Thinker Robbie
Star mulls over life & staying fit at 50
This might be the most we ever get to see of Robbie Williams…
The singer, 48, stripped off to recreate Rodin’s The Thinker for the artwork for his new album, but reckons, as he approaches 50, it might soon be time to start keeping his clothes on.
He says: “It’s soon, isn’t it? I’ve stopped getting my arse out because it looks like something David Bellamy would do a documentary about.”
He says there might have been some “computer trickery” to keep him looking so trim, despite cutting out smoking, taking up boxing and fasting for 16 hours daily, eating just one full meal per day. He says: “I can either look good in clothes, or eat. I’m not in as good shape as I was in Rock DJ – there was less body fat percentage, I’m a bit bingo wingy these days. I’m making sure I look at least near fighting weight for this promotion.”
Robbie is celebrating 25 years as a solo artist by reimagining his biggest hits with an orchestral album recorded with the Netherlands-based Metropole Orkest for a new album XXV, out on September 9. He releases a new version of Angels today.
He will perform it at Soccer Aid this weekend, having recorded several new tracks as well as old hits Millennium, Let Me Entertain You, Come Undone and Rock DJ. New track Lost includes lyrics about his time going on “benders”. He recalls a time when his mum picked him up from Stoke train station and saw he was only wearing one shoe after he had been partying for “a few days”.
It’s also inspired by coming out of the Groucho club after 48 hours feeling like “hell”.