Robbie Williams wishes he’d waited longer to release the title song from his seventh album ‘Rudebox’ (2006).
The former Take That star was nominated for an Ivor Novello Award for the single, but in an interview with NME he admits putting it out as the lead track was a mistake.
“My biggest regret is putting that out as the first single,” Robbie told the outlet. “If I’d have put it out third and explained properly [that] it’s daft – I know! I’m not trying to be a grime artist. I know it’s daft.”
It’s a moment he confronts in his new Netflix series, which offers a behind the scenes look at the Rock DJ singer’s life with exclusive new interview footage of Robbie reflecting on the past three decades.
“In the documentary, the biggest cringe point for me is explaining to an audience who are about to listen to Rudebox for the first time that this is gonna be the biggest single since Angels,” he adds.
“Then I had another thought about it, that it’s my second most important single because Angels gave me the career and Rudebox heralded the end of my imperial phase.
“So in a way I was right, but not in the way I wanted to be.”
‘Robbie Williams’ debuts on Netflix on Wednesday, November 8 and was created by director Joe Pearlman based on over 30,000 hours of decades-spanning footage in the superstar’s personal archive.
“His late manager, David Enthoven, was a huge believer in archiving everything; I think he took a lot of photos and, according to his team, it started early on that ‘everything should be filmed, this might be an opportunity’,” the filmmaker tells RETROPOP.
“Then when Guy Chambers came on the scene, he saw something special and wanted to record it all, so a huge amount of what you see – certainly in episodes one and two – is shot by Guy.”
During the creative process, Joe and his team spent time with the Williams family, both in their home and on the road as Robbie toured his ‘XXV’ compilation album.
“I think I had an overview and a basic idea of Rob’s life – he’s a very public person – but equally, I didn’t know the details,” he reflects. “I think everyone knows that he’s had struggles with addiction and mental health problems, which he’s talked openly about, but I didn’t feel like he ever really dug deep into it publicly. It always felt like there was more.
“For me, every film and every show I go into is about character – and who’s a better character than Robbie Williams?”
With a ‘no holds barred’ approach, Joe admits he was nervous to present the first cut to the Let Me Entertain You singer, but says his feedback was overwhelmingly positive.
“It’s incredibly intense and you don’t know what’s going to trigger people – even though you spend a lot of time getting to know these people, you still don’t fully know if your interpreted truth is going to be their truth,” he reflects. “But luckily with Rob he got it. He said to us, ‘This is the first time where I don’t feel like I have to explain myself, because there it is. That’s what happened to me.’
“For a documentary filmmaker, I feel incredibly proud to be able to do that. To make something greater than just entertainment, that’s important for everyone.”
