5/5/03
"Well, I hated Robbie Williams 18 months ago," Williams, 29, told The Sun in an exclusive Canadian newspaper interview while in Toronto on a recent promotional trip.
"I believed my press -- the bad press -- for a while. And, you know, I've done a lot of albums in a short period of time. I've worked at being him, or me. I do definitely see the two as being separate, so excuse me if I talk in third party."
Seriously, though, Williams nearly packed it all in. Or at least the solo persona he had created.
"I wanted to release a Greatest Hits and then join a band and take on the world, sort of Bono-esque. Truth to God," said Williams, decked out this day in a trendy torn shirt and cargo pants, with a messy, faux-hawk hairdo sporting highlights.
"And then I took some time off and realized that I was just burnt out. And when I started to record (Escapology), I really started to enjoy it. I moved out to Los Angeles and my life started to be brilliant. And I thought, 'You know what? I really like him -- let's give him another go!' "
Despite having sold 20 million albums worldwide, mostly in Europe and Asia, the former member of '90s British boy band Take That has yet to establish himself as a star on this side of the pond.
"It's only frustrating when it gets mentioned so much," Williams said. "Obviously, North America seems to be on everyone's lips 'cause it's the only thing I haven't done yet. It bothers me that I get asked about it so much, but apart from that I'm not that bothered."
The upside is that he can wander around L.A. without being recognized -- most of the time.
"They're more interested in the MTV Cribs thing that I've done," he said, referring to the popular TV show featuring rock stars in their homes. "So if I walk around, I'm the guy who owns property. I'm not the guy that does music."
Not so in Europe, where he is pursued by media relentlessly.
"It's quite unpleasant, but I can (walk down the street)," Williams said. "You're pretty much under 24-hour watch when you get to London. I wake up and I peek through me blinds and there'll be, like, three carfuls. The most there's even been is, like, three camera crews, and about 10 paparazzi. And that's on a day when I haven't done anything. It's just to photograph me coming out of me house."
Williams said the only way to get used to that kind of public scrutiny is to leave it behind.
"It can drive you mental. I think being watched for any amount of time -- when everywhere you go, everything that you do is captured -- makes you feel like you're being mugged 24 hours a day."
Williams says he does miss Britain's obsession with football -- a.k.a. soccer -- although he has all the satellite sports channels at home in L.A.
"Yeah, but it's not the same," he complained. "I support a little team called Port Vale but they've never been on television in Los Angeles so I suppose I have to follow Arsenal or Manchester United. In England they have a 24-hour football news network, so that's all I watch when I go home. And I watch the same thing, half-an-hour, over and over and over. Highlights and snippets of news."
Escapology is Williams' fourth album in Canada, a country that always has warmed to him more than the U.S. So far the disc, released last November, is approaching platinum status here while achieving six-times-platinum sales in England. It was released April 1 in the U.S., where it debuted at No. 43 on the Billboard album chart. It currently sits at -- gulp -- No. 157.
"Canada's a better market for me," Williams said before explaining his lack of success down south. "The theory is this -- I spent a month (there) for one album, three albums ago, and apart from that I haven't been back to do any promotion or anything.
"It didn't really catch fire last time 'cause it's such a big country, and you really have to want it there. You have to commit yourself to working that and that alone for several months, and I haven't got the energy. I'm of the school that I do very little and see if it gives any reward. And if it does, it does and if it doesn't, it doesn't."
This, from a guy who signed the biggest record contract in British history last fall -- worth a reported $200 million for four albums.
"Was I surprised? No, I was really happy," Williams said, despite the doom-and-gloom mood surrounding record labels these days. "I think what has been neglected on the reports of the deal is what it actually means. I think what's been reported is this, 'EMI are really stupid for giving Robbie Williams all that money.' Well, EMI has been in the business quite a long time and there must be some sort of structure to the deal that goes, 'EMI will make money back, no matter what.' And, quite literally, they will do.
"Quite literally, I'm doing a tour for free this summer," he shouts over to his manager and four others seated against the wall of a hotel bar and observing our conversation.
Still to come for Williams -- aside from a European tour in the summer, with a possible Toronto date in late September -- is the July 29 international release of the DVD, The Robbie Williams Show, a one-hour TV special.
Williams, who has won a record 11 Brit Awards, said he's already thinking about making his next album: "A story album. That sort of excites me."
Canoe News Interview -Canoe News, Canada
Robbie Williams' latest album is called Escapology. And that title helps to explains why England's biggest pop star has been living in Los Angeles for the past year -- escaping the ever-encroaching British tabloids and his own image back home.
