Robbie Williams has shared his love for Taylor Swift and recalled the time he was a “dick” to Madonna.
The British singer-songwriter made the comments during a new interview with SiriusXM Hits 1, where he was promoting the release of his new biopic Better Man.
During the discussion, the soloist and former Take That star reflected on the time he performed his classic track ‘Angels’ with Taylor Swift at Wembley Stadium back in 2018, and explained why he admires the singer.
“I love Taylor Swift. Who doesn’t and who can’t?” he said. “There are levels to this stuff, and she is achieving levels that have been unreached, unmatched.”
Comparing her success to his time at the height of fame, Williams celebrated the pop star as “navigating” the situation well and staying level-headed in light of any negative comments.
“When I was in my pocket of omnipresence, I couldn’t help but go, ‘Hey, this is what crazy looks like. This is making me crazy.’ And people went, ‘Oh, he’s being crazy.’,” he explained, saying it felt like he was having “a nervous breakdown”.
“The poise that she has, and the way that she is navigating very, very unfair things levelled at her,” he explained. “She’s just a girl singing some songs, trying to entertain people, [but] obviously, with great love comes great hate too. With omnipresence, comes the crazy and she’s navigating it all so well, it would seem from the outside.”
Taylor Swift and Robbie Williams perform on stage in 2018. CREDIT: Gareth Cattermole/TAS18/Getty Images
Taylor Swift wasn’t the only pop icon that the ‘Rock DJ’ singer went on to reference in the interview, as he also reflected on his past comments about Madonna.
During the discussion, host Ben Harlum brought up a previous interview Williams had with the outlet, where he spoke to Andy Cohen and made a quip about the ‘Celebration’ singer’s age.
“That’s not nice of me,” Williams said, looking back on the comments. “Here’s the thing, too, is I absolutely adore her and love her.”
“The thing is about being a ‘90s British person [was that] it was wrestling. You did this thing in the press where – which made me me and made us us – you fill a space,” he explained. “In the ‘90s and the tail end of that, you filled a space sometimes by being mean, but funny.”
“I adore her, respect her, love her music, love everything about her, everything that she’s managed to do in her career,” he affirmed. “I’ve been a dick. I can be a dick.”
Williams appeared on the radio chat show in support of Better Man, which is directed and co-written by Michael Gracey (The Greatest Showman).
In the film, Williams is depicted by a CGI monkey (voiced by Jonno Davies), and it follows his journey from childhood up to the present day. In a three-star review of the movie, NME wrote: “This is ‘Rudebox’ on film: some of it good, some of it very bad, all of it a bit of a mess.
“Still, the monkey musical is a big swing that no-one else would have taken. You can’t fault the chutzpah or the ambition. If it makes back its reported budget, we’ll eat $110m worth of bananas.”
To mark the release, Williams released a reflective single called ‘Forbidden Road’, and later shared his thoughts on the song being disqualified from the Oscars 2025 shortlist.
Later this year, the singer is set to embark on a huge tour across the UK, Ireland and Europe. The announcement came shortly after he’d hinted to fans that he would be hitting the road again “soon”. Find any remaining tickets here.
He also spoke to NME as part of a new interview last month, and responded to reports that Black Sabbath’s Tony Iommi would be appearing on a track from his new “guitar rock” record. Following that, he has expressed his desire to “make a new Rat Pack album”.
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