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Robbie Williams has admitted he was ‘drinking a bottle of vodka a night’ during his Take That heyday, despite having gruelling rehearsals each morning to get up for.
Robbie, 49, is looking back on his life and career in a brand new Netflix documentary, which landed on the streamer today (8 November).
A synopsis says: “Coinciding with the 25th anniversary of his solo career, this is the definitive 4-part documentary series on the most successful UK solo artist of all time.
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“Featuring hundreds of hours of intimate, never-before-seen personal archive spanning 30 years, exclusive access to Robbie and helmed by an acclaimed filmmaking team including Asif Kapadia as an EP; this culture-defining series is the first of its kind to explore the real human being behind the salacious headlines.”
Robbie candidly speaks about his struggles with addiction, having turned to alcohol and booze to help cope with his ‘anxiety’ and ‘depression’.
“I wasn’t adept at dealing with the dynamics in the band at such an early age,” he says about joining Take That at the tender age of 16.
“And that’s when the wheels came off for me.
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“Adding petrol to the fire, I was ingesting everything that I could get my hands on - ecstasy, cocaine, drinking.”
Robbie says that, at one point, he was getting through an entire bottle of vodka every day.
"I'm literally drinking a bottle of vodka a night before going into rehearsals, so that’s happening every night,” he recalls.
“There was meetings that were had with me - 'we need you to behave’ meetings.
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“It may have been seen by management that I was letting the side down."
One day, the singer went into a band rehearsal to find the group were calling a meeting.
“I went in for rehearsals and then at lunchtime they said, ‘Rob, we need to have a band meeting,’” he says.
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“I said to the boys I just couldn’t be there anymore. Then they said, ‘Look, we wanna see if we can do this tour as a four-piece, what do you think?’
“And in the end, you know, ‘What do you think?’ was me deciding to leave Take That.”
After that, Robbie says his plan was to ‘get wrecked’, and was 'going to parties all the time’ after moving to London.
"I had no direction, no reason to be,” he continues.
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“I’m losing a lot of days to hangovers, losing a sense of self, turning into something that you don’t recognise.”
Please drink responsibly. If you want to discuss any issues relating to alcohol in confidence, contact Drinkline on 0300 123 1110, 9am–8pm weekdays and 11am–4pm weekends for advice and support.
Featured Image Credit: NetflixTopics: Documentaries, Netflix, Robbie Williams, TV And Film, Celebrity