Robbie Williams on working with Tony Iommi, new album 'Britpop' and hanging out with Soft Play

NME

NME caught up with Robbie Williams backstage at the Ivors 2025 where we was given the Icon Award to talk about working with Black Sabbath legend Tony Iommi on new single 'Rocket', memories of the '90s and how they inspired guitar-heavy new album 'Britpop', if we'll see him at any Oasis shows, his new bromance with Soft Play, and the chances of seeing him at Glastonbury.

Transcript

00:00Robby congratulations how you feeling? Feeling good yeah I'm feeling good I'm trying to

00:06be in the moment and not let the moment take me so I'm trying to be

00:12about things and I think I'm succeeding but also at the same time I'm constantly

00:19you know in the uh in all of my um my my head is spinning trying to figure you know

00:28people like you asking how does it feel I don't know loads and loads and loads of different things

00:33top one is I was allowed in so at least I'm not outside looking in going why they're not allowing

00:39me in and I think that's the most important thing for me officially recon officially recognized as

00:44an icon now they can put on your LinkedIn I suppose so yeah yeah yeah come on then I will put on your

00:51CV yeah I will yeah all right yeah I will um new song Rocket absolute banger um what can you tell

00:57us about the decision to get Tony Iommi involved what was the energy like in the studio I wasn't

01:02in the studio with Tony but I mean you know how lucky I am how am I how lucky am I and also you know

01:09the audacity for both of us Black Sabbath featuring on a Robbie Williams song God bless him for doing

01:17that and uh God bless me for my audacity and we can expect an audacious album Britpop Spirit of the

01:25time lots of noise lots of hedonism um well the I mean if hedonism is Jaffa cake based yeah the best

01:33kind Cadbury's uh fruit and nut then I'm in but uh everything else I've got to park until I die

01:43hopefully because if I don't park it it'll kill me just fruit and nut just fruit and nut man just fruit

01:49and nut but what was it about the spirit of Britpop that time you wanted to bring back for this record

01:53um I was uh playing it safe and I I've had my um I've my buy I've not been driving my own car

02:03I've not had the hands on the wheel and uh through uh second thinking myself and guessing what people

02:10like and I just wanted to do something that I like um and what can we expect from the tour there's going

02:16to be the same kind of energy lots of you can expect the world's number one light entertainer

02:22entertaining you in a light way that ranges from light to heavy depending on how many drinks you've

02:29had and a southerly breeze yeah um will we see you any oasis shows with it being the summer of

02:35Britpop 3 only will you not be seeing me any oasis shows you will not be seeing me at any shows

02:41full stop I'm a wonderful agri-phobe very happy agri-phobe but it's nice that you're here and it's

02:46also nice that soft player here yes lads would you mind lads soft play very graciously presented

02:53you with your award tonight what do these lads mean to you um well yeah I mean look these lads appeal to

03:00the uh 14 year old version of me that um wanted to rage hard be cool shout uh be you know aggressive in

03:14a kind way which is what you are you're sort of like aggressive in the kindest way possible and there

03:21is a bit of a love fest um I don't get to hang out with them as much as I would like to hopefully

03:27they'll come and join me on tour for a little bit but um yeah I mean you know this is a shout

03:33out to 14 year old me going look at the people I like liking me and guys some love for Robbie what

03:39does he mean to you well he's soundtracked a big portion of our lives with bangers and now he's our

03:45mate and we love him just in the uh Volvo v70 as a kid like didn't listen to anything more than Robbie

03:53and he's our dad oh that's right super group maybe see you all at Glastonbury maybe super beef

04:00if they're lucky yeah history to be made guys thank you very much thank you very much thank you so much

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