Robbie Williams ‘terrified’ career will nosedive

Robbie Williams has always feared the “rug will be pulled” from under him and he’d have to resort to working in his mum’s flower.

Robbie Williams on The X Factor (ITV/WENN)

The former Take That star has opened up about his “neurotic” mind and says he was never confident in his longevity in music after Take That were told they’d only last five years.

In an interview with The Guardian newspaper, he said: “I’m neurotic and I find things to worry about, and if there’s nothing to worry about, I make something up. When we got put together in Take That, we were told it wasn’t going to last, you’d be lucky if you got five years.

"Even during the sort of imperial phase of my career, I’d be thinking, ‘Is it stopping now?’

“I’m 25 years in now, but I’m still sort of waiting for the rug to be pulled from underneath me, for it all to be put back in the box and taken away from me, and for me to be sent back to Stoke-on-Trent: 'See, you’re right, this ultimately what you wanted, because you wanted to sabotage this, be found out for the charlatan you are, and you have to and work for your mum at the flower shop.’

Robbie Williams signs autographs in London 2016 (Photo: Mario Mitsis/WENN)

"So I think, underneath everything, that’s what’s propelled me forward, and also made me terrified at the same time.

"Not that working for my mum in the flower shop would be a terrifying prospect, it’s just that my life’s better now.”

Robbie is married to Ayda Field and has children Theodora, four, and Charlton, two, with the American actress and admitted he’s no longer “imperial” and at the top of his game anymore, where whatever he releases will be a success.

He mused: “I suppose I’ve got to redefine my success.

"I’ve yet to shape it and whittle it and to convince myself that everything’s all right … I do realise that I’m in a place now where I’m not imperial. When you’re imperial, it’s sort of like stepping up to a pool table and knowing you’re just not going to miss. Whatever you release, you’re not going to miss.”

The star’s latest single 'Party Like a Russian’ limped into the UK charts at number 53, failing to make the Top 40 and the star was slammed by Russian State TV Channel Vesti dismissed Robbie as an artist whose popularity is “becoming a memory rather than a reality.”

Watch the video for ‘Party Like A Russian’ here.