Lewis Capaldi suffers from anxiety. Robbie Williams told him he was “there for him at all times.”
Robbie Williams – international pop star, popular figure and father of several. You would think his life would be flawless. But it is precisely this perfect illusion that the former Take That member has suffered from since the beginning of his career. The singer now talks about his mental health – and how the pop culture world of the 90s worsened it – in the new Netflix documentary “Robbie Williams”. The 49-year-old also reveals that he contacted Lewis Capaldi, who has also spoken openly about his mental health problems in the past, and offered to help.
Capaldi also released a documentary this year, “How I’m Feeling Now,” in which he not only described his rise from the Scottish countryside into his outsized pop star existence, but also talked about his Tourette syndrome and anxiety worsened with increasing success. After his Glastonbury performance this year, the singer announced that he wanted to take some time off.
Now Robbie Williams probably wants to share his experiences with the 27-year-old. “I have been in touch with Lewis and am always there for him,” Williams told the US magazine “DIY”. Despite everything, the musician admitted that he probably wouldn’t be the best help. “There have been times in my life when pop stars were going through their own struggles and then people would ask, ‘Have you come forward?’ And I was like, ‘I’m still screwed! The last person you want to talk to is me! Yes, I’m 20 years ahead… damn it,'” explains the singer in an interview.
Still, Williams knows what he’s talking about when it comes to mental health under the constant pressure of the music industry. “So far, when mental health is talked about in a different way, it is very [einfach] for people to say, ‘All he has to do is get up and sing the damn song, give him a push or we’ll lose all the money.’ So I understand it,” the British artist continued.
The singer also says that he tried to talk about his condition in the ’90s, but was always told to “get it together.” “I think if there’s a thing – called ‘celebrity washing’ – when it comes to mental illness, then we better be careful about who it is and how we say it,” Williams said . “Because I remember in the ’90s when I tried to talk about what was going on with me, I was insulted and belittled and told to get it together.”
Williams would have liked someone to advise him in moments like this: “‘Get in a car, get on a plane, just get healthy and figure out how to enjoy it.'” But that never happened. Instead, the ignorance of those around him and the increasing pressure of the industry drove him to a point where he tried to kill himself.
In the four-part documentary series, Robbie Williams mainly looks at archive material from the last 33 years – including old interviews, recordings from photo shoots and the studio, as well as private holiday videos. The series can be seen on Netflix from November 8th.