Robbie Williams has bared his soul in a candid discussion leading up to the release of a forthcoming documentary chronicling his life journey. The four-part series, aptly named "Robbie Williams," delves into the extensive archive of the "Angels" and "Let Me Entertain You" singer, tracing his meteoric rise to stardom from the early 1990s to the 2010s while unearthing the many trials he faced due to his battles with depression and addiction.
"As humans, nobody likes looking at photographs of themselves and no one likes hearing their own voice, so if you multiply that by watching yourself suffer with mental illness, breakdowns, alcoholism, depression, agoraphobia, you're in a tortuous headlock where you're forced to watch the car crash in slo-mo," the singer revealed to The Independent. He humorously added, "It's alright – it's gonna work out for me."
Williams, at 49, described the process of creating the documentary as "traumatic," noting, "I hope it is for the viewer too." In fact, to prepare himself for the shoot, which took place in his bedroom, the singer crafted a new song with the lyrics: "Trauma watch, trauma watch, come and watch me have a trauma watch."
In the 1990s, as Williams embarked on a successful solo career after departing from the boy band Take That, he reached a pinnacle that every musician aspires to achieve on paper. He attained record-breaking success, matching UK chart records once held by icons like Elvis Presley, The Beatles, and The Rolling Stones. However, internally, he was grappling with turmoil, and due to his celebrity status, his private struggles spilled onto the front pages of tabloids.
"It's very difficult for people to understand the psychology of this great gift that has been given to you but yet it's breaking you," Williams explained. "Up to now, mental health was talked about in a different way. It was very confusing for people who went, 'All he's gotta do is get up and sing another song. Give him a nudge or else we'll lose all the money.' What should have happened is, 'Get in a car, we'll just go get better.' But it didn't, and it's OK, 'cause I lived to tell the tale. It makes life's tapestry richer, I suppose."
One detail conspicuously absent from the documentary is an incident Williams himself characterized as "slashing my own wrists." Williams broaches this sensitive topic after being questioned about his contact with Lewis Capaldi, who postponed his tour due to Tourette's tics during a Glastonbury 2023 performance. Williams confirmed he reached out to Capaldi and then candidly stated, "There's nothing sexy about taking a knife and slashing your own wrists, which I did. I remember in the Nineties, when I tried to talk about what was going on with me, I was berated and belittled and told to pull my socks up. What that does is isolate you even more. I know celebs are celebs, but they're people too."
In response to queries about his remarks on self-harming, Williams asserted, "The reason I say that is to qualify that people are people. Whether they're on MAFS [Married at First Sight] or in Martin Scorsese's new film, we better be careful how and what we accuse people of or say what we think of them when it comes to their own mental illnesses. I haven't had a drink for 24 years, and I haven't done drugs for a decade or so. There's a reason people stop: because they're in hell."
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