As Robbie Williams prepares to take centre stage at Murrayfield for the opening night of his tour in a few weeks, he has one primary goal. "I want to make people happy and transport them somewhere else...if only for a couple of hours," he shares.
However, the pop star is aware that his legion of fans aren't the only ones he needs to impress. His 10-year-old son Charlie also features prominently on that list.
"I did this gig in Munich to 125,000 people, the place is going wild, and I'm singing Let Me Entertain You....I looked over to the VIP section, and Charlie has just got his head down playing on his iPad," Robbie tells The Mirror.
"But at Hyde Park last year, I came off, and afterwards, he was just looking at me with these wide eyes, like he had a moment of recognition that his dad was somebody other than somebody that tells him to stop misbehaving or the dad police."
Charlie will be joining his siblings Teddy, 12, Coco, six, and Beau, four, at various points during the stadium tour which commences in Edinburgh on May 31, followed by performances in London, Manchester, Bath and Newcastle.
This follows a hectic year for the singer promoting his autobiographical film Better Man from last year, as well as his forthcoming art exhibition Radical Honesty.
Robbie will be touring at the same time as the recently reunited Oasis, a band with whom he has a long-standing rivalry. Noel Gallagher's infamous jibe about a "fat dancer from Take That" and Robbie's subsequent challenge to Liam for a fight at the 2000 Brit Awards are well-documented moments of pop culture, but it seems that tensions have eased over time.
Robbie says: "Liam's voice is peerless...he was, and is the voice of a generation."
He anticipates the upcoming reunion will be an emotional powerhouse: "It will be nostalgia on steroids...and hopefully it'll be healing for the lads too. I was just looking at those songs, especially the first three years worth of songs, and it's literally a lifetime and decades worth of bangers created over that period. The songwriting is sensational."
Yet, Robbie is not one to shy away from competition, hinting he'll give the Gallagher brothers a run for their money: "I've set myself out with this giant task in my own mind of being the best entertainer on the planet," he declares.
He draws parallels between his ambition and that of top athletes: "And I know that sounds egoic and narcissistic, but I'm sure that Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi didn't want to be the sixth best football player in the world if they were given the opportunity."
However, the lead-up to his tour has been marred by personal struggles, as Robbie reveals his battle with mental health issues. He says: "The year started with some ill mental health, which I haven't had for a very, very long time. I was sad, I was anxious, I was depressed."
These challenges coincide with a difficult period for Robbie and his wife Ayda, as they contend with serious health concerns within their family. Robbie's mother Janet is living with dementia, his father Pete is afflicted with Parkinson's disease, and his mother-in-law Gwen is fighting cervical cancer.
Robbie candidly shared insights into his personal struggles, saying: "My wife would say, 'if your depression could talk, what would it say?" He clarified that the illness was not rooted in blaming particular aspects of his life or environment: "It wasn't saying, 'it's my mum, or dad or your mum.'".
"It wasn't saying 'it's life, or tickets or the tour or the pressure or whatever.' None of that. It just is. It's just this pervasive feeling," he added. Robbie has faced his demons, having been diagnosed with depression in his twenties and publicly grappling with addiction, anxiety, and agoraphobia.
Reflecting on his mental health journey, Robbie admitted to a false sense of security: "It's been about ten years........I thought I was at the other end of the arc," expressing his disbelief at the recurrence of his struggles. "I thought this was the end of my story, and that I would just go walking into this marvellous wonderland. So for it to return was just confusing."
Turning to potential triggers, Robbie suspected diet influenced his wellbeing. After using an appetite-suppressant drug the previous year and losing nearly two stone, he realised the dietary change had negative consequences.
"I'd stopped eating and I wasn't getting nutrients," he acknowledged. The deficiency even led to a diagnosis of scurvy, which Robbie jokingly adds as being, "A 17th century pirate disease".
Ayda voiced her concerns when husband Robbie was becoming too slim, saying: "With body dysmorphia, when people say they're worried about how you're looking, you're like: 'I've achieved it.' When people say: 'we're worried you're too thin' that goes into my head as 'jackpot. I've reached the promised land.'".
After altering his eating habits, Rob noticed a gradual improvement in his mood. However, in current conversations with the celebrity, it's evident that the harsh truth of his family's health struggles is a significant burden on his conscience.
Like many others facing similar challenges, he's wrestling with feelings of guilt and questions about whether he's doing enough. His extended absences in Los Angeles, where he currently resides, seem to only complicate these emotions further.
"It can be overpowering...there are elements of putting your head in the sand and putting your fingers in your ears and going, la la la," he admits.
"Are you doing enough? Are you doing too little? Who deserves what, where and when and how, and what do you deserve?".
For him, maintaining mental stability is crucial. "The most important thing is for yourself to be okay..... and not causing chaos in mine or anybody else's life, like I used to back in the 90s and early noughties," he reflects.
"And if you are okay, then you can attack anything that comes your way."
Of that, we have no doubt…
Robbie Williams will tour the UK, Ireland and Europe this summer, opening on May 31 in Edinburgh. Tickets here.
