Robbie Williams has revealed that he threw up on stage during his gig at the Sonderfreifläche Messe in Munich, Germany on 27 August.
After falling ill with a fever, the 48-year-old has spoken about how he powered through to avoid disappointing the many fans who’d pay to see him perform.
Responding to Annie Macmanus on her latest podcast episode Changes, Williams explained that he had started feeling ill while touring some shows that were postponed due to the pandemic.
“I had a fever before going on, and I felt dreadful,” Williams recalled.
“There were over 100,000 people at this gig and the responsibility of being able to give them their money’s worth and to stand in front of that many people, whilst feeling that way was a heady mix.
“It’s the first time that I’ve thrown up on stage,” he told Macmanus.
“I was drinking double espressos to power through it,” he added before saying: “Long story short, it was an amazing gig and through the love of the people and some Stoke-on-Trent grit, I got through it”.
Reflecting on the pressure to always entertain, Williams explained how he’s learnt over the years to resist the anxiety around performing.
“With a bit of maturity and time on my side and experience, I’ve realised when the body says you’re going to die, run off, you actually survive – but you don’t know that at the start!”, he said laughing.
“I recognise that voice now, and I go, ‘it’s okay I’m bigger than that voice’”.
Williams said that his children, wife and friends had all been at the Munich show: “I had to do it, no matter what, no matter how I was feeling, how ill I was or how vulnerable I felt.”
“I was turning to my wife and I was like, ‘I’ve got this’. It felt good to be able to say that and in the end, I got it.”
However, the singer revealed that he went to do his next gig in Bonn, his family members weren’t there and he felt much less confident in getting through the show.
Before the gig he thought to himself “I haven’t got this,” he told Macmanus laughing.
“That was terrifying, but that being said, I did have it and the gig went really well.”
“Most of the time it’s just a relief that I didn’t let me down and I didn’t let them down,” he added.
The “Angels” singer was due to perform at a festival in Leeds on Saturday, but the show has been cancelled following the death of the Queen on 8 September.
