Speaker 1: Quest. Yeah. Welcome friends to the Christian O'Connell Show podcast.
Speaker 2: Hello, Robbie Williams. How are you.
Speaker 1: I'm really good, Thank you very much. How are you doing?
Speaker 2: I'm good now, Just so I can work out where
Speaker 2: you are in the world. Are you in London? Are
Speaker 2: you in Larlowland, La La Land? Where are you right now, Robbie.
Speaker 1: I'm in La La Land, in the hills of Beverlyshire
Speaker 1: nine O two one zero.
Speaker 2: Look at you. You've done very well for yourself.
Speaker 1: I'm I'm right posh me.
Speaker 2: You can take the boy out of Stoke, but surely
Speaker 2: not still the stoke out the boy. Surely you've still
Speaker 2: got some of that in you?
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, No, he still exists, loud and kicking,
Speaker 1: very proud.
Speaker 2: And have you just sold that don't need to get
Speaker 2: out soon? Hasn't? Isn't Drake like moving in as we talk,
Speaker 2: because there is removal vans coming in for all your stuff.
Speaker 1: Maybe maybe a Canadian is moving further up the hill,
Speaker 1: but if he is, I would have signed an NDA
Speaker 1: to not just close any of those things.
Speaker 2: Good for you now, Robbie, great news. You're coming to
Speaker 2: Melbourne very soon in April, doing Rod laver Arena, and
Speaker 2: also your movie, your biopic, Better Man, is being made
Speaker 2: right here as well. First of all, tell me about
Speaker 2: the biopic.
Speaker 1: Well, the biopic for a narcissist like me is wonderful
Speaker 1: news because it's solely about me and my life, and
Speaker 1: it's all of the good bits, all of the bad bits.
Speaker 1: There's bits of fantasy in there. I obviously disclose too
Speaker 1: much about what I've been up to that people don't know.
Speaker 1: And yeah, it's directed by Michael Gracie, the driving force
Speaker 1: behind the Greatest Showman, genius and close friend, and I'm
Speaker 1: I'm more than lucky to have him on board because
Speaker 1: you know, he's like one of the most wanted directors
Speaker 1: on the planet. So I'm very excited.
Speaker 2: And why now, I know you're sort of what two
Speaker 2: years away from turning fifty and like Eltonstone his and
Speaker 2: there's been the Freddie one as well. Yours is a
Speaker 2: great life story? Is it turning to fifty? And you
Speaker 2: want to put something down permanently now to make sense of,
Speaker 2: you know, the extraordinary life you've had.
Speaker 1: No, it's just because that Michael happened to ask me
Speaker 1: if I wanted to do it at the time that
Speaker 1: you wanted to do it. I'd never really thought about
Speaker 1: it before or dared to even suggest really that one
Speaker 1: should be made.
Speaker 2: Come on with a career like yours. You must have
Speaker 2: sometimes thought, Oh God, who should play me in the movie?
Speaker 2: You know? Does Kevin Costner play the older me? You know,
Speaker 2: in ten years from now? I played by Kevin Costner.
Speaker 2: I know you're a fan of Yellowstone or Who. I've
Speaker 2: just finished season two. Please tell me the rest of
Speaker 2: the seasons are as good as that. I think it's amazing.
Speaker 1: So they're all good, apart from season four, which is
Speaker 1: like weh okay. But I adore that show, so season
Speaker 1: four can be season four for me.
Speaker 2: Why is that show so important for men? It's like
Speaker 2: Catnet for men. My wife doesn't really care for it.
Speaker 2: I have to watch it alone, but I really like it.
Speaker 2: What is it about that show? Do you watch it
Speaker 2: with your wife or do you watch it alone?
Speaker 1: No? I do watch it with my wife. She covers
Speaker 1: her eyes when there's like violence, and I have to
Speaker 1: tell of what's going on. But I think that it's
Speaker 1: it's sort of aspirational for the rugged masculinity that would
Speaker 1: hope to exist in our very poors somewhere, so much
Speaker 1: so that, like, I went to the County General Store
Speaker 1: the other day and bought a whole outfits so I could.
Speaker 2: Look like, rip, what did you buy, chaps?
Speaker 1: No? No, no, no, I bought, you know, the black
Speaker 1: cowboy boots, a black cowboy hat, a black shirt, you know.
Speaker 1: And you know because I said to the wife, I said, so, babe,
Speaker 1: where do I exist on, like, not two hundred percent
Speaker 1: on the rugged masculinity scale? And she said thirty eight percent?
Speaker 1: And like I can I concur and I agree with her.
Speaker 2: That feels fair.
Speaker 1: I think that feels fair. But I also feel as
Speaker 1: though there is something within me that would like to
Speaker 1: be more ruggedly masculine, and I feel as though that's
Speaker 1: what Yellowstone does to guys.
Speaker 2: You're right, actually, I think it does. It does it
Speaker 2: It wakens a part of us which is quite dormant.
Speaker 2: Around the thirty eight percent, I'd think I'd score myself
Speaker 2: probably a wee bit lower than that. I think. Also,
Speaker 2: when you talk about the outfit, you've got this the
Speaker 2: gloves as well. They have those really beautiful leather looking
Speaker 2: gloves that are well worn. If you or I got
Speaker 2: them now, you could tell that we didn't use them,
Speaker 2: not they'd be like brand new, and they wouldn't give
Speaker 2: for about a year. You can tell that they've had
Speaker 2: them for years. Rain and shine. It's the proper gloves
Speaker 2: that someone who works the land would wear.
Speaker 1: The only use I would get out of them is
Speaker 1: to sort of like make my emails not make sense,
Speaker 1: you know. And here we are like a pair of
Speaker 1: metrosexuals discussing fashion in a show that's meant to be
Speaker 1: about rugged masculinity, and therefore is the CrOx of why
Speaker 1: we're not them.
Speaker 2: I think you should wear your new outfit, all right
Speaker 2: when you come on stage at rod Labor. Just do
Speaker 2: a quick sort of outfit change, maybe do the encore
Speaker 2: and just do sort of cow country and western cowboy
Speaker 2: songs for the encore.
Speaker 1: Well, regarding that the actual dress for the evening is
Speaker 1: your best nineties regalia because we are filming it for
Speaker 1: the film. Oh and you know it, so this bit
Speaker 1: in the film is set in the nineties. So you know,
Speaker 1: I'm looking enough for people to buy tickets, and you
Speaker 1: can wear whatever you want, but if you could do
Speaker 1: turn up in your best nineties gear.
Speaker 2: Now I'm going to I'm going to frost my tips
Speaker 2: as I had frosted tips back in the nineties. Like
Speaker 2: many young men, I'm going I'll go four nineties and
Speaker 2: come along to that. And are we allowed to know yet?
Speaker 2: Who is going to be playing you?
Speaker 1: Your guess is as good as mine. You know that
Speaker 1: genuinely is up in the air right now. That's the
Speaker 1: thing is about movies is there's so many moving parts
Speaker 1: and cogs that need to be greased. And my one
Speaker 1: experience of movies is this, and it's I wonder anything
Speaker 1: gets made.
Speaker 2: You make it sound really hard work, Like to get
Speaker 2: even something half decent on the screen is so much work.
Speaker 1: Well, listen, the you know, the acting bit is you know,
Speaker 1: let's let's not say that that's hard work, you know,
Speaker 1: but everything else it just feels, it's felt like it
Speaker 1: was never ever ever going to happen. And I am
Speaker 1: ninety six percent sure that it will. You know, there's
Speaker 1: still four percent of me going, is this? What can it? Ah?
Speaker 2: So, have you got no preferences right of anyone? You
Speaker 2: think they're a good actor, you know, I think they
Speaker 2: could do a good job. Have you got like a
Speaker 2: little short list in your mind who you'd like it
Speaker 2: to be?
Speaker 1: No, not really, No, I think that's best left to
Speaker 1: the film people because you know, my frame of reference.
Speaker 1: Everybody that I like is my age or older, you know,
Speaker 1: and we need we need, we need somebody to play me.
Speaker 1: That's uh, you know, I'm not that o fait with
Speaker 1: who's who in the you know, the young people brigade.
Speaker 2: So you'll be saying out there, get that young guy
Speaker 2: al Pacino. I just saw him in a recent movie
Speaker 2: called Scarface. He's the happening kid in town. Al Pacino
Speaker 2: is the guy I want to.
Speaker 1: Play even even longer than that. I'm like Gene Kelly.
Speaker 2: Ask if he wants to have a meeting on it?
Speaker 2: Would he just take a meeting on it, Geen Kelly?
Speaker 2: And so the when you come and do the concert,
Speaker 2: then at Rod Labor, then then then the audience bits,
Speaker 2: then there being the movie. So people really want to
Speaker 2: dress up in their nineties gear to come down to that.
Speaker 2: That'd be a great night.
Speaker 1: Well, listen, the audience better be good. After I'd be
Speaker 1: in the media, I'm gonna be amazing.
Speaker 2: Say, this will be the best Robbie we get in
Speaker 2: what ten years? You've been saving it for this?
Speaker 1: Absolutely, I've got I've got to perform like I'm twenty seven.
Speaker 1: So let's see.
Speaker 2: I was there at ned Worth, so am I gonna
Speaker 2: see an essence of that? I want it to be
Speaker 2: just like that? Have you still got that in your Robbie.
Speaker 1: Yes, listen, I'm gonna I'm gonna try my.
Speaker 2: Best thirty eight percent.
Speaker 1: Thirty eight percent. I might nodge it up to forty
Speaker 1: five percent.
Speaker 2: Please please you showman.
Speaker 1: Yeah, wow, I can, I can. I can lie like that.
Speaker 2: So let's see, and do you install Do you still
Speaker 2: enjoy doing it live? Do you still enjoy getting on
Speaker 2: a stage? Because obviously your life's changed now you've got
Speaker 2: a family and enjoy that sort of part of your life.
Speaker 2: Is it still quite hard to get on the road
Speaker 2: and get away from them.
Speaker 1: I like providing for my family, you know, And you
Speaker 1: know I'm the only person is since time existed in
Speaker 1: my family tree that there's managed to elevate themselves out
Speaker 1: of the pits or you know, on the front line
Speaker 1: of World War one, World War two, or digging canals.
Speaker 1: So you know, I find myself in the lofty air
Speaker 1: of a place where I can give the next general
Speaker 1: a way better start than any of the generations that
Speaker 1: came before me, so I really like providing for them.
Speaker 1: I also completely adore the pockets and the moments on
Speaker 1: time on stage that transcend. This is lofty, but this
Speaker 1: spiritual plane, something happens where you're taken somewhere else and
Speaker 1: those moments are inconceivable and unfathomable, and I live for that.
Speaker 1: Most of the time. I'm just really exhausted and I'm
Speaker 1: there to entertain them, not me, and I'm doing a job.
Speaker 1: But there's these pockets that are just full of unobtainum.
Speaker 2: Yeah, what a great phrase there, i'n obtainium. I love that.
Speaker 2: And you think about why does Bruce Springsteen, why does
Speaker 2: Mick Jagger? Why do they still do big tours? Right,
Speaker 2: they've made enough money. It isn't about there anymore, and
Speaker 2: it wasn't ever about that. You're right, And when we're
Speaker 2: watching something live, you know we haven't been able to
Speaker 2: because of COVID around the world. There's something magical that
Speaker 2: we go on with you, Robbie, where we transcend something.
Speaker 2: You turn up with your friends or whether you're by yourself,
Speaker 2: your individuals, you're in your little pods, and then you
Speaker 2: all come together and you do there's this amazing communion
Speaker 2: with live music. There is something really spiritual. I think
Speaker 2: that's why it's so why live is still a really
Speaker 2: unique experience.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think it's you know, it's it's tribalistic, it's
Speaker 1: it's almost you know, the best bits of religion where
Speaker 1: you come together and you transcend something because of a
Speaker 1: a shared experience, you know, and it goes back over
Speaker 1: hundreds and hundreds of years sort of bright lights and
Speaker 1: music and incantation and enchantments. There's a magic in those moments.
Speaker 2: And what do you like beforehand? I love the fact
Speaker 2: that you really respect the sort of ritual aspect of
Speaker 2: what happens when you go out there. What do you
Speaker 2: like beforehand? How do you do you have a sort
Speaker 2: of certain routine now or a pre show routine, like
Speaker 2: the hour beforehand? What happens there?
Speaker 1: Can I ask? What does incantation actually mean?
Speaker 2: Incantation isn't to invoke the spirit of something across multi dimensions.
Speaker 2: It's a vocal way of calling in different things from
Speaker 2: multi dimensions. Whether that's do.
Speaker 1: You know I'm smarter than I actually give myself credit for,
Speaker 1: you know, I didn't know what it meant.
Speaker 2: I always guess there was a smart man in there.
Speaker 2: I always get underneath the ada's tracksuits and stuff like that.
Speaker 2: I thought he wears it lightly. You're a Stephen Frye.
Speaker 1: He's dying. He is dying to come out, has been
Speaker 1: in the metaphorical closet for forty eight years. I get.
Speaker 1: I get. Yeah, there are rituals. I do the same
Speaker 1: thing before every show. And if I out of the
Speaker 1: pockets of the timing of everything and what I eat
Speaker 1: when I eat, how you know who I go to,
Speaker 1: see who I speak to, it knocks me off. So
Speaker 1: but you know, those those days are they're huge, and
Speaker 1: they're they're really important, you know, going to give people
Speaker 1: their money and entertain that many people and being in
Speaker 1: charge of that much energy. You know, it has to
Speaker 1: be met head on and it has to be treated
Speaker 1: with the respect that it deserves.
Speaker 2: I love that. How you really care about what we
Speaker 2: get from it as well as what you get from it,
Speaker 2: what you need for what you live for as well.
Speaker 2: It must be a huge responsibility. You're talking about thousands
Speaker 2: of people. You're our night out. People have paid for babysitters, parking,
Speaker 2: and there is that thing. Well, come on, then entertain
Speaker 2: this your are night out, It's Saturday night. Bring it, do.
Speaker 1: A job, yeah, And I do take that responsibility really seriously. Also,
Speaker 1: I think that when people think about shows, they see
Speaker 1: a snapshot, and they see a snapshot of that person
Speaker 1: performing in that moment to them or to this you know,
Speaker 1: imagined crowd. But then you then have to go do
Speaker 1: it the next night, and then you sleep, and then
Speaker 1: you have to go do it again, and then you
Speaker 1: have to go do it again, and then you have
Speaker 1: to go do it again. And I love my job.
Speaker 1: I love my lot in life. But it's a lot.
Speaker 1: It is a lot, you know. There's I was speaking
Speaker 1: to somebody from a big band at the weekend and
Speaker 1: I was just saying, you know, he's a bit older
Speaker 1: than me, and he jumps about on stage and I'm like,
Speaker 1: how do you do it? What's the thing that you like,
Speaker 1: like least about touring? And he's like exhaustion And I
Speaker 1: was like, yep, I feel you exhaustion. And I try
Speaker 1: to tackle every tour slightly different to overcome that. And
Speaker 1: and what does that mean now?
Speaker 2: So will you not be able to play golf for
Speaker 2: anything like that while you're on tour? Like the stuff
Speaker 2: that normally brings you joy where you know you that
Speaker 2: means something to you. Are you literally working out? Is
Speaker 2: there a lot more sleep now? Massages?
Speaker 1: I just I just think that, you know, I'm an addict,
Speaker 1: and I tried to search for every loophole that exists
Speaker 1: to get an edge or to cheat, and back in
Speaker 1: the day, you know that there was there wasn't a
Speaker 1: legal aspect to you know that that way of cheating.
Speaker 1: And then I've narrowed it down now to espresso and.
Speaker 2: That's good, but it's still you got to be careful
Speaker 2: with that, right, No, it's.
Speaker 1: A false economy. I think that next tour that I
Speaker 1: need that I do. I just need to take away
Speaker 1: anything that I think that's helping me, because ultimately it
Speaker 1: doesn't really. Yeah, you know that's whatever you whatever you
Speaker 1: whatever you take to cheat, you pay for eventually.
Speaker 2: Mm hmm. You're right. Everyone fills a pull of some
Speaker 2: vice in some way, doesn't it. And whether it's escapism
Speaker 2: or whatever you got going on with it, I guess
Speaker 2: it's especially for you, know, you talk openly about your addiction.
Speaker 2: You have to be really really aware of that, especially
Speaker 2: I guess when you're away from home and those people
Speaker 2: that give you a bit more grounding, you know, like
Speaker 2: your wife and kids will guess.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I've got no worry about going off and partying,
Speaker 1: you know, I've just got to worry about what I
Speaker 1: think that I need to do for myself to get
Speaker 1: myself through those moments where there's nothing in the tank
Speaker 1: that that is a concern. But like I say, you know,
Speaker 1: I've tried to figure out every single loophole, and I
Speaker 1: guess that I will carry on trying to figure out
Speaker 1: every single like that. Recently, like the food thing, so
Speaker 1: I'm like, Okay, from now on, i am not having chocolate.
Speaker 1: I'm not having crisps. I'm not having cake.
Speaker 2: That's a lot to say no to, isn't it. Cake
Speaker 2: is not life.
Speaker 1: I found the loophole. I arrived at a hotel in
Speaker 1: France and I was just like croissants on cake and
Speaker 1: that was it. That was like seven croissants And I
Speaker 1: was like, loophole.
Speaker 2: What an amazing relapse you got suddenly heavily inter addiction
Speaker 2: of croissants, And yet it ago Christian.
Speaker 1: This is our boor in my life is now. So
Speaker 1: if I do have cake the next day, I've got
Speaker 1: a hangover. Like I've had five pints beginners, that's great.
Speaker 2: A cake over and what is your default cake? What
Speaker 2: is your favorite cake? Oh?
Speaker 1: Okay? Well, in that they are Olympians in la At
Speaker 1: making cakes like we don't have in the UK. And
Speaker 1: I'm guessing Australia the same quality of cake that they
Speaker 1: do here because I wasn't bothered about cakes until I
Speaker 1: came here. But there's this velvet cake that they do
Speaker 1: and it might as well be crack velvet.
Speaker 2: Have you got a dealer, You've got a guy that
Speaker 2: sorts you out. Your first bump is on me.
Speaker 1: Do you know what they actually do? They've got a
Speaker 1: hole in the wall here in uh just off for
Speaker 1: a day of drive where you put money into a
Speaker 1: machine and it dispenses cupcakes and there it's a cue. Wow.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's that Willie Wonka still alive. If mister Wanker
Speaker 2: is still running that factory, he'd have made something like
Speaker 2: that for us.
Speaker 1: Listen, I'm being too effusive about the cake. I can
Speaker 1: feel myself I'm doing.
Speaker 2: I should this very triggering. I belaim I should not
Speaker 2: have lent into this cake chat so much. I'm ready sorry.
Speaker 2: It's very responsible as I I canceled Cake is now trending.
Speaker 2: There be a press conference with some red velvet shortly.
Speaker 1: So you do? So? Do you do a show where
Speaker 1: you like talk to politicians too?
Speaker 2: No? No, because you know, I guess, like you know,
Speaker 2: if you really want to know, I guess like what
Speaker 2: you hope to do. I like to think that you
Speaker 2: have some understanding of what people want. The way I
Speaker 2: do my radio shows, hopefully I give people what they want,
Speaker 2: what they're not getting somewhere else. So for me, I've
Speaker 2: got to be honest, Like a big ten minute chat
Speaker 2: on Cake that is primetime for me. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Do you take phone calls and stuff like that? Yeah,
Speaker 1: because you've got that sort of vibe. You've got a
Speaker 1: sort of agony art.
Speaker 2: I think I'm more agony than the agony art or
Speaker 2: even maybe the arn't. But when you come to Melbourne,
Speaker 2: you should come in on the show. We can be
Speaker 2: an agony art together.
Speaker 1: I want to co host the show with.
Speaker 2: You, dumb. Ahead of that, do you mind if I
Speaker 2: give you one small piece of homework. I'd like you
Speaker 2: to pick a TV theme tune, right, maybe one of
Speaker 2: your favorite kids TV show the theme tune, and then
Speaker 2: when you co host a show me, Robbie Williams, you
Speaker 2: will sing that for us?
Speaker 1: Well, actually, I've got the theme tune in my head
Speaker 1: and it's an instrumental, but I can.
Speaker 2: Put your lyrics. Do it that, put the lyrics to it.
Speaker 1: I could write a lyric, do it do that?
Speaker 2: Okay, new material from Robbie Williams. Okay, deal, deal, no cake,
Speaker 2: no questions.
Speaker 1: No cake, all TV theme, all.
Speaker 2: Brilliant. All right, Look, I'll let you go. I really
Speaker 2: looking forward to seeing it, rod Laver. It's a joy
Speaker 2: talking to you, Robbie, and I'm glad you're still getting
Speaker 2: so much out of life live and your family as well.
Speaker 2: Robbie Williams, thank you very much, take care. Thanks for
Speaker 2: doing that, Robbie.
Speaker 1: Thanks.
Speaker 2: The Christian O'Connell Show podcast