he has re-recorded his greatest hits with a Dutch orchestra. And on August 27 he will give his only concert in Germany, in Munich in front of 100,000 people.
Mr. Williams, you’ve got some real color!
Oh yeah. It’s hot here in southern France. Almost too hot.
Are you still enjoying your holiday?
A lot. We meet people here all the time, which is a bit unusual for me. My wife is very, very social and communicative, and I thought of myself that I would be the same when I was with her. But my body and my psyche are not so good at being around people all the time. And so it’s a strange mix for me now: On the one hand, I feel super sexy in the south of France with my amazing wife. On the other hand, I quickly feel completely overwhelmed when I’m forced to make small talk with billionaires (laughs) .
You might be working on becoming one yourself, aren’t you?
Well, I’m fine. I have a couple of very good friends who have incredible amounts of money and yet are absolutely lovely people. Whether someone is nice or on your wavelength has nothing to do with the person’s bank balance. Anyway, I’ve learned recently that it’s not good for me to isolate myself and stay away from people for the rest of my life. Above all, I want to learn how to socialize when I’m sober.
You haven’t been drinking for a long time, haven’t you?
I haven’t had a drink in 22 years. The adjustment process is very slow (smiles) .
This Saturday you will play a concert in front of more than 100,000 people in Munich. So hiding from the world isn’t an option anyway, is it?
Oh yes, I am extremely grateful for this concert. Oh, I am super grateful to Germany as such, period. I’m 48 years old, I’ve been at it forever, and you still love me. The Germans are very loyal, just a wonderful audience, incredibly warm-hearted too. So as my career progresses, I’m becoming more and more grateful to Germany. When I said, “Grow old with me” almost twenty years ago, Germany listened carefully and replied: “We’ll do it, Rob.”
You’re not even that old.
I’ve definitely been playing in the old men’s pop team for a long time. I’m a veteran of my profession, there’s no doubt about it.
Her boyfriend Elton John, for example, is almost 30 years older. Look at careers like his or Tom Jones’s and think, “When I’m 75 or 80, do I still want to do the job?”
These men are my idols and my heroes. I think it’s fantastic that they’re still on stage and doing their best. Rod Stewart will be Rod Stewart for the rest of his life. Elton is always Elton. And I will never stop being Robbie Williams.
Would you like to slip out of your own skin?
Now I like being at home in myself. In a very volatile world in which careers can hardly be planned anymore, I was almost outrageously lucky. For someone with an ego as fragile as I am, this state is very, very beneficial and calming.
Why?
Because I depend on the feeling of being successful. And because I revolve around myself to a particularly high degree. It is very important to me to be certain that I am not nobody and that I will no longer become one.
You sing “Youth is wasted on the young” in “Eternity”. Would you like to be in your early 20s again and start your solo career?
No, don’t! I sometimes think back to this phase in my life, but never with nostalgia or longing. I don’t want to have to relive those years.
Don’t you miss a thing of what young Robbie Williams had?
Okay, I’d like to have my working back from back then. If the swivels were all still lined up and the shock absorbers in between were still doing their job properly, that would be very nice. But discs aside, you can really keep those damn 20s (laughs) .
Are young people generally overrated?
You can, of course, enjoy life to a great extent as a young person. But for me personally, that time wasn’t that great. I’ve been a prisoner of my miserable mental health for far too long. So I certainly don’t have to go back to jail in my own head.
However, you visit the old, tormented Robbie Williams in your new song “Lost”, which is about those lost years and your feelings back then. So is it something else to bring the past to life in music, in art?
(Thinks) Yes, yes. There is something very liberating about mentally entering that lost place with the safety and security of a middle-aged man, and in that context being able to flush out other toxins that are still lodged in my body from past experiences and debauchery.
You spoke very openly about your mental illness and your addictions in a recent performance in Saint Tropez. In general, society has opened up to these questions…
I’ve always talked about these things, but it’s true, lately people have been listening more closely to me. I racked my brains for ages about why I am the way I am and what is wrong with me and why I suffer so much and I received no kindness, no goodwill, no empathy for it. I was sentenced with the usual sayings like “Pull yourself together” or “What are you trying to complain about?”. I think people now understand that rich, famous people can also suffer from poor mental health.
Your new album “XXV” is very opulent. How was it for you to re-record the old hits with the Dutch Metropole Orkest?
I think it’s a nice idea to revisit the old songs years or decades apart and give them a little more gravity, a little more weight, by reworking them. For someone like me, who is constantly running in the hamster wheel, always has the next goal in mind and still wants to achieve something in his career, it’s good to see that I used to be better than I thought at the time.
To person
Robbie Williams , born February 13, 1974 in Staffordshire, UK, is one of the most successful pop stars of his time. He rose to fame in the early 1990s as a member of the boy band Take That. In July 1995 it became known that he had to leave the band after drug and party excesses. He himself is said to be no longer willing to adhere to the strict rules of conduct laid down by management. Pastoral hotlines are being set up in Germany to comfort grieving Take That fans.
As a solo artist , Robbie Williams has sold more than 75 million albums worldwide. His most famous hits include “Angel”, “Let Me Entertain You” and “Supreme”. He is married to actress Ayda Field and they have four children together.
The new album “XXV” will be released on September 9th. Robbie Williams has re-recorded the greatest hits from his 25-year solo career with a Dutch orchestra. On August 27th he gives his only concert in Germany in Munich. osk
Does that mean you like your own songs better than you used to?
Yes, I look at her with more love. It’s tough being a perfectionist who finds everything you do negative and inadequate. So it’s a relief to devote myself to these songs today and to be able to admire them instead of hating and despising them.
They sit in the pose of Auguste Rodin’s famous “Thinker” on the album cover. What is the picture supposed to tell us?
I’d like to say it was my idea, but it wasn’t. Tom Hingston, who designed a lot of my album covers, came up with the idea. As a pop star you have to be on the cover of your record because your face sells that stuff. I find that so annoying and so boring. I know my face yes. But I found this idea interesting and a bit weird. I was immediately hooked.
You can be seen there stark naked. What is your relationship to your naked body?
I have no problem being naked. I only have a problem with how I look naked. What you see on the cover is a computer generated version of the person who looks a bit like me.
There are plenty of nudist beaches in southern France. Would you dare to break free there?
No Please! I think if I had a bigger penis I might try nudism. But since this is not the case, I leave it.
sorry to hear that
It’s okay. I’m 48. I’ve gotten used to it (laughs) .
Your life will soon also be in the cinema. A biopic titled Better Man is in the works. What can you currently say about this?
It’s going very well. I have every confidence that the project is in the right hands and going in the right direction. I hope and am confident that director Michael Gracey will deliver a film that is really, really good.
You also have a role. You play yourself, don’t you?
Yes, I play myself. But only in some scenes, not consistently.
How does it feel to be your own movie character?
Very strange. And yet wonderful. Of course it’s awesome to sit in the makeup room next to the man who plays your father and the woman who plays your grandma. And the woman who plays your mother is there too. Also lying around: Howard Donald’s dreadlocks wig, Jason Orange’s plastic chin, and pictures from your entire life. It really is an incomparable feeling.
When your four kids start asking questions about their dad’s life, you can just tell them, “Check out Better Man.”
No, I don’t want my children to see the film.
Why not?
The film is too honest, too ruthless. There are things that I, as a father, don’t want my children to know about.
You won’t be able to prevent it.
I know. I’ll probably have to say the phrase “kids, it’s just a movie” a lot (laughs) .
The song “Party Like A Russian” from your last studio album “The Heavy Entertainment Show” is missing on “XXV”. Is that for political reasons?
Currently we can’t bring this song.
What are your thoughts on Putin’s attack on Ukraine? In 2018 you performed in Moscow at the opening ceremony of the World Cup. How has your view of Russia changed this year?
I think we live in a very fast moving time. Who knows what will happen next with “Angels”? Maybe someone will find out that the angels are actually demons. And then I can’t sing this song anymore.
You think today’s angels are tomorrow’s devils – and maybe vice versa?
You always try to be on the right side of history. On today’s political and moral map, which is constantly changing, it is increasingly difficult to be right and not to make yourself vulnerable in some way. I can’t do that 100% either. As a pop musician, I always try to depict what the “now” is. And the perception of this now is in flux. And so it happens that what was cool five or ten years ago isn’t so cool today.
One more question, you’re an avid golfer and you’ve even recently launched a golf clothing line. What does golf do for you – mentally and physically?
The wonderful thing about golf is that it keeps me focused. Without such a framework, such a safety net, my mind tends to seek unhealthy territory. The golf course is such a safe place for me. You’re moving, you’re concentrating, you’re getting serotonin and you’re only thinking about one thing – what a crappy golfer you are (laughs) .
Now the self-harm begins again.
Serious. For the amount of time I put into golf, I’m quite possibly the worst golfer in the world.
Interview: Steffen Rüth
