June 2003
PETER OVERTON: On stage, Robbie Williams is a chameleon. Just when you think you've got him worked out, he changes again. And he's a bit like that in person too. Camping it up outrageously one minute, thoughtful and introspective the next. Yet never far below the surface is the lad from the north of England who can't quite believe his luck. He's good looking, rich, a superstar with millions of adoring fans around the world. But there's another change in the wind. The rock 'n' roll Romeo is cleaning up his act, he's ready to settle down and on the lookout for Ms Right. Or so he says. If this was anyone else, it would be way over the top, but this is Robbie Williams, the new millennium's king of pop and he was born to entertain you.
ROBBIE WILLIAMS: I'm 29 and I started getting paid for what I do when I was 16 and now, more than ever, it's ... I am pinching - still pinching myself. I didn't used to, but every now and again I wake up and I go, "Wow, look at this. I'm the luckiest fellow on earth right now."
PETER OVERTON: He's spirited and spontaneous, with a cheeky schoolboy sense of humour. Robbie is hot property and has the bank balance to prove it. Last year, he signed a recording deal said to be worth a whopping $200 million.
ROBBIE WILLIAMS: I'm rich beyond my wildest dreams! I said it completely as a joke and then when I saw it back in print I thought, "You tit." You know, I think that's the saying that will probably stay with me for the rest of my life. I really meant it ironically, but I suppose it wasn't. I am rich beyond my wildest dreams. This is the 1973 E-type Jaguar. It's got a bit of James Bond action going on with it. This is the Bentley. Actually, this one's the rented car. The fact is, I'm thinking of buying this one and then the chicks will dig me, yeah. Because I've got a small...
PETER OVERTON: Not that he really needs swish cars. He's already dated some of the world's most stunning women, and then there are the millions of adoring female fans.
ROBBIE WILLIAMS: I know I'm not ugly, you know. I know I'm the right side of ugly and that's about it, really
PETER OVERTON: There are many men out there who are very envious of you because basically you can have any woman you want.
ROBBIE WILLIAMS: Great, isn't it?
PETER OVERTON: I would have imagined it would be, Robbie.
ROBBIE WILLIAMS: I thought about that the other day and I thought, "That's great, that is." That's another one of those pinching-myself moments.
PETER OVERTON: You're taking the mickey out of me or is it true?
ROBBIE WILLIAMS: No, I'm not, I'm absolutely not. I'm not. I think I could have a pop on anything. (laughs)
PETER OVERTON: Or in all seriousness, is it nearly impossible to have a relationship?
ROBBIE WILLIAMS: No, I don't - you know, I think that I'm a great believer in fate and, you know, it's just not been my time to be in a relationship, but it's coming soon. It's in the post, I'm sure it is. I put away my shagging boots, but I know where the closet is.
PETER OVERTON: I'm sure you do.
ROBBIE WILLIAMS: I think you know what I'm saying.
PETER OVERTON: These days, Robbie's closet is in LA.
ROBBIE WILLIAMS: Sylvester. Sylvester Stallone just lives down the road from me. Please come through.
PETER OVERTON: He's moved there to peddle his songs, to woo the Americans. But who knows what they'll make of this patriotic Brit and that schoolboy sense of humour.
ROBBIE WILLIAMS: I love my country a great deal but it's enough. I fart and it makes the news. (farts) You know what I'm saying.
PETER OVERTON: Well, I can hear you. You know how to unstitch a bloke, don't you, so to speak. But fame for Robbie does have a serious downside. He's a bit paranoid and with good cause. On his last European tour, an obsessed fan slipped through security, raced on stage and took a flying leap at Robbie.
ROBBIE WILLIAMS: And then the next second it felt like I was in the pit, 10 foot down, and I was staring up and I hadn't got a clue how I'd got here and I knew it wasn't right, but I didn't know what was going on and then there was this angry man just going "Arrrrgh" at me, like that, and he jumped down at the pit and I was thinking, "I'm going to get battered here, what's going on?" And then he got dragged away and then from then on, it was probably an amazing show, because there's nothing like being thrown off stage to get your adrenaline going. It was really scary, because after the event it goes through your mind that that guy could have had a knife or could have had a gun or could have had anything.
PETER OVERTON: Robbie also has his own demons to fear and fight. When he first shot to fame in boy band Take That, he was just 16. By the time he went solo, five years later, he had it all - millions in the bank, millions of fans and a raging drug and alcohol addiction. Just over two years ago, he cleaned up his act and went straight.
ROBBIE WILLIAMS: I've stopped drinking and taking drugs and it's increasingly difficult for me to see you all pissed, do you know what I mean? And I'm an alcoholic and I'm a drug addict and alcoholics and drug addicts want to drink and want to take drugs, even though it kills them. My day-to-day existence was, I don't know, it was vodka and cocaine, I suppose, daily, for quite some time.
PETER OVERTON: It sounds sad. You had it all.
ROBBIE WILLIAMS: Yeah, it was immensely sad. Yeah, it was tremendously sad, but you've got to go there to come back. I had some great times as well, you know. Nobody does all that stuff because it feels horrible, you know. I had some great mama-we're-all-crazy-now kind of times and I really enjoyed all of them and still, you know, quite miss them.
PETER OVERTON: Why did you want to get out of it if it was a good place to be?
ROBBIE WILLIAMS: I think that when you're born you're given out your drink ticket book and your drugs ticket book and some people's books are a lot bigger than others and I was given a pamphlet. And I opened mine up and they'd all gone and they'd all been used and my body just went, "You know what, no more now."
PETER OVERTON: You do like the Aussie girls, don't you?
ROBBIE WILLIAMS: Absolutely. Absolutely.
PETER OVERTON: Who's your favourite?
ROBBIE WILLIAMS: There's quite a few, but I've got to say that there's been a smorgasbord of just pure loveliness that's come my way in the last couple of years.
PETER OVERTON: Kylie Minogue?
ROBBIE WILLIAMS: She's great, isn't she? She's great. I think Dannii rocks as well.
PETER OVERTON: Do you? Rachel Hunter?
ROBBIE WILLIAMS: I know, the list is endless.
PETER OVERTON: She's from down under.
ROBBIE WILLIAMS: Yeah, down that way, yeah.
PETER OVERTON: And then of course there's Nicole. Nicole Kidman - why did you choose to duet with her?
ROBBIE WILLIAMS: I think, you know, she is the style icon of our times, now. She's a real princess, you know, she's...
PETER OVERTON: Could you marry that sort of princess, that sort of woman?
ROBBIE WILLIAMS: Absolutely, yeah, absolutely.
PETER OVERTON: I don't mean to be cheeky, but was there more to it than just the singing?
ROBBIE WILLIAMS: It's not all singing, as you well know, but no, not really, you know. I'm shy, well I was. Right now, I'm on really wicked medication and it stops me from being shy and I really think I'm great. So I have no problems now, but at the time, I was just too shy, you know. I was little me and she was like ‘screen goddess’.
PETER OVERTON: But now you feel a bit more equal with her?
ROBBIE WILLIAMS: Yeah, but I'm a bit more Bond these days, me thinks to myself.
PETER OVERTON: Well of course, there have been those rumours that you could be a 007 one day.
ROBBIE WILLIAMS: Yeah, I started those rumours. I start all the good ones, I really do. The ‘great in bed’ rumour, I started that.
PETER OVERTON: And then there's that other rumour. Could you ever fall in love with a man?
ROBBIE WILLIAMS: With a man?
PETER OVERTON: Mmm.
ROBBIE WILLIAMS: I can love men as my brothers, yeah, but as regard to anything sexual or, you know, heavy petting, it's not something that I want to do.
PETER OVERTON: But you have pushed that gay line. Is that just for the shock value?
ROBBIE WILLIAMS: In an awful lot of people's minds I'm gay, you know, no matter what I say, and the thing is if you deny it, "He's denied it, he's definitely gay." So all's I can say is that I really want to marry a woman and fall in love, please.
PETER OVERTON: I get the picture, Robbie.
ROBBIE WILLIAMS: My ambition and my dream now is the white picket fence and the kids running around, you know, and the wife. That's what I want next.
PETER OVERTON: If I came back in 10 years' time...
ROBBIE WILLIAMS: I don't fancy you.
PETER OVERTON: I'm not putting it on you.
ROBBIE WILLIAMS: All right, okay.
PETER OVERTON: If I came back in 10 years' time, would you have the white picket fence and the wife?
ROBBIE WILLIAMS: I would have probably had the white picket fence and the divorce.
PETER OVERTON: Don't say that. What is next, do you think?
ROBBIE WILLIAMS: Don't know. I don't really know, but I'm excited about whatever it will be because it will be a bit out of the ordinary.
PETER OVERTON: Oh, surprise me.
ROBBIE WILLIAMS: Hopefully, anyway. I don't want to do another Robbie Williams album for a long time. I'm going to break me up, man, I'm going to break me up. I've already been together longer than the Beatles.
PETER OVERTON: And I had just one last question for Robbie before I said goodbye. Who's your favourite singer?
ROBBIE WILLIAMS: Who's my fave? Dean Martin, I suppose.
PETER OVERTON: How about Tom Jones, what do you reckon of him?
ROBBIE WILLIAMS: Tom Jones has an amazing, immense voice.
PETER OVERTON: You can do him, mimic him, can't you?
ROBBIE WILLIAMS: I'm not gonna.
PETER OVERTON: I wasn't going to ask you. Do you think I was coming from that point of view?
ROBBIE WILLIAMS: You know, I'm sure - normally I would've got up and gone, "You've got to learn how to pony like a Moni Baroni." But I'm not doing that.
PETER OVERTON: I thought so. Robbie Williams, thanks, mate.
ROBBIE WILLIAMS: Thanks, man.
Rock'n'Roll Romeo:
