Robbie Williams: The ego has flown

My life has finally fallen into place. Everything is going brilliantly personally and professionally, I never thought this would happen. It appears by the box set and the CDs and all my memories and wrinkles that I've been and done an awful lot in 20 years. I haven't really given myself permission to pat myself on the back and go: "Well done". But I'm just happy with what's going on in my life now. I've got married, I'm reunited with the guys (from Take That) it seems that there are some exciting things happening and other chapters are blossoming in my life.
Mine is a career that happened by chance. I've been a singer for 20 years. Amazing. The irony is all I ever wanted to be as a kid was an actor. Something went very wrong or very right. I did loads of amateur operatic society stuff. I was the Artful Dodger in Oliver Twist and I was one of the king's sons in the King And I and the fiddler in Fiddler On The Roof . One night when I was 13, while we were watching Tight Fit on Top of the Pops my mum said: "Do you want to do that when you're older?", I grimaced at the thought. But then I messed up my GCSEs, my mum heard on Signal Radio of this audition to be in a British version of New Kids On The Block. I had some photos taken, put together a CV, lied on it of course and the timing was impeccable so that's how it started.
At 16 my greatest talent was for showing off ... Back then I was this kid with ambition, a dream, a desire and a real appetite for bettering myself in whatever way that may be. I wasn't very academic at all. The highest mark I got in my GCSEs was a D. I was good at showing off and I needed to turn that into a profession.
My biggest regret in 20 years is saying: 'I'm rich beyond my wildest dreams" when I signed my record contract with EMI. That was just embarrassing. I was jet-lagged coming from Los Angeles, there were loads of people and a big contract to be signed, I kind of felt dwarfed by it. How do you perform like you're worth that much? It felt like a lottery win. Meant to quote Viv Nicholson (Littlewoods Pools winner) and say: "I'm going to spend, spend, spend." But in my jet-lagged delirium it came out as I'm rich beyond my wildest dreams.
Angels is the song that defines me. It's my greatest achievement so far. I do love that song. It touches people. It's played at births, deaths and marriages and that's very, very special. It's a hatch, a match, dispatch song and my biggest bona fide gold plated biggest hit. I'm still searching for, you know, the one that transcends everything and hits people's hearts, I'm still searching for another one like that.

There is a track called Coffee, Tea and Sympathy that I'm very proud of on my B-sides and rarities compilation. It should of made it on to one of the albums but Guy Chambers didn't like it, at that time I thought he owned music.
Life has definitely turned a corner for me. There have been downs - all well-documented - there has been rehab, a lot of issues. But at 36, my life is changing for the good. With a bit more maturity and a bit more love for myself, I recognise that and I'm getting there, it's happening but slowly, slowly catch a monkey.
I'm proud to say Robbie Williams now has a few grey hairs. Maturity-wise I feel about 20, but I've definitely been marked by the old passage of time. Up until my late-20s I was constantly dying my hair all different colours and then at 35, 36, I noticed a couple of grey hairs and you know what, I liked it. I like looking at the mirror and seeing those hairs on my head, it's a testament to my time on the planet. I think ultimately I'm just glad to be growing up at last.