Robbie Gets All Up-Close And Personal

To listen to this interview, follow this Real Audio link.

Robbie's double A Side Single 'It's Only Us'/'She's The One' went straight into the Official UK Charts at Number 1 last Sunday (14/11/99), giving him his second solo Number 1 single. Since going solo, the Robster has now had six consecutive Top Five hits!

Mark Goodier talks to Robbie about fame, happiness, music & dogs ...

Mark: "How are you then?"

Robbie: "I’m good man, I’m really good."

Mark: "About a year ago I heard you say, 'there's no escape from Robbie Williams', then you went quiet for a while, but now it’s all gone mad again."

Robbie: "Erm, yeah! The funny thing is I keep falling-up instead of falling-down, which is amazing but also really confusing. Professionally, I’m having the best time - you know, what’s happening is humbling. "I’ve been so scared of the whole fame thing for so long - signing records, making money and all that business. Now, it’s like ‘Wow, people do actually like me’."

Mark: "You sound like it's taken quite a while for you to come to that conclusion. Is that an artistic thing - you saying professionally not personally?"

Robbie: "Personally, I’m probably having the best time I’ve ever had! The best time I can remember."

Mark: "Isn’t that something lots of artists, stars and entertainers do worry about, whether success is real or whether it will disappear as quick as it came?"

Robbie: "I don't think the people that get into this business or Show Business are terribly secure. The main reason anyone would be as successful as I am would be because they’re insecure. "For instance, when I played Slane Castle, there were 80,000 people there. The weeks running up to it almost gave me a nervous breakdown and it was then that I realised that: ‘Oh, I see. So the business doesn’t make you happy, you have to go find something else.’ I mean the business is great, but it’s a business you know? "

Mark: "Does that mean that you're now able to go and do other things - things you’ve found make you personally happy?"

Robbie: "No, it’s just the realisation that you can have as much fame as you like, through-out the world, but it doesn’t give you the affirmation you want ... er, how much you charging for this counselling session? "

Mark: "It’s free for you mate! Over the years you’ve never really stopped having success. In the last year have you had time to get off the roller-coaster and have a look around?"

Robbie: "Yeah. But when I did, it all fell apart. It was a bit weird. I had the first time I’d had off in three years and I didn’t know what to do with myself. "How do you go out? How do you stay in? How do you sit in? ‘Cause everything’s so structured in my life … everything! You wake up at 9:00am. 10:00am it’s the sound-check blah, blah. And when you’ve got to do nothing it’s the weirdest sensation - it drives you mad. So, I’m planning to be well enough to always work for the rest of my life, without any stops (both Robbie and Mark laugh) ."

Mark: "And you know that’s not going to happen."

Robbie: "No … no, I know."

Mark: "Did I read that you’re buying a new house somewhere?"

Robbie: "Yeah I am."

Mark: "Is it a nice house in the country or a nice house in town?"

Robbie: "No, no. I haven’t even seen one I want yet, know what I mean? But I’m gonna buy a dog - two dogs. I’m gonna get a red-brown Rhodesian Ridgeback, so I need a er … gar …den."

Mark: "(Laughing) I thought you were gonna say you need a guard dog."

Robbie: "Well yeah, I do need a guard dog! These dogs, I’m buying them ‘cause they fight Lions. So, I’m gonna get two puppies and they’re both gonna have ‘I fight Lions me’ written round their neck."

Mark: "People do say that the dog you buy says something about you, so what does that say about you?"

Robbie: "I don’t know, er … I fight lions but I’m right soft."

Mark: "You don’t appear to get bored with the whole rock star thing. Even when you don’t really want to do things, you always do it with good grace."

Robbie: "I just do what I’m told. I just point and shoot. People ask me for interviews and this is my job and what I do for a living, but sometimes I really can’t muster up enough confidence to actually go and be asked questions. Then I don’t know why I'm not confident enough to do an interview, so you start acting up. You know, ‘I’m not doing this, I’m not doing that’."

Mark: "Are you going to come back and do gigs here next year?"

Robbie: "I don’t know."

Mark: "Or has it got to be big scale things like festivals?"

Robbie: "No. It doesn’t have to be big things. There’s only so many big venues you can play, I mean what are you suppose to do? Play bigger and bigger and bigger? And Slane was the best crowd I’ve ever played in front of. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to beat that, ever."

Mark: "You do a lot of Charity things. How do you decide which ones you’re going to do?"

Robbie: "The ones that tug at the ol’ heart-strings. It’s as simple as that. The other night I was playing a gig and everyone was bouncing up and down to ‘Old Before I Die’ - they were just going mental. I was thinking to myself, ‘Now, they’re all going mental, I could do something that will help in someway’. I still don’t know what, but it started me thinking about: how much money I need, how much stuff I actually need and that’s what I’m trying to figure out at the moment."

Mark: "I also here that you’re a long way into writing songs for the next album (Robbie's third album, out next year)."

Robbie: "Oh yeah, I’ve got loads, about 40."

Mark: "You really are a workaholic aren’t you? 40 songs - is this you and Guy? ‘Cause I know that on the road inbetween interviews and shows, you’ve always got some downtime."

Robbie: "Yeah. In hotel rooms, tour vans - we’re writing, we’re always writing."

Mark: "What are you going to be doing for the Millennium?"

Robbie: "I don’t really know what I’ll be doing. I’m going to stay indoors - there’s that much pressure on people to have a good time that evening that invariably they won’t. I’m not going to party ‘cause it’s going to be so annoying. You’re not going to be able to get there, get back, when you get there it’s not going to be very good …"

Mark: "Has no one offered you a great gig that you’d like to do?"

Robbie: "Yeah they have, but I’m not working New Year’s Eve!"

Taken from Lazy Days Mailing List