Robbie Williams has said he chooses to be “Bruce Wayne in Los Angeles”, while he is “Batman everywhere else”.
The singer is preparing to release his 13th studio album ‘BRITPOP’ on February 6, after delaying it to avoid a clash with Taylor Swift’s ‘The Life Of A Showgirl’ last October, and in a new interview, he has opened up about his career, reflecting on his different levels of profile in the US and UK.
Speaking to The Scott Mills Breakfast Show on BBC Radio 2 today (January 12), he was asked about his inability to “break America”
“I gave up on it very quickly,” Williams said. “I got to America and I was promoting an album, and I was ill, I was mentally ill, and I was an addict and an alcoholic and everything was overwhelming, and I was at the top of this pile at the time, that I couldn’t manage and I couldn’t handle.”
“I was thinking, what do I want? I’ve got money and I’ve sold albums, if I crack here, then I’m famous all over the world. Why do I want that? Why do I need that? And I was like, well, I don’t.”
He continued by saying that he moved to the US where he had “anonymity”, adding: “I chose to be Bruce Wayne in Los Angeles and Batman everywhere else. I might not be here if I hadn’t.”
None of Robbie’s solo singles have reached a higher spot on the Billboard Hot 100 than ‘Angels’ peak of Number 53, while he has had seven UK Number One singles as a solo artist and he is tied with The Beatles on 15 solo number one albums.
His 2024 biopic Better Man also endured a difficult time at the US box office, drawing only $580,000 (£475,000) on its opening day.
Williams has already previewed ‘BRITPOP’ with the singles ‘Rocket’, which features guitar from Black Sabbath’s Tony Iommi, ‘Spies’, ‘Human’ and ‘Pretty Face’, and he also played the album in its entirety at a very intimate show at Dingwalls in London in October.
Telling the crowd why he chose to delay the release of the album, he told the crowd: “We’re all pretending it’s not about Taylor Swift, but it fucking is. Here’s the truth: I want 16 Number One albums.”
“Taylor then decided to put her album out the same weekend as me. I was like, ‘For fuck’s sake! I’ll put it out the next week’, and they were like, ‘She does these other deluxe versions’. I was like, ‘Fucking hell! Can I put it out the week after that then?’ They were like, ‘Oasis might be around then’… ‘For fuck’s sake! Let’s do it in fucking February when no one’s got an album out’.”
He will also be playing four more small-scale shows in February, in Glasgow, Liverpool, London and Wolverhampton, where he will play his debut album ‘Life Thru A Lens’ in full, as well as ‘BRITPOP’. Find all the details and ticket information for those shows here.