English pop star Robbie Williams is best known in the United States for the songs “Angel” and “Millennium.” Credit: (Submitted)
English pop star Robbie Williams says filming his eponymous Netflix documentary was “traumatic.”
The four-part series traces Williams’ 35-year, record-breaking solo career, riddled with addiction, anxiety, rocky relationships and, finally, redemption with his wife, Ayda Field, and children. He’s the primary one speaking in “Robbie Williams,” sharing his mental health issues from bed.
“I think that people were hoping, for narrative sake, that it would be therapeutic for me by the end of the process — and it wasn’t,” Williams said via Zoom from Switzerland.
“But it is now. However, in the process of it, it was deeply, deeply painful.”
He said it was uncomfortable to listen to his voice and story for five to six hours a day for 25 days.
“(I was) going into the depths of addiction and my own voice going into places where I nearly died,” he said. “It is hugely beneficial now, but the process of it was scarring.”
The response has surprised Williams. Throughout his career, the British press was brutal — especially after the former Take That singer released the funky dance track “Rudebox.” Williams spiraled into a deep depression, after headlines like, “Take that, Robbie. You’re history,” were printed.
There’s a telling quote in “Robbie Williams:” “I wanted to write ‘Karma Police,’ but I’ve been writing ‘Karma Chameleon,’” he said in reference to the thoughtful Radiohead and the light Culture Club songs, respectively. He said writing deep pop songs is no longer important.
“I had lofty, pretentious aims, musically,” he said. “I let myself down by opening my mouth and pure pop falling out. So, it is what it is. But now, as a 50-year-old, I embrace who I am. I don’t try and battle against it.”
His life was a battle until 24 years ago, when Field urged him to get help. Fans, nonfans and celebrities have written to him saying they can relate.
Robbie Williams said he is ‘an epic oversharer,’ but found making the Netflix documentary ‘traumatic.’ Credit: (Submitted)
“There are famous folks whom I don’t know, wanting to have my telephone number to talk to me saying, ‘This is my story.’ I know that it’s touched a great number of people. I think every human on the planet wants to be heard and wants to be seen. It’s just my version of being heard and seen — but quite extreme. I’m an attention seeker.”
That is why Williams agreed to film the documentary, helmed by director Joe Pearlman.
“It’s always going to be personal with me because I’m an epic oversharer,” said Williams, known for the songs “Angels” and “Millennium.”
“I didn’t realize that was unusual until it was pointed out to me in interviews. It sort of makes you think, ‘Why is that unusual? Why do I do that?’ Then I just thought, ‘Well, that’s who I am and how I am. I have no embarrassment when it comes to things that people would normally be embarrassed about.”
Williams is relatively unknown in the United States — and he likes it that way. Living in LA, he said, gives him a break from the rabid fans overseas. The Netflix special serves as a sort of introduction to America.
“I made a big decision to be anonymous in the States and live there, the first year I got sober 24 years ago,” he said.
“And it’s worked out for me; it’s worked out for me on so many levels because I’m still alive. I don’t know if I’d be alive if I broke the States.
“When it’s on that sort of level, to someone who’s quite vulnerable, being vulnerable is not necessarily a great thing. That, mixed with breaking the United States where, if you’re famous there, you’re famous in Papua, New Guinea. I can’t begin to think of who I’d be and where I’d be right now. I’ve lived there anonymously for 24 years and that’s great. But at the same time, there’s a whole heap of ego from me who wants Americans to know who I am.”

This article appears in Dec 21-28, 2023.