Snoskred - Life in the Country

I wouldn’t be so alone If they knew my name in every home

I will talk and Hollywood will listen - Robbie Williams

The song of the day is a little late today, I know. I know! The trouble is, I’ve been sitting here trying to pick which Robbie Williams song should kick off the Robbie Williams week. I can’t decide where to begin - at the beginning? With my favourite? With a Robbie montage? With the most controversial clip? With something people in Australia are unlikely to have heard before unless they are hard core Robbie fans?

I ended up choosing I will talk and Hollywood will listen - one of my favourites and unlikely to be known by everyone. And I think the first line of the song speaks volumes. What the majority of people don’t know about Robbie is that he struggles with depression. A direct quote -

Robbie: But that’s a persona, it’s just like any character that you would act out. I think my first drug of choice, if you like, was probably fantasy. Fantasizing about being an actor or being a singer, going to the moon or whatever and I didn’t know if that was to escape a depression. I was just sad obviously that my career went like that [gestures upwards] and my self-esteem went like that [gestures downwards in an opposite direction]. With me how the depression manifested itself was that I’d stopped going out. I lost the cog to socialize. Having said that I could get up in front of 35,000, 40,000 people and go “look at me. I’m ace”. Then as soon as I get off stage again I’d get in the tour coach and go back to my bedroom and pull the duvet over my eyes.

Those of us who know the depression black hole well will be able to relate to this - functioning when you have to, putting on a show for people because you don’t want them to know how you really feel. I thought it was difficult just as a normal human - I can’t imagine how much harder being a celebrity - and a *British* celebrity no less, where the tabloids are fierce - would make the fight.

The performance is from a once only show done at the Royal Albert Hall. The show was released on DVD - Robbie Williams Live At The Albert.