In bed with Robbie Williams
The outrageous pop star strips away the bravado and gets honest about life in the spotlight, writes Bridget Jones.
hat colour hair do you have?’’ It is four o’clock in the afternoon and Robbie Williams is in bed with his cat. And me.
He is at home in Los Angeles and his wife has just got up ‘‘to do things that wives do’’. So it is just me, him, and a photo of my face that has popped up in his Google search.
‘‘That’s right, you’re in bed with Robbie.’’
It’s shocking to think it’s been almost 30 years since Williams found himself in the middle of teen idol madness as a baby-faced member of Take That.
The story since then is one so familiar, it’s almost not worth telling; astronomic success, drugs, alcohol, women, scandal, ditching the others and going solo, selling – and making – millions, settling down, and finally growing up.
Last year, though, things took a scary turn for the 43-year-old. A series of medical dramas, including a stay in the intensive care unit, meant Williams had to cancel three shows in Russia – the first time he’s had to pull out of touring because of bad health in almost 20 years.
‘‘Unfortunately, I have the sort of personality that has to be really terrified before I take action and change my life,’’ he explains.
‘‘I had a really bad back last year - a little arthritis in the bottom, a slipped disc in the middle and another in my neck. It’s not conducive for a man who likes to dad dance in front of tens of thousands of people.
‘‘It was incredibly stressful. I was finding it difficult to walk, to lie down. And things caught up with me in the end. But it’s been a blessing. I’ve had to take action. So now, I am a yoga, pilates, plant-based guy.’’
That sounds very ‘‘LA’’, I tell him. ‘‘I am, I am that w ..... ,’’ he says.
Before the bad back and hospital visit, Williams had been focused on his new book, Reveal, which he wrote with Chris Heath. It was while editing the final draft of the stories he should have been so familiar with that he realised something had to change.
‘‘At the end of [reading the book], I thought I was too old to be that messed up in the head,’’ he says.
‘‘There it was, in words, on paper. And at the end I thought, life’s got to change. It has to be easier for me - in between my ears - going forward. My next book, if I’m lucky enough to have one, has got to be different.
‘‘Little did I know that an ailment was going to arrive that would gently persuade me to right my behaviour in middle age, which is where I align myself these days.’’
Along with the yoga and meditation, he’s just trying to get to grips with the ‘‘very fast life’’ that he’s lived, and of course, prepare himself for a visit Down Under. The New Zealand leg of his Heavy Entertainment Show World Tour starts on Valentine’s Day.
For a man who has six of the biggestselling albums in UK history, and who entered the Guinness Book of World Records in 2006 for selling 1.6 million tickets to a world tour, performing fills him with terror.
He has come to realise he is an introvert who does a near-flawless impression of an extrovert. He would prefer his birthday to go unnoticed, and loves a night in with his wife, Ayda Field ‘‘cuddling, staying in and watching reality television’’.
‘‘My introverted self is neurotic, anxious and full of terror a lot of the time. So the dichotomy of what’s going on on stage for me most evenings is interesting and should have an essay written about it. I’ve watched me back, and said, ‘oh look, that’s when I was absolutely terrified, and I look like the most confident man in the world’.’’
What could Robbie Williams, the man who reportedly had his genitals moulded into a signet ring for a friend recently, ever be scared of?
‘‘You know when 70,000 people are looking at you?,’’ he asks. ‘‘Well, that means there are 70,000 people looking at you. And that’s not natural.’’
But he does enjoy his success if, for no other reason, than the life it affords his children, five-year-old Theodora ‘‘Teddy’’ Rose, and son Charlton, who is three.
Not surprisingly, Williams says having them changed everything.
‘‘The kids came along and I am now just a dad that goes to work. I’ve a fantastic job, where I get to be creative, and it’s wonderful, but I also want to make our lives incredible.’’
They might be young, but they are starting to realise that dad is a bit different to their friends’.
‘‘We were at a restaurant the other night, and Teddy was wandering around - she’s very gregarious and she wants to talk to people and perform and she loves telling people that daddy’s got lots of trophies and daddy sings. And all these Americans haven’t got a clue who her daddy is.
‘‘Up until now, I think she believed everybody’s daddy sings.’’
Of course, everyone’s daddy doesn’t have a career like Williams’. Especially one that lets them lounge around in bed in the middle of the afternoon, Googling the people who happen to call them for a chat.
But it’s all part of the self-care routine that keeps him healthy and happy, while the world turns around him.
‘‘As the years go on, I don’t want to use the word isolated, but I like what I like and I’m comfortable doing what I’m comfortable doing. When I’m on tour, I do a show and then I sleep until the next one. I don’t go out very much.
‘‘I isolate myself until I have to go and do an impression of someone who is confident and gregarious.’’
It sounds a little doom-and-gloom, but Williams is excited about what’s around the corner, whatever that might be.
After all, he learnt the hard way that keeping busy keeps him happy.
‘‘I took three years off once, and at the end of the three years I realised I am probably never going to retire. I’ve experienced what that feels like and I need something to do. I need a purpose. Whatever comes with my job, and however I feel, it’s preferable to not doing anything.’’
❚ Robbie Williams performs at Auckland’s Spark arena on February 14 and Forsyth Barr Stadium in Dunedin on February 17.