WEAPONIZED with Jeremy Corbell & George Knapp - Robbie Williams Conquers The World - Guest : Robbie Williams

Episode Date: May 16, 2023

Singer/songwriter/entertainer Robbie Williams has dazzled global audiences for decades. In the UK, Williams is tied with the Beatles for the most Number One albums - more than Bowie, Elton, and Elvis. He earned a spot in Guinness Book of World Records for selling out an entire concert tour in one day. In this candid interview, Robbie shares insights about his personal challenges, battles with tabloid media, and a lifetime of unusual experiences and encounters, including a visit to Skinwalker Ranch with Jeremy and George. He also revealed details about an upcoming movie based on his life and the surprising next step in his career as a performer. GOT A TIP? Reach out to us at [e-mail] For breaking news, follow Corbell & Knapp on all social media. Extras and bonuses from the episode can be found at https://WeaponizedPodcast.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Luminati being a pop star. Right. Have you tried? Well, that, yeah, I have. I genuinely have. I'm you, you know. I'm the people watching this now. And I have a fortunate position where I could be on the inside

to see if anything's going on. You know, there's a suggestion from what's here is all these different phenomena that you wouldn't normally associate with each other. UFOs and Poultergeist, Poultergeist and Bigfoot, Bigfoot and cattle mutilations, all those things. things in one place. Secrets, cover-ups, and strange phenomena. UFOs and ideas that challenge reality itself. All these mysteries, all this time. Are we ever going to get to the bottom of these?

My name is George Knapp. I dig into news stories that others can't or won't. I'm Jeremy Corbell, and for some reason people tell me things they probably shouldn't. And this is weaponized. This is weaponized. We are so jazzed because of the guest we have today. I'm going to embarrass him before we introduce him. So if you think about the top recording artists in the history of popular music in the UK. So the top album sales, the people who have had the artists who have had the most number one albums. Elton John has seven number one albums in the UK. Taylor Swift has nine. Michael Jackson is 10. David Bowie 11. Bruce Springsteen and Madonna both have four. 12 Elvis has 13 there's only two acts that are above that one is the Beatles and one is Robbie Williams who's here right hello everybody williams what's up man yeah what a um lovely to see you guys great to see incredible to see you guys and yeah what a like bizarre statistic and wonderful that it happened to me but it just it it it constantly feels surreal that um attached to that statistic.

I mean, just reading that list and realizing where you are in that pantheon of great artists, oh my gosh, it would be overwhelming. It must feel like it's out of body kind of a thing for you. Yeah, I mean, not to sound grandiose, but there's this biopic being made about me right now, and I was there this year being in a bit of it. And I was sat in the makeup room, and the man that's playing my father is sat next to me, the woman that is playing my mother is there, and then the woman that's playing my grandma is there.

And then there's all of the hair that I've had from the age of eight onwards. And then my old bandmates, because I was in a boy band from the age of 16 to 20, there's like my boy bands, like one of them had dreadlocks, so there's the dreadlocks. And like there's one of the guy's chins, a prosthetic chin right next to me as I'm having my makeup done. It's just the most bizarre, surreal experience,

like being invited to the best birthday party ever that somehow you don't feel as though you deserve because of the whole charlatan syndrome or whatever. But that statistic in itself, you know, thank God that happened to me. I'm incredibly grateful and I feel really lucky. Yeah, man. I just like, it's so cool to have you here. I kind of got introduced to your music after we became friends.

Like I didn't know, you know, in the U.S., I didn't know much. I realized how I saw a poster of you on the Sunset Strip. Looks like you're fighting yourself. I thought it was a boxing match, that album cover you put out. But I had not kind of known about your music. I met you through George and we became friends. And then I started listening. And he was like, look, Robbie's, you know, one of these top musical artists,

like check out what he's done. You've done so many different styles and types of music and you even send me sometimes like little, you know, songs you've done that are just so different, like all these different types of music. Do you, I mean, maybe you've been asked this a thousand times, but like what is it that like motivates you to do these different styles of music? What is it that you really love about what you do?

I think that I've been, I got really, lucky really early doors in life you know I I wasn't academic and we didn't have dyslexia when I was growing up so I was just stupid you okay you know that wasn't thought of in the 80s in Stoke-on-Trent where I'm from and I left school at nearly 16 with no qualifications and Stoke-on-Trent's like a small town in England yeah Stoke-on-Trent is five small towns all put together, you know, it's the, I suppose we're rednecks, okay? You know, and I auditioned for a boy band and I got in.

Wow. And, you know, I've always felt as though the look particularly for me has been huge. And I find myself in this place where I'm going, well, I got lucky, I did this. I found and wrote this song called Angels that became massive and gave me. massive and gave me a career, what else is it that I can do? Where, you know, it's like I get bored in one box. So if I'm lucky enough to be able to write in this style, how else can I write? What can I paint? What clothes can I make?

What building can I build? What TV show can I write? What film can I write? You know, while I'm here, I might as well explore absolutely everything, that I can. I noticed that when I, you know, went over to Robbie's place and he's like, hey, do you want to paint? I'm like, yeah, sure. I'm not really good at it, but let's do it. And he's like, we go into this garage and there's just like hundreds and hundreds of paintings he's been making.

There's a craziness to it, but it's not too crazy. I like the colors. I'm not an artist. I can't draw. I can't paint. But I would like to produce something that Luke's art. out of these recent paintings everything that you see and it was is two weeks old everything you know these didn't exist two weeks ago that's yeah that's what's

impressive man like I was just coming over to see it and you're like oh you want to paint I'm like yeah I want to paint and I had no idea I was gonna step in and you've just been like mass producing just like unleashing yeah and it's been a fun process I had no idea what the what you meant to want to paint this sounded fun but it's been really cool to see you just you just go for it without hesitation Yeah. Well, you know, I'm not burdened by talent. You know, it's like I haven't spent any time honing any sort of skill to do with this medium. When I left, I was in a boy band and when I left the boy band, I could do any music that I wanted to

and, you know, throw enough crap at all, someone gets sticks. I'm hoping that it's such a British thing to put yourself down by the way right you know so I'm throwing enough crap at the wall and I hope something sticks I like this one as well say drugs to know

most of the things that have happened to me is when I've been totally over right and they're so weird that you need to explain to people that it's a sober state this happened so you said I don't know what I saw but you do know what you saw you saw UFOs one that you could throw a tennis ball at you saw apparition type things you've had almost time distortions when you've looked out over Egypt I mean you

yeah yeah yeah I forgot about that yeah it's like a break in reality to a different time that happened at the ranch there's a tear in the sky oh okay world behind yeah I've I've seen everything disappear and there'd be something else there all pay off your home travel for life Drive a Ferrari. In celebration of the world premiere of the Monopoly Big Board Buckslot Machine by Aristocrat Gaming, Yamava Resort and Casino at San Manuel is giving one person a $1.6 million dream package.

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Is that kind of part of it for you? Is that you've got some shit? You just got to get out through your. I think that, you know, like if you, I'm a complete addict and an alcoholic and left untethered, that sort of energy and that sort of, yeah, that energy can go into, for me, cocaine. ecstasy, marijuana, booze. All the good stuff. All the great stuff. When it works, it's great.

When it doesn't, it doesn't. Stop working for me a long time ago. But like there is still an addict that's inside of me. And it beams out on a day-to-day basis. And if I concentrate that energy and being creative, it's a superpower. What does that addict want? More. More of everything.

And like if it's more images that I'm creating, or if it's more lyrics that I'm writing, or if it's more maladies that I'm coming up with, or if it's more ideas for businesses, then it's good for my family and it's good for me. But if it's the opposite of that, it's terrible for my family and it's terrible for me. And you seem super like, I can relate.

Like, I'm super fucking curious about stuff. And so it seems like there's this insatiable need to learn more and to try new things. And it could be a curse or a blessing, but it really does drive your art, doesn't it? It drives the absolutely everything. But it's also a tight wire that I'm walking at all times that I could always fall off of. And that's either thrilling or terrifying. But yeah, I've got my techno project called Loft House that I'm working on. That's, you go and check it out on YouTube.

I've done the swing stuff. I do the rock stuff, which is a pop stuff. So you sent me this video one time and you're like, I mean, it was crazy. There's Robbie. I don't know what you're doing, but there's just tons of young people around you and you're just like dancing in this room. Is that part of the techno thing? You just send me some video by text.

No, no, what that was. That was me. with the England squad. Did I send you that? The soccer team. The soccer team. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Football team. No, that was different. I'm talking about another video. So what's the Techno thing exactly? Oh, okay. So during COVID,

two of my friends that I worked with on an album called Take the Crown started to really get into Techno, and they kept sending me these tracks over. And then, you know, nothing was happening during COVID. So I sat down and wrote 27 melodies and 27 vocals for 27 songs, and it became a something. And it became a something that wasn't me, but it was me. And we decided to form a collective called Loft House, and then Loft House have supported me on tour,

and so I get to support me. I wasn't on stage, but yeah, that's one of the projects. My origin story with Rob is a guy named Mark Allen. Mark Allen created above top secret, this incredibly successful website, covers UFOs, things of that sort. And I had met him at a UFO conference. We hit it off. He spilled a glass of wine on me, and we were friends ever since. And then he was telling me about this guy named Robbie Williams.

Well, I've heard that name. I couldn't think of any of the songs. He said, yeah, you've got to meet him. We've gone on these trips, UFO adventures, you've got to meet him. And so at some point, I get a call in an invitation to go to Rob's house. It's in Mulholland Estates, and he was incredibly gracious. This house is fabulous in this great neighborhood. First day I'm there, we take a little walk down the neighborhood,

and Rob is saying, okay, that's the guy that lives across the street. His name is Slash. He's a guitarist. And then we're five houses down. It's Paris Hilton's house. We walk down to the end of the hill, and a guy gets out of a car with a couple of striking blondes. That's Charlie Sheen and a couple of his angels.

We go around the corner and he was looking at a piece of property, I think, and he says, oh yeah, that's Tom Jones's house right there. What the hell? And the neighborhood is dead. What did I walk into with this? And the house was beautiful. The property is, the view was great. And I was blown away.

I guess it has a history. That house has been owned by some pretty interesting people. Yeah, none that I can remember now. But I tell you, Clint Black, I used to own it. And then DJ Khalid, he bought it from me. We're in a different place now. But yeah. Hold on.

So the news reports say that you're homeless. So come on, Rob. Tell us the truth. What's going on. Okay. Okay. So, yeah, it's interesting what, how tabloids work in general. You know, it's like today we will do this podcast and then something will be written that

will be out of context. Yeah. And I'm all right with that now. It's just like, oh, okay. But I am never in one place, very long, because of how I work and where I work. My job takes me everywhere but California and North America. And the kids are homeschooled because of it. We've got like this choice.

Their kids are either homeschooled or they never get to meet daddy. So we, I do have homes, plural. Yeah, yeah. But, you know, it's getting to the point where the kids need a home, singular, because they need to go to school, they need to socialise, and they're missing out on an awful lot. So when I did that podcast, whenever I spoke about that. I was probably in, I don't know, Albania or Lithuania or wherever I was doing, whatever it was that I was doing. And, you know, you can feel when you move so much, homeless in your heart. So I guess that's what I was talking about. I don't even know what that was. But yeah, no, I'm good. You know, my cardboard, my cardboard box is so fire. I'm going to

docks myself. That house I'm talking about was that was, that was 10, 12 years ago. And then there was another house here in Southern California. Any house that has a name, that's a big house. You've been to that property, Jeremy. Yeah, the Kip House. Yeah, it was beautiful. I mean, you built such a beautiful life for yourself.

I think, you know, coming in and, you know, meeting your family and your wife, where I went to high school with. I mean, that's pretty crazy. And just, I really appreciate the way that you've kind of built your life. I can't imagine what it's like having to run around the world. Every time we FaceTime, whatever, you're in a different country in a different place, but you like that, right? You like the job of what you do. I do now.

I do now because of the children. Yeah. You know, like before, because of the addictions and because of the malady of who I am as a human, you know. if you mix fame with extreme sensitivity and depression and low self-esteem and low self-worth, it's potent. And you mix that then with extreme success that you don't think you deserve. And then you mix that with tabloids and, you know, just stuff. it can break you.

And I challenge anybody to point to a very successful, hyper, famous person in whichever country they're in, and go, that's a normal person that survived it and had a great time. Everybody, it happens to everybody. So when it does happen, you're like, why am I doing this for? It's mental. And then the kids arrived.

And when the kids arrived, all four of them, I then saw it as a job and it's the best job in the world and I have purpose. Before, there was no purpose apart from bouncing off hotel rooms, being lonely, seeking out people to spend the night with and depression. And then when the kids come, you know, I have complete, I'm completely driven to facilitate something for them. Since they've arrived, I see it as a job, and now I see it as a job. It's the best job in the world, and I'm having a lot of fun.

We talked about this on the way over here. What it would be like to be you, where you were under microscope your entire life, from the time you're a teenager until now, everything you do, everything you say is hyper-analysed and kicked around and distorted in media reports. We have a tiny little sliver of familiarity with minor celebrityhood and a small pond. What it would be like to be under that level of investigation for your whole life.

Well, what you originally do is you get really hurt by it. And then because I'm where, I'm from where I'm from, from, you know, what we would do as people that go at the pub is fight. And so you want to fight everybody and everything mentally and physically. You know, you also, I also know that I can't actually do that because I'll go to prison or I'll get in a lot of trouble. So then you fight with your wiles. if you have any wiles to fight with,

and then eventually you realize that you're fighting a losing battle, and then you become defeated, and then you accept. And I've been in acceptance for quite a while now, and I've got to say that acceptance for what it is is an incredible place to be, you know, that resentment and bitterness and anger towards this machine that happens to you only breaks you. How much of it do you pay attention to you? We saw this headline today.

Robbie Williams is homeless. Doesn't know where he's going to go. And since we've known you, we see that a regular stream of those kind of headlines that are ridiculous. It's clickbait. Well, look, you know, for a long period in my life, I would. was what is considered box office for tabloids in the media. You know, it's like my name, shifted copy, sold things.

And that bright light that once shone on me intently, where they came to seek me at every opportunity, that was incredibly uncomfortable. But since then, that light has moved on and gone on to other people. And also, the culture is different. now since there's been inquiries about how and what the business does and how it goes about doing it the people that do that stuff have had to behave in a different way so there's still things

happening to people out there that are dreadfully unkind and illegal but it happens in a different way now and what happens for me as a 49 year old pop star You know, it's incredibly, I can deal with it now. You know, it's, those sort of things are kind of like water off a duck's back. But from 19, you know, I joined take that in 1990. And then I had a, the solo career took off in 96. I would say from 96 to 2009, you know, it was just. I became a hermit

2005. Is this when you were wearing that? I bought a Kashmir kaftan. I grew a beard because I saw when Paul McCartney left the Beatles he grew a beard and bought a farm and I thought he looked really cool

so I grew a beard and I looked like a serial killer and that was when what happened was was like okay I think my job job's killing me. So I'm going to stop doing my job. But then quite quickly I realized that apart from growing a beard, that's not a career. I realized that, you know, I needed a purpose.

And then I understood that adage that, you know, if you do, if you can get paid for something that you love, you never work a day in your life. And I thought, what do I love? Whoa, I love the paranormal. You know, I love the paranormal. I love this stuff. You know, I love this thing that we're into. What is it that I can do in that avenue, you know, be it big or be it small, that can give me purpose where I don't have to go and stand in front of stadiums full of people and find it really strange? Because like having 80,000 people staring at you. Yeah. It's really, it's really odd. I can imagine. It's just really odd. Yeah. It's beautiful. But, you know, you know, No, it's 80,000 people staring at you.

Now it's wonderful, but back then it was just like, why, what? As an introvert, is that just like, on the core of that when you started having all of these eyes on you, as an introverted person, which you say you are, right? I mean, you are pretty much introverted. Is that just fucking bizarre? Well, I'm an introvert in real life

and I play an extrovert in my professional life. And yeah, it, because that mind, My thing when I get on stage is I'm full of bravado and piss and vigor and like big, you know, things and, you know, look at me, I'm rock hard. And, you know, it's like that is not, that's not who I am, but that's what I do professionally. And you mix this with this mask that you put on. And while you've got this mask on, you're in charge of facilitating and energy and emotions for a stadium full of people that are all looking at you. Yeah, like the mixture of that is really weird. So your interest in the abnormal...

Oh, yeah, so I'll go back to what I was saying. So like, you know, I needed a purpose and what was going to do. So I stuck my head above the parapet to go, I'm into this. And back in 2006, before the event of all of a sudden the press and the media not poo-pooing this subject, they were heavily involved with finding it ridiculous and dismissing it and shaming people that would even mention it and when I put my head above the parapet in 2006 I went I'm in new aliens there you go that's the clip yeah they gave you a new reason to kick you in the tea yeah yeah I remember like leaving the

the house one day and like a newspaper had sent a journalist to stand up out outside my house in a green alien suit. Which was just like, yeah, maybe, maybe this. It just felt shameful. So unfortunately, I didn't take up the mantle of, you know, what you're doing so brilliantly. You didn't just get that interest out of the blue. You had some personal things that happened that opened that door for it.

Had you listened to coast to coast? Like, is that, had you heard of George? Yeah, all this. So you did. You're like sitting there listening to coast to coast like me being like, oh, that's cool, right? Yeah, I mean, like George, still to this day, you know, even with our friendship, I'm, you know, I bow down because, you know, that, those years of listening to coast the coast nightly and becoming a member of the being able to download the four different segments

and you know that would be my tour taken care of you know that that's where I would go I would disappear into your voice and your guests and how that you how you went about it and how you gave credence to these stories being there being if they are fanciful or far-fell or unbelievable or, you know, just given your voice and your mind, giving that open forum for these people to talk, was a great place for me to seek solace in something at the time that was very incredibly niche. You know, it makes you feel as though you're in a gang.

Right. You know. Yeah. It made you feel as though you're in a gang. And also, you know, with the seriousness of George's background, it gave credence to your own fanciful thoughts that something is up. Right. That's what you keep saying that to me. Something is up.

It's the greatest thing. You're talking about UFOs, Robbins-Saw, something's up. Whenever we get deep into it, that's where he ends on it. And I just, you know, the idea that we would, maybe we've had experiences that we can't explain. And as you say, people like to mock it and that kind of thing. what George has done all these years was provide a way that people could talk about it and just say, this happened to me. I can't explain it, but this happened to me. And, you know, most people are being honest that something happened to them. That is more common that people are being honest,

but just having it heard and listened to and not ridiculed, not mocked, but like, what is up with this? Something is up. It affected a lot of people in a lot of ways, you know, that you gave that forum and that platform. It did for me, too, for sure. So you have had some experiences that you can't explain. So have I. And people have. And were these things that motivated you to kind of look into this? I mean, well, I always think is like, where does this first come from?

Chicken or egg? Chicken or egg and why are you so motivated to, it's my everyday. you know, I'm checking in with UFO Twitter or checking in with you guys or... You have a secret UFO account? No, no, I actually don't. No, I actually don't. I should do. You just read it.

Yeah, yeah, I just read it. And, you know, YouTube, which is scarily, I would say, for the last three to four years of sort of clamp down on the auditing. stuff, the fringiest of fringe stuff. And you have to go other places to seek it out now. But from like 2005, 2006, when it was the Wild Wild West on the internet, you know, it was a wonderful place to go and listen to. And where I stand on it all is my mind is open and everything is on the table.

Everything is on the table. You know, I don't believe in anything, you know, but if people want to come and say that this happened to them, I'll go, well, that's interesting, you know. But I'm not going to go, it's not a hill that I'm going to go and die on. Right, right. You know, it's like, well, I think this and, you know, this is definitely happening because nobody knows. Right. It remains a mystery a lot of us, but you've had a couple of experiences that when you've told them to me, there was so interesting. interesting. You were recording angels.

I'll talk you. I'll watch you tell them. No, no, what one was the two big stories. There's like two big stories, many, many, many like, that's odd. You know, chicken in the egg first, back to that. So where does this all come from? So I grew up and just outside of my mother's bedroom was a book, a shelf of books. And in those books was folklore.

folklore and fairy tales and I think my mom considered herself or considered herself somewhat of a white witch. So there's all of these interesting books that are mind expanding. And then my grandmars, there was like books, like UFOs over London. And like I can see the cover of this book now and I'd probably be my son's age eight or nine.

And then you, you know, so your mind is open to something else existing. But then also, you know, I was raised Roman Catholic and there was this miracle man that walked on water fed a lot of people, you know, with Scampi. And it's, so from from day one, there's this mind opening that there is this other thing that exists. And I'll tell you the stories. So there's two big stories. And basically, you know, I have. I've never felt closer to the woo than I do in Los Angeles. There's something about being in Los Angeles, even though, you know, we had a house in the

UK and it was a thousand years old. Wilcher. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, when we went to see it at the bottom of the drive that day, there was a crop circle. There was a crop circle at the bottom of the drive. And you have a giant figure like in your backyard. Yeah. Yeah, the arm had this huge, huge figure.

It's more of a castle in a home. Well, no, it used to be a castle. But what happened was they brought in this window tax. I think like in the 18th century, you know, the internet will tell me if I'm right or wrong. But they brought in this window tax. And how many windows you have is how much you're taxed. So they burnt the castle down. They burnt their own castle down, I guess, because.

you know they couldn't afford the tax on their own windows but what they did leave up was the barn and the barn's huge the barn was like 20,000 square foot so we owned the barn and it was where Catherine Parr Henry the 8th's wife used to live and and keep horses so even though I lived on land that is you know it's over a thousand years old with it with its own forest that's over a thousand years old and blah blah blah blah blah and all my guests you know complained or worried or noticed that there was a ghost there I never I never noticed any of it I've never felt more closer to the woo than I do in Los Angeles and two things two major things happened while I was here

I was with a young lady that will remain nameless because my wife and it was over-send 17 years ago because I've been with my wife for 17 years. And we're both on a sun lounger looking up at the stars and it's half past 10. And she's next to me. I'm here. Relaxing. And then all of a sudden, out of nowhere came this square object, which I can only guess was about the size of two penalty boxes in soccer. You know the penalty box where the goalkeeper is?

I would say if you elongated two of those, black, silent, low enough to throw a golf ball or a tennis ball and hit the underside of it, came floating over the trees, underneath it had these yellow, I would say like safety. Lights? No, not lights, no, strips. Yellow strips. like this and then it was metallic it was matte black with these bumps in it and it came over silently and then carried on going silently away and yeah I can't I can't explain what that was and she turned around and went what the fuck was that yes she saw I mean that's a fucking UFO that's it that's an unidentified

flying object But like what I didn't do was instantly go, you know, it's from Zeta reticuli or whatever. I just, you know, I just thought, well, there's a bit of exotic technology that they're not telling us we've got. Right. But what was interesting was the fact that that's incredibly interesting by itself. The other interesting thing was this was at the Beverly Hills Hotel at half past 10, which is a very, you know, it's a on Sunset Strip. So if I saw it, so did countless other people. But as it happens, they didn't. You and the person you were with both saw it. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. But what you'd imagine,

just everybody would have seen that. Yeah. And like, and if it's, you know, if it's that low and that big, going over the hotel, it's then got to go up Benedict Canyon, which has got a thousand houses, You know, and then it's got to go over Benedict Canyon into the San Fernando Valley. So, you know, in the San Fernando Valley has got millions and millions of people in there. So where are the reports? Not only where are the reports. Where are the other people that saw it that night? And where is the talk and where is the chatter?

And there isn't. So that was one story. The other story was I wrote a song called Arizona about alien abduction. right and it's on YouTube it's a B-side it's not a great song it's an all right song and we wrote it at the James Gillilands Ranch and brought it home and my studio at the time was in my bedroom and I had a balcony at the Moreland Estates place that overlooked the San Fernando Valley and I'm playing the song on the speakers and I'm listening to it

and I'm trying to whittle away the lyrics to make them better I didn't manage it but I was having a secret and I was overlooking the San Fernando Valle and I'm thinking about how to create better lyrics and a ball

appears in the sky, a gold ball and I'm like, nice one Venus yeah you're not going to trick me again Venus you're not going to trick me again Venus yeah because you know that that's one thing that you do learn from the internet and being shamed and also being proven wrong. You know, you, you're instantly shown.

I know this was that and this was that and that can't be that because that's this. But this one was like, interesting, but no. And then the song finishes and the ball disappears. And I'm like, still no. And then I played it again because I'm working on the lyric. And as I play it again, the song comes on and the ball appears in the sky. And I'm like, you may have my attention. And song finishes, ball flashes out.

And my friends, I go, guys, come and have look at this, right? I think when you press play, this ball's going to appear over there. Look over there. And they pressed play and looked out at the window. And a ball appeared. And they were like, what the F is that? Came out again. And I said, and now when the song finishes, it blinks out.

And the song finished and it blinked out. And it did it again five times in a row. My wife appears. I go, babe, look at this. It happens again, blinks out. It's six or seven times in a row. And after the seventh time, not only has it now got my attention, but I'm fully invested in this being a woo-woo, you know?

And the song blinks out. Now, all of my friends are super-exam. excited. We go back into the bedroom, Calvin Danny, who are from Stoke-on-Trent, that I're right with, are there. I'm here, the wife's there. We go, wow, like that. And we look to the right, well, we don't look to the right, it just appears this black strip about this thick comes from the bedroom door, stretches out the length of the bedroom, which is quite big, goes to the window and then follows itself out. And, um, We all saw that.

And what was that? What was that? What was that? Something's up. Man, something's up. And there's loads of other stories that, you know, are so fanciful. And, you know, as time has passed, I don't know if I've had added steering wheels and wheels to it. Or have you tried to talk yourself out of it?

You talk, you, you, you, must have been X. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, yeah, that's, yeah, I, I, I, there's loads that I've talked myself out of and convinced myself that, you know, maybe my mental illness is, is also bigger than just feeling a bit sad. Have you entertained the idea that your creative nature? attracts things that are you're open to it I've I've entertained the idea that I'm looking for it and searching for it and at that particular part of my life before the children came that was yeah I was I was searching for it and actively saying turn up show me since the children have arrived 10 years ago zilch nothing because my focus is with them and

on them. But when I was in America with time on my hands, when I grew a beard and wore a caftan and sat on the sofa, my concentration was on the woo-woo aspect of the something's up. You know, what you describe sounds like some classic UFO type events. You've had other experiences in your life that would be something akin to. Poltergeist, supernatural. Paltgeist supernatural, coincidences that are so huge and so bizarre that you have to say there's something up with them.

The thing that has been happening frequently, which happens to everybody, but the rate at which that it's turned up just recently is like, okay, Well, what's going on is the, you think of people they phone. You think of people they email, you know, and obviously you could say that this, a lot of its coincidence. But the rate that it's been happening just recently is like, oh, now you've got my attention,

you know, because it's happening. I won't have talked to somebody, have seen somebody for years and years and. and years and years, you think about them. And as you think about them, you open up your computer and you go to your emails and there they are. I know this sounds oblique and nothing to put your hook on. But I think that if people saw it happening, as often as it's happening just recently,

it will get your attention. That's all I'm saying. It may be nothing, but at the moment, that's the thing that's happening. Yeah. Well, it's a cool experience either way. We don't have to solve this. riddle. It's just something to pay attention to, right? It's a, it's something that maybe can

help guide you in a way. If you're constantly having these experiences, you pay attention to them, maybe there's a value in that. I'll tell you the oddest thing of this sort of nature that's ever happened to me. And this is, this will be, this is not, this is bizarre, this will be bizarre to you and comedic to everybody that knows who this person is that I'm about to tell you. Just be bizarre to you, but it'd be comedic to the people that know I'm referencing. So back in England, there used to be this double act called Little and Large, and they were on the TV from, I'd say, 81 to 85 or something like that. And I'm asleep and I'm dreaming.

And Little from Little and Large comes into my dream. And in my dream, you know, sometimes. Sometimes when you're having a dream and you realize you're dreaming. It happens few and far between, but sometimes it does happen. Little walks into my dream and I'm like, what? Oh, I'm dreaming. Oh, okay. Oh, this is a dream.

The next day out of nowhere, little, from little and large, gets hold of me through a friend, never met this man in his life and asks me to sign an autograph for a girl that's dying of cancer. Now, it's, you know, tenuous to the uninitiated that are out there watching this. But for me, you know, it kind of blew my mind that I dreamt this person and the next day he wanted me to do something for somebody who was leaving this mortal plane. Right, you never met that person before and you have a dream. It's those style coincidences that happen to me a great deal. Yeah.

Have any psychic abilities or ever go through training like remote viewing? You've had, you know, you have friends who are in those programs. You know people who have done that stuff. You ever gone down that road and tried to hone your skills? I'm so lazy. When it's not a painting, a malady, a lyric, a business idea, a business opportunity, anything out of a side of that, always, always, always, with remote viewing, I'm like, I'm doing that one day. I'm doing that one day. Always, always, always, I'm going to sit down and see if I can

hone this for it to be something, whatever that something is. I never do. Every January, I decide I'm going to devote this year to learning meditation and get the benefits from it. I'm still waiting to start that process. The creative process for you. This is the most amazing thing about Rob and Noah and Rob is how different he is in person from the guy on the stage. It's just it's night and day. What was surprising to me when I first started learning his music is, damn, these are pretty good songs, you know. This is pop music, but you portray yourself as illiterate, you're not well read, but damn, it's really pretty good. The lyrics of the stuff is good. Thank you. Can you describe, though, do you get inspired out of nowhere yet you see something

on the street and that makes you want to write a song? Or do you, are you disciplined enough to sit down and say, today I'm writing a song and it's going to be about X? Well, at any given time, on my Mac, I've got a vault of songs that's been unreleased that I would say would go into a hundred and something, you know. And when it comes to songwriting, you know, I can't play anything. But like melodies I've got on it's just, you know, it's been nonstop, you know. And lyrically, a lot of the time, I might, I'm a magpie too, you know, something that you might say, I'll just put in my notes. And I've got I've got page after page after page after page after page.

page up the page of things that I've found, words that are put together in a certain way that I find interest in, and then a lot of the time I can just cherry pick what I've got in my notes. But a lot of the time with songs, you know, I work with my friends, I work with the people that I love, and they'll send me a backing truck. I'll sing over the top of it,

and I'll sing these maladies, which will be, you know, the maladies will be pretty strong, but the words will be gibberish. And then you listen back to the gibberish that you've sang and then you try to fit the syllable to the gibberish. And sometimes the gibberish comes out and it sounds like something that might be interesting. So the gibberish a lot of the time informs what I write

and sometimes they just stay gibberish. Syllible to gibberish sounds like the title of the next album. Yeah, maybe. Yeah, maybe. I mean, some of those lyrics, when I listen to your songs, and they're great, melodic, they're fun, and then you dig into the lyrics and, God, damn, they're funny. Party like a Russian, one of my favorite. That one got you in trouble, though. Well, it semi got me in trouble, party like a Russian.

And also, there's a lot of things that I think and I say in lyrics that by the time it's ready to come out, I change so I don't get too much in trouble. So the lyric to party like a Russian was a lot better before I thought Vladimir Putin might kill me. Seriously, though. You were worried. Well, you know, I don't think I'm on Vlad's radar, but you know, there is a few rhyming couplets in the chorus that were a lot better before I was advised,

not by the powers that be, just by, you know, worried father figures that I may have to change things, But that's happened a lot in my career where I, you know, especially 2005, 2006, where you're picking up these books from the Bodie tree here in Los Angeles. And, you know, it is the Wild West and you're everywhere from, you know, super soldiers to secret labs to, you know, the industrial mirror. military complex, to the powers that be. And, you know, there was words that I put into songs that I thought, I'm just going into too much trouble. Not that I think any secret powers are going to come down heavily on me.

It's just, I might have to sit in an interview and explain this. So you haven't uncovered the Illuminati being a pop star. Right. Have you tried? Well, that, yeah, I have. I genuinely have. It's like, you know, I've turned up to places with people that I normally wouldn't associate with just to see what's going on and if anything is going on. Because I'm you, you know, I'm the people watching this now.

And I have a fortunate position where I could be on the inside to see if anything's going on. So you sat down and had like dinner with the queen before. Like whoever you think. Okay. Whoever you think I've been, you know, if there was a bunch of people that would come to a famous person to say, hey, do you want to be part of our club? At some point in my life, it would have happened to me. And, you know, when this was niche and was on the fringes of the internet, it was a very exciting place to be because there was no active. part happening in real life other than in the fantasy of your own mind.

Now what has happened is conspiracy has gone mainstream and it's reached and is reaching a very dangerous place where it's gone from you thinking about it in your bedroom to people taking action in real life and as a conspiracy listener, I wouldn't say theorist, I would just say as a conspiracy listener that gives my own forum to those words, you know, I've just sat on the sidelines going, guys, no, you're, you're poisoning yourself with a cult-like, absolute steadfast belief in something that actually exists in a gray area than you were allowing it to be. And I find that scary as somebody that can divorce himself from the lofted position

that I find myself economically and with who I have, who I have reached with and who I can have time with. You know, it's like I'm still a boy from Stoke-on-Trent that sees himself that way, but I, I am in this circle. And so far, everywhere I go, in the highest echelons of the highest people, I'll tell you what's absolutely scary is when I sit down and think it might just be chaos.

I'd rather have it be the Illuminati than it be just chaos, because chaos petrifies me. If you have a hidden hand that's running everything, then you can put it in a box. But when it's chaos, it's something else completely. I do think the truth lies in a grey margin.

You know, the more and more I think about it, if the gin exists, if spirits exist, if good exists, if bad exists, if angels exist, if there is a hidden hand, then I believe it exists on a more ethereal plane than a group of very rich people running things. That being said, I do see the community of people that get together every once in a while and decide how we should live. You know, you cannot not see that. But I wonder how much credence we as people that have interest in the woo-woo give to too much woo-woo that we've invested in. Where is the who's testimony are we taking? You know, from as much as I can see where this whole thing is concerned, the people that we are taking the lead from, you wouldn't buy a used car from.

You know, and, you know, there is a lot of mental illness out there. And you can say anything, you can write anything. And the written word it would seem is very powerful. But the written word from who and the testimony from who? And when and how? Who are these people? And why have millions of people all of a sudden put their belief a hundred percent into?

And now are acting out in real life. And that terrifies me. And there are a lot of things that people think have been debunk, which haven't been debunked. And I'm not saying that those things that haven't been debunked have anything to do with reality. There are things that haven't been explained, that should be explained. There are a lot of things that haven't been explained that can't be explained. Because the people that are attached to these stories can't have anything to do with what these stories are. They can't attack, they can't even have that.

That thing and that name associated with them. So that just builds and builds and builds mistrust and it builds mythology. It also, we're in a post-truth world where you can't believe the media, you can't believe big farmer, you can't believe politicians, you can't believe what you're eating,

you can't believe yourself, It's, you know, if at any time in human, since we've existed, there is a time where this whole empire could fall, it's now. And yeah, it's, of course these things are going to arise because we can't trust anybody or anything. And I personally just believe and invest in my wife and my kids and my family. And yeah, I believe in them. March 2018, we have this crazy idea. Maybe we should go to Skinwalker Ranch and maybe our friend Rob would go with us. Yeah.

We reach out to the owner of the ranch, Brandon Fugel. He says, yeah, come on down. We ask Rob, you want to go? because it's a nine-hour drive from Las Vegas to the Uintan. So, yeah, I'd like to go. I'll pick you guys up. When you need to build up your team to handle the growing chaos at work, use Indeed-sponsored jobs.

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This is a job for Indeed sponsored jobs. Ambition comes in all shapes and sizes. At First Citizens Bank, we roll with your goals because we're built for what you're building. Fit for your ambition for Citizens Bank. What do you want to know? Whether I am crazy or... Right.

No way. Well, there's lots of things that I want to know. But specifically because you're here, the vein that we're talking about, I suppose if we would put a name to it would be unusual phenomena. I don't want to say paranormal because I think it's got stigma. So as UFOs, stigma. Unusual phenomena that I've been attracted to ever since I was born

and obsessed about. and been in the presence of a few times. Short version when I was a kid, I can't remember this, but I used to talk to dead people. I freaked my father out when I was three and four and five, and they were people that had passed on. Lucid dreams, flying in my dreams when I was like three and four, where I went out of my bedroom and went around town,

got kicked in the nuts by people that are not into this, into this sort of stuff and by people that are into this kind of stuff. I suppose that it's like having your favorite band when you're younger and you know them before they become commercial and successful and then when it becomes they become commercial and successful, you hate them because they used to be your thing. I found some good people, you know. George is a great person and I was glad that I bumped into him and have him in my life. But also, you know, you encounter charlatans that are tricking themselves. I've come to believe a lot of them.

And I've reached a dead end pretty quickly. You've been invited to Skinwalker Ranch, where all of the phenomenon that you have just expressed have occurred in front of scientists and witnesses for generations. We're going to a hot spot. What is your feeling? My grandma used to tell me stories of the sandman that used to come and take children that weren't sleeping.

And I was three or four when she used to tell me these stories and they used to terrify me. And then when I was six, seven, eight, nine, ten, all the way up until my early thirties, I was either aware of something being there or damaged by these stories about the salmon. And, you know, facing your fear if you're scared of flying, you go flying. Are you prepared if you do experience something at Skinwalker Ranch?

No. Yeah, but I'm taking security with me. You know Jiu-Jitsu. And I'm quite handy with a smash bottle. Pick up the story from there. Yeah, that was great. Well, we got on a jet plane and that was really, really cool and we all went. So what I what was cool about that was that it was kind of very mysterious. Like we had met before and talked about what is it going to be like to go to

Skinwalker Ranch. We're both like, well, we don't want to be fooled by, you know, hey, Venus, don't fool me again. Like let's just go experience it. But it was just kind of cool. We were both feeling like what is it going to be like to be there together? Is there going to be some experience? We're kind of using Robbie as bait because he seems tapped in in some way to these odd experiences we figured throw him in as bait see if something occurs I was honestly I was just cool to go there as friends and and have that time together you know we did feel a little spooked out at times as we're walking through the dark just like in the middle of nowhere what was it like for you just you know going to this place where anything could happen that was the idea okay well well

yeah yeah we'll get we'll get to that it was a little something something that was a little something But first of all, you know, with UFOs, with you and with you, and we become friends. You know, it's equivalent of falling in love with the soccer team and then being able to be friends with the players. I say soccer, football, people in England get really angry with me. And then being friends with the players all of a sudden. And like, I'm friends with my favorite football team. You're my mate, you're my mate. I've respect for you.

I have huge respect for you. I have huge respect for you. And then all of a sudden, you know, we get to actually go to the equivalent of stepping on the field at Old Trafford or stepping on the field at Anfield or the Burnabout or wherever by going to Skinwalker Ranch. And as, you know, it's like the child in me is thrilled and honored at the opportunity to get to do that with the players. You know. We were pumped, man.

Yeah, we were pumped to go check it out. Yeah, we were pumped to go and check it out. Does this bring back memories to your first trip to the ranch? Well, yeah, I mean, the only other time we did this was the first trip that I ever made here. And we built the fire and we made a bunch of noise, did kind of things that this group has been doing today and yesterday and tried to attract the attention to something. It didn't work. And, you know, whatever that's here, it plays by its own rules.

that shows you what it wants to, when it wants to. And for Nids, when they came in, they came in like gangbusters. And there was a debate. Should they try a technical approach, scientific approach, or should they maybe back off, contact shaman, psychics, remote viewers. They end up bringing a lot of technical expertise and equipment, scientific measuring equipment, to try to figure out what's out here. And basically, science got its ass kicked because it was unable to come up with any

answers whatsoever. Collect a lot of information, but the phenomenon itself always seemed to be one step ahead of the team that was trying to figure it out. I don't know. Whatever is here, it toys with whomever is trying to figure it out. I mean, it plays games, it messes with your mind. It seems to know what you're going to do before you do it, and it gives you glimpses only when you don't expect it and you're not ready for it. So I don't know if anybody's ever going to be able to figure it out. But it's a it maybe that's the point of it. It's a learning curve. You know, it's it's meant to be the challenge, the journey of getting there as opposed to figuring out the final answer. And you know, there's a suggestion from what's here is all

these different phenomena that you wouldn't normally associate with each other UFOs and poltergeist, Poltergeist and Bigfoot, Bigfoot and cattle mutilations, all those things in one place. It's almost like it's telling us they're all related on some level and it's up to you to figure it out. I mean, so I've been out here, you know, a number of times with you, and I've really had nothing, but I wanted to have an experience that was, it was not good, to be honest with you. I did, because I wanted to see for myself, but I've only had really good experience. I tried to trick myself into feeling like, ooh, something's terrifying, but I've just felt good. You brought a bunch more people out this time. I mean, it's your guy's first time, and every time is different.

I'll admit that, for sure. Every time it's different. And I know you, Mark, you wanted to come for 20 years to this place because of the stories about it. And Robbie, it's your first time. And we talked before, and it was like, we didn't know, like, maybe a little scary, but you didn't expect to see anything, but it'd be cool if you did. My question would be to you is, have you ever been to hell? I'm assuming what you mean by that is, like, personal hell, what's my darkest moment? Have I felt that depth of despair?

And I'd say, I think everybody has had those moments if they've lived a life, but I don't know the level of that despair compared to yours or someone else's, but I have recovered from that. And so for me it's like in the sense of saying yes, but I don't know how it equates to yours. Because for me personally, you know, I've had difficulties with substance abuse, etc., etc., and found myself in places that I would deem to be hell on earth for quite a length of time. And my reservation would be, if it was just scary, I could deal with that.

But if I have a hitchhiker that comes on and takes me over, I couldn't deal with that. So I'm scared of that. But we do have a saying in England, and it's in for a penny and for a pound. I'm here, so I might as well. And I survived the last one, but only just. they just. We all talk about evidence like, you know, I'm making a film about this and everybody was, what's the evidence? I want to see the evidence. Well, what is evidence to you? Is evidence a photograph? Is it a video? What is evidence to you? Well, to me, a lot of what I have is

witness testimony. Witness testimony is evidence. We use it in court. It is something that I find most compelling depending upon the witness. So my question is, from what you guys have seen from witness testimony on this trip, especially you Robbie today, do you find that as evidence? Do you find that compelling what people have told you on this trip? I find it compelling, but I find it also. I find it the way that when I relate my stories about what's happened to me, you know, as nobody takes what I say home as evidence that something happened. I wouldn't be here if I didn't believe.

that there was some source of extra activity out of the realms of what we understand. Do I take it home in the court of law, ish, but not yes, ish? And I guess does there become a point where, for example, just the ranch, the story's at the ranch, a lot of witness testimony is on this, does that stack of paper, does that testimony at some point becomes so weighty that it just has value? value, you know, and that's something I'm struggling with, you know, being an outsider after you've been met with 20 years. That's the thing, you know, like the boom of the internet and all the information that you collect just by being obsessed with this kind of thing is you can collect

too much information and then you have to disseminate, disseminate, filter, you know, distill the truth. And this is part of me distilling the truth from what I've read on the internet. So sometimes you can have too much information. ATS is what you're talking about. He's not like ATS. Mark. I'm learning to undo everything that your website has done to my brain. And I love you too, Betty.

Yeah, I mean, for me, this place has been some, it's been a place I've been trying to get to for 25 years. Ever since George first brought it to the world, and, you know, and you did, I've been intrigued. As you under above topchequer.com, how could I not be? And I'm here. I was so excited to be here. And I have to tell you that I'm not disappointed.

I felt really kind of like everybody else. I felt very calm and peaceful here. Definitely hoping and sort of wishing for something to happen. But I'm okay that nothing has. The question, what is evidence? The witness testimony is what got me into this. I mean, admirals, generals, pilots, I mean, that's what initially got me into this stuff.

So, yes, that has weight. But would I love to see, you know, a portal open up right there? Yeah, I really would, as long as it stayed right there. Yeah, I guess it's just a personal struggle I have. It's just I've got the point. where I just, I don't have the luxury of disbelief anymore. I don't know what that means. It doesn't mean I know anything.

I just don't have the luxury of disbelief. And I don't know how better to say it. It's a great way to put it. Oh, I wish there was a better way because it doesn't complete it. Great way to put it. But the life stories that we are fed on a daily day basis are so concrete. And are so, um, or a hundred percent when something happens outside of those beliefs and the stories you've been fed, of course you're going to question yourself,

and of course you're going to question your own sanity. And even though I said, I believe, I think that it's also healthy to go, hey, you might be crazy. Well, listen, that's, I think, something that I really respect that of the way that George has taught me to come and approach. One of the things that George said to me is vet every source. If it seems too good to be true, dig deeper, dig deeper. And he's constantly said that. So it's like the idea that no matter how much information we get, you should always

always have some sort of healthy skepticism to keep a clear lens, you know, for what you're doing. Is that what you would, would you agree with that? That is absolutely true. I thought this trip might be different because of Rob, because the experiences that he's had, that maybe this time we'd come and they'd say, oh, well, it's Rob. We know this time. No pressure. Let him in.

No pressure. The bait, dude, you were the, see, last time it was me, this time you were the baby. No, I understand that I'm the best. Thank God I passed the baton. What is it that you are trying to give to people about this experience that you've gone through for 20 years? Why do you want this out now? Well, I mean, what I've got out of it is sort of what Dr. Colum-Kelleher got out of it and some of the other people with Nids who were involved in the study, both as Nids and then as Bass, that it seems to be an overarching lesson of, um, that it seems to be an overarching lesson of, um, um,

of the universe is more mysterious and wondrous and complicated than we imagine that reality itself isn't what it used to be, that we should start thinking bigger. Now first and foremost, you know, as an honor to go there, not many people get to go there. And we had the best time because we like each other

and it's fun. And also you get to go to the place that you've read so much about and heard so many podcasts and interviews about. Now, so we're just having a great time, and then it's night time, and then there's a fire built and we get around, tell stories, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, and the homesteads and all that's creepy,

and fun, fun, fun, fun, fun. And what actually happens is, like, I found the most bizarre place while I was there was the place that we were chilling in most of the day, which is that. The middle homestead. Like a prefab home. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, yeah. Headquarters. Headquarters. Yeah. I found the weirdest place would be in there. But we're all safe. We're all safe, aren't we? Because there's like seven of us.

And two of them have got machine guns. Yeah, yeah. We'll just fire at the mist. Yeah, yeah. And so my first thought is, oh, nothing's happened. My second thought is, yeah, nothing's happened. You know, because I don't want to. the hitchhikers, you know, I don't want to take anything home with me. I'm, you know,

I'm a mess enough without taking some demonic force home with me. Yeah, we've heard all these stories about that stuff. We, you know, and you and me, we never, no one would want that, but that wasn't, we're not really expecting anything, but we're definitely heard the stories. Yeah, we definitely heard the story. Yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah, we know, we know the stories inside out. And so we get in the car to go back to the motor. tell on the last night and Jeremy's in the car and there's a sense of relief. I have a sense of relief and I'm like I'm actually feeling happy with myself that nothing happened after feeling sad that nothing happened and I go well at least we didn't have any

hikers then Jeremy and you were like yeah whatever it was that you said and then Neil who's my security that has you know I mean He's been a war. He's been a war's plural. He's a badass. He's a badass. Badass, burly, lovely mom, you know. Well, Rob, I didn't want to say, and I'm like, boom, what?

Anyway, we were in the homestead. And I think it was when you went to the loo, the toilet or whatever, you came out. He says, and when Jeremy came out, there was this eight-foot, um, uh, black misty. like figure that followed you out of the toilet. Great. Just great.

And so that was the one bit of woo that happened. And that one bit of woo led to me and you. What was interesting was because, you know, with your weaponize, your curiosity stuff and how excited and how involved you are with everything was that you're as terrified as me. Yeah. We were both sort of like, you know, it's like I looked to you to not be scared and you were terrified too.

Look, mercifully, you know, my back has always turned when the cool shit happens. Mercifully, I think I'd fucking freak out. I didn't see this, to be clear, I didn't see this, but I do remember walking up to the table and you're all sitting there, Neil's eyes were fucking huge. And this is like a tough guy and the guy's seen a lot in his life. He's like, we're leaving now. I didn't know. Maybe he was hungry or something.

We're like, let's go. But that story was conveyed to us. And it really did kind of spook us because we didn't see it. But this guy, I mean, he's dead serious. He saw that. I think he saw it go into the trailer. No, it was following. He said it was following.

I know it followed you out of the bathroom, but I think he saw it earlier go into the trailer as well. I don't know. It's just that kind of thing has been reported at the ranch. Maybe I'm not like, you know, I just didn't see anything like that. but just the idea that he was shaken up by it and saw that was like, we got to go, that's amazing to me. But I didn't see it. I wish I had seen something like that in my life.

If I had seen an experience like you have had with this thing right over you, I did end up seeing something pretty cool once with this guy, Dave Foley, right? But I guess when you have those experiences, maybe they're personalized. You've never had an experience, have you? No, not at the ranch, nothing that I've seen, but I did bring something home. And my wife saw. Yeah, that she had, similar to what Bigelow, Bob Bigelow has happened, and Column Keller has had happened. They don't see it on the ranch, but it comes home and messes with other members of the family.

Did you have any hitchhiker stuff that happened? Nothing. Nothing. Yeah, you're not to answer that question. Not answer that. And what category do you put that in is alien, poltergeist, strange? What is it? What would you think?

The more you find out, the less you know. Yeah. And, you know, I've been a devotee and I suppose a student of all of this for the longest time. And it's been concentrated from 2003 onwards. And I'm non the wiser. Would you go back? To Skinwalker. Yeah, yeah, of course.

Yeah. Yeah. It's going to maybe make that happen. Yeah. I mean, this, you know, this stuff that for me, it was really hard. I was like, you know, really nuts and bolts about it. Like, hey, are there, I was interested in Babazar, like this idea of propulsion. That's all I really, you know, kind of cared about was, are there craft that are advanced?

And like, but over these years and hearing all of these stories and, again, I haven't experienced anything quite like what other people I've seen, I've got to keep my mind open to it that this UFO thing, that it's bigger, it might be bigger than just physically. crap. I don't know the answer. I never claim to know the answer, but it's kind of, I'm reluctantly looking at this subject matter and saying, I can't dismiss stuff just because people shame you for it. I can't dismiss stuff just because people don't fit that in their worldview and, you know, say that it's nonsense. I go based upon the experiences I have and the people that I know, and if I find them trustworthy, right? In this UFO field, you need to have a, you need to have a a good sense of who it is that you can trust.

And that's the hardest thing. There's so much wacky bullshit out there. A lot of craziness is attached to this. It does, it's like a magnet for mental insanity. Absolutely, because it's so fucking weird. But there's just so much evidence that there's more to this than just hard physical craft. And so it's just, yeah. I think that where I was in 2003 is Little Green Men visit you in spaceships.

Yeah. I'm no longer in that. It's weirder than that. It's way weird than that. And maybe way more weird than we can comprehend. This fell into our laps. It felt like a gift from heaven. When I hear the news that Robbie Williams is going to come to Las Vegas

and have a residency there. Fastest sellout of a residency in the history of Las Vegas. You're at the win. We get to see a couple of those shows. It was over the top this production. It was elaborate. It was gigantic. It was a huge success in every way, but you didn't do it again.

Was it, did you overdo it? What was the- No, COVID took the ass out of it, you know, because the plan was to invest in it. I don't mean financially, it just means spend more time in North America building up this show and, you know, maybe taking it to Caesars and plotting up there, which,

which is a bigger arena. But that's gonna take some work because I'm not known here, you know. But I was invested into my ego, wanted a bit of America. When COVID came, it just took two years off the process. Which was a shame. And then by the time we come out of COVID,

I didn't have the impetus to invest what I was going to invest emotionally, physically into doing the project. We keep an eye on your career, of course, from afar. You'll go to Poland and play to 80,000 people. You're in Argentina, Asia, Australia, everywhere. You're a huge, huge success, massive crowds. It hasn't happened here.

In part, I thought in the beginning, it was because you didn't really want to be as well known. You wanted to be able to go to a restaurant, have a hamburger, whatever. But knowing how competitive you are, You still want to conquer America. Yes, and no. You know, if I did want to conquer America, I would at least attempt it.

You know, having a residency at the win isn't going to do it. Basically, my mental illness and fame and coke and booze and da-da-da-da-da was so cute at some point. I did realize when the grown-up was drawn-up was driving the car and not the lunatic driving the car, that more of what I had at that point was not gonna be good for me. And I spent a January in Los Angeles 23 years ago.

And I could live my life. I could get, you know, it's like I could enjoy the fruits of my labor. And not be mobbed when you go outside. It's not even the mob, it's like, there's a lot of people in Britain, But there is a network of if you see someone say it, you know. And if you see somebody, Twitter it now or tell the tabloids or da-da-da. And it seemed that I couldn't, you know, sometimes my thoughts were in the newspaper the next day.

It was weird. It was just so weird. And I just had to take myself out of that pressure cooker. So I came for one January, went back into it. Next January, I come back again. And at the end of January, I was just January. I'm like, what am I going back for? I'm going to live here.

And it's kind of then that I was like, so I've got this cash. I've sold these records. I play these venues. And it's not brought me happiness. If I do this in the States, if you're famous in America, you're famous in Papua New Guinea. You're famous in Timbuktu.

And I did recognize that fame was having a detrimental effect on my health. So what I decided to do was move here and become anonymous. And that worked out for me. My ego and my competitive nature still remains in the back of my head. But then when the kids come and I'm a different person now, so well, maybe I'll have to look at Vegas. Maybe I'll see what Vegas has to offer, what I have to offer it and what it can do for me. And if something comes of it, something comes from it.

And if something doesn't, it's okay. Nothing ventured. Well, you know, a lot ventured, maybe something gained. My energy has now moved on from that. You know, I want to build my own hotel. And I'm building my own hotel. Hotels, you know, hopefully if it's a success, I will replicate what I'm about to do. Residencies don't exist in Dubai.

They should, you know, and I want to be the man to start that. It's easier for your fans to get to see you from Europe to Dubai than to get to Las Vegas. Well, also, it's easier for. for performers to be in one place, you know, and once they've wrung out Vegas, whereas, you know, and they can stay there. They can stay in Vegas for a long time and have their families be there in one place.

When you've got kids, touring's different. You know, it would be great to invent something for people like me where you go from Vegas to Dubai, Dubai to Vegas to Dubai. You said about playing at the win is not enough to make a big, in America. You did make a big splash. I mean, it's sold out immediately. And your fans who'd seen you before where they could be one person in a crowd of 80,000 or in a room where there's only

3,000 other people were astonished to have that kind of access. Yeah, it made a splash, but everybody that came to the show was European or South America or Australian, you know, because I'd ask the audience each night, you know, who's in from New Zealand, who's in from Australia who's in from America and there be Americans there of course but um you know it's a long way for people that are into what I do to travel to come and see me people don't know a lot of people don't know how how much you are into the Las Vegas scene in terms of the history of the performers there you write great pop songs and you're known all over the world but you pay homage to Dean and Frank and Sammy Dean Martin's your

your model. Dean Martin's, you know, Dean Martin's my absolute hero and how he has always made me feel is he's always made me feel joyous and safe and the the natural, cool, whimsy, his approach to life, be professionally, obviously I never met him. But like, you know, professionally, the way that he makes me feel, the nice and easy does it kind of attitude and the voice and the charisma and funny he's and funny you know and funny he's he's is a comedian and you know thank god when i was growing up there was only four chat three channels originally but four channels because you know with if there had been these countless others i'd have never got to have seen those movies that he was in because you know they we don't have a big budget in the UK

so we play repeats and old movies that I suppose are cheap and because of that I got to see all these movies that Frank Sinatra was in, Sammy Davis Jr. was in and fall in love with these performers that had gone before me.

I was just, you know, when you guys were talking about the Vegas show, so you invited us a couple times, we got to go I had never seen you perform live and it was so fucking cool, man. Like, you know, your personality comes through in your performances. You tailor those. I mean, you're coming out of the ceiling in like a pink suit with balloons. I mean, it was pretty fucking wild. You also had all these

displays around it. And it's been burning question for me. I went into the men's room and I saw this glass case and there's this big cucumber. It says Rob's first cucumber. What the fuck was that? This is my wife's doing. This is my wife's doing. What was that? So she decided to put all these cases and silly. It's an inside joke. Do you know what? I'm not even going to explain it.

I don't need it. It's a mystery. I love something's up, but I love it. It's nothing sexual. Okay. It's completely not sexual, but it's just so embarrassing. I just wonder what your second cucumber was, but whatever. That's cool.

So your whole thing was so neat, though, because the style of music you were playing was given homage to Las Vegas. Look, you know, like people like me, my age, range and younger, they're sort of, Cabaret has a bad rep. And I'm a cabaret artist. What I do is Cabaret. And I take great pride and great, you know, I have great respect to cabaret artists that have been before me. To be in the home of Cabaret meant that I was going to embrace that fully.

And I, I did. For me, cabaret is. not a dirty word. There is no guilty, what's the word guilty love or what's the guilty pleasure. There's no guilty pleasure. This is a high art for me that I love completely. You're opening out of the closet about loving and performing cabaret. Oh yeah. Yes. Absolutely. Yes. It was like two months after your engagement in Las Vegas ended. In this, it's a really nice facility, the showroom at the wind. It's great, but it's small by Robbie Williams standards. It's like two months later, we get video of you performing.

It's 100,000 people. I think it was Nebworth or somewhere like that. No, it's 125,000 people in Munich, yeah. And then I see a video a couple of months after that. Taylor Swift is in Europe, in the UK. So cool. And this clip, she's playing the piano. She's got this sly look on her face.

And up through the middle of the stage comes, Robbie Williams, crowd goes crazy. crowd goes crazy, introduces her fans to you, gives her credibility, too, with your fans. Oh, you know, it was a wonderful, wonderful moment, you know, to be, yeah, it was just a wonderful moment that somebody like Taylor Swift, even knew or was, invited me to the show, I come up. The energy in the place was different, incredibly different, in the best way possible. And we sang one of my songs. And yeah, I'm grateful that she asked me.

Yeah, that was so cool to see. I mean, I'm a Taylor Swift fan as well. And seeing you come up out of that stage and do that performance, that was cool, man. I think that's my buddy right there. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's cool. So many of the songs you write, you're pretty tough on yourself. I mean, you're tough.

You called yourself scum in one show. There was in one song it was socio, meaning sociopath in your lyrics. Is it a mood? where I'm gonna slap myself around here and there? Well, my songs are autobiographical, and I write about what I know because there's not a lot that I know other than me and a bit about UFOs.

So there is an intricate dance that I do with myself, and it depends which wolf you want to feed. And whether that's the empathic, kind, generous, loving spirit that I can inhabit or the other side which is self-lacerating self-sabotage in lack of self-worth low self-esteem dumb you know there's a there is a there is a dark aspect to how I feel and think about myself and the dichotomy of both of them naturally appears in my lyrics because Because like I say, I write about what I know.

Let love be your energy. It's one of my favorite songs of yours. Thank you. So, Beatle-esque. Did you set out to do that on purpose? I guess so at the time. Yeah. You love the Beatles, right?

Yeah. Do you love the Beatles? I do. And he's been teaching me about the Beatles for about maybe five or six years now. So in my car, I have nine discs, an old changer. Eight of them are the Beatles. And one is Robbie Williams. He's been teaching.

Well, he was teaching me, man. And they're beautiful. Yeah, so I am now a fan of the Beatles because of George, and I concur that there are some songs yours that have that feel. Yeah, cool. It's just really special, like you're channeling that shit. So, yeah, George has taught me about it. I just want people to like me.

Now, I heard that song, I saw that title. It's a great song, great fun, but it's true. Yeah, it, yeah, I guess so. Yeah, I guess so. I think that I wrote that song, which is, you know, doesn't exist on any of my, albums proper. I wrote that song, ironically, you know, I just want people to like me. Yeah, yeah, I do. But yeah, of course, you know, who doesn't want people to like them? I'm human and I need to be loved just like anybody else. Being hated just kind of, it kind of sucks. Especially if you take it,

you know, especially as someone you care about is close to you. Oh, mate, it sucks. You know, I'm just doing, I don't, I don't read, I tell you this story. I don't, I don't read comments anymore It took me a while to wean off them, but I'm out. Occasionally I get stung because I just find myself somehow there. Well, your friends will text you some shitty things. No, they don't. They don't. But I just get reminded.

But then they shouldn't. They shouldn't. I just get reminded every now and again that it's a place that I shouldn't go and visit. But there was one time, a long time ago, when I was reading the Daily Mail, and it was an article about me. and then there was loads and loads of comments underneath. And I read the comments and I was like, I was just sinking lower and lower and lower

as I read these things about me that confirmed to me that I'm an awful person, somebody that feels as though they're an awful person anyway. It was there in black and white. And I'm just like, hang on, I've got to do something to get out of this. So I thought, well, who do I know that are the salt of the earth?

that are famous and I'll go read the comment sections there and if they are hated then it's just people it's just people being awful so I picked out my two friends that are famous in England and I went and read the comment section seven second comments saying I hate these two almost as much as I hate that fact to act Robbie Williams I couldn't I couldn't get away from my comments in somebody else's comment section

Don't you have like a song about, you have a lyric about the comment section? Oh yeah, it's not out yet, but there's a song called comment section. Okay, okay. Yeah, yeah. Are you writing a new album? Yeah, yeah, it's being produced right now. Is it number 16? Is it going to happen?

I mean, number one. Well, you know, like you say, I'm ultra competitive. I would like it to be, you know. I think there's those, those sort of things, what happens is, They just stave off feelings of lack of self-worth. So there's no great punch-the-sky moment when it happens. But what does happen is, thank God I don't have to hate myself today. Thank God that they've not deserted me, left me, because without them, who am I?

And I know that's not a very safe place to be or a very mature or mentally sound place to be. but a lot of who I am is wrapped up in who I am. And who I am belongs a lot to the general public in places that know I am. One of my favorite songs of yours, I'm not sure that American audiences know it, but run it wild. Terrific.

When you write these songs, do you know if it's going to hit or not? Like Angels, angels is this gigantic. It's an incredible fucking song. As you're writing that song, do you know this is going to be a big one? Well, at the time that I wrote Angels, there was a lot, there was a huge gap between it being a hit and me being able to facilitate how it becomes a hit. Because what happened was, I left the band. I was cool for three seconds for splitting up a boy band.

And then I disappeared into, you know, lager and cocaine and was turning up to the opening of an envelope. and I became kind of the butt of jokes. And my future didn't look bright. But while my future was not looking bright in the media, I was writing songs. And I knew that I had something incredibly special with this song, Angels. But were the media and was radio

going to facilitate the opportunity for that song to be a success? I didn't know. As it happens, the power of the song happened anyway. So yes, I knew that there was something incredibly special. I've probably written 700, 800 songs since then. I've never felt that way since. I've never managed to read, because for the American audience, there won't know angels, but for everywhere else,

it exists. This outside of me. It's now doesn't belong to me. It belongs somewhere in a theory or place that has done something bigger than I could ever imagine. It's affected a lot of people. I mean, your music has, but that song, you see people crying and fainting over that song.

Like, what do you think it is in that song that affected so many people? Well, you know, people think that it's about my mom or people think that it's about somebody or something. It's actually about angels. It's actually about St. Michael. You know, it's actually about Gabriel.

It's actually, you know, and once again, I'll say, do I have a belief in angels? I don't have a belief in angels. I love the idea of angels. Now, it's not lost on me that the most powerful song I've ever had is about an angelic force, maybe there's something in that.

No one goes to Hank's for his spreadsheets. They go for a darn good pizza. Lately, though, the shop's been quiet. So Hank decides to bring back the $1 slice. He asks co-pilot in Microsoft Excel to look at his sales and costs to help him see if he can afford it. Co-pilot shows Hank where the money's going

and which little extras make the dollar slice work. Now, Hank has a line out the door. Hank makes the pizza Co-Pilot handles the spreadsheets. Learn more at M365 copilot.com slash work. We had a chance to meet your dad. You brought him to Las Vegas. You perform with you. It's one of the highlights of the show. The fact that you're so close to your dad and you're able to bring him along and he obviously gets a big kick out of it. We have had a chance to meet your wife. You now have four kids. It feels like you're on such solid ground and you've been through like

a meat grinder and Rob has emerged not exactly unscathed but solid on the other end we're so happy for you thank you very much thank you yeah yeah I'm look you know it I'm finding that what happens with life or my life is that you spend the second 20 years of your life figuring out the first 20 years but then what happens is once I've hit my stride the wheels start falling off for the people that have gone before me, then the health deteriorates of the people that I love. So, you know, the next sort of phase of personal growth is dealing with grief and dealing with illness. And I find there is a dark humor in the brutality of existence. There's the tabloid headline for tomorrow in British press.

That's a great quote. I got to say, man, I really appreciate it. I've learned a lot from you through our friendship just, you know, when we talk and everything. You've been through a lot of things in your life that might have been extreme, but somehow you've been able to ground yourself and your life and the way that you live it. I really have learned a lot from when I've been through some hard times that I've asked you, it's almost just like you've experienced depths of that that you can convey really easily to me a way to look at it. Like, those guys are cunts.

Fuck them. you know, whatever it might be, that I need to hear at that time. I want to thank you for that. So I think the way that we influence people, sometimes it's in big ways, like with your music and the way it makes people feel, but also the big influence we have is when we've walked a road, like when I've learned from George, like you've walked a road, and you can just convey that to the person closest to you.

So I don't know, man. People say your greatest lesson in life you can give to people is the way you live it, and people can see that and try to emulate from that. Attraction rather than promotion. What, explain that? Well, you know, instead of promoting yourself like a lot of people do these days, well, since time existed, promoting yourself, I am this, I am that, I am the other, you know, just by the way that you are, you attract. That's right. And also just doing it, doing things rather than saying things, right?

Yeah, yeah, by the content of your actions. There we go. Yeah, rather than your words. Excellent. Yeah. Thanks so much for your friendship, Rob. Yeah, appreciate it. Yeah, I appreciate it.

Nothing about the best, man. Awesome. Never has so few had so much to tell, but could say so little. Following this in a webinar, the presentation of Jeremy Corbell, George Knapp, Dark Course Entertainment, and Cadence 13 Studios. Available now for free on the Odyssey app, or wherever you get your shows.