Robbie Williams has admitted that he once “berated” crowd members at one of his shows for not standing up, before realising they were wheelchair users.
During a recent interview on Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen, the pop star was asked to reveal his “most embarrassing” onstage moment.
“It’s a really long story and you haven’t got time,” he responded. Williams was then asked by actor Julia Stiles to “give us the short version”, to which he obliged.
“So basically I confused the wheelchair section in my show for people that weren’t standing up and enjoying themselves,” he said. “And I berated them, and I got the whole audience to point at them and boo.”
Williams went on to remember prompting those in attendance to “stamp their feet” and chant “Out! Out! Out!” at the fans in question. The ‘Rock DJ’ artist recalled looking over to the side of the stage, where his manager was signalling him to stop.
He eventually realised that he had made a mistake. “I was like, ‘Oh! OK’,” Williams told Cohen and Stiles. “The way you get out of that is a ballad, definitely a ballad, definitely by doing ‘Angels’,” he added.
According to Williams, the mix-up happened early on in his career before the camera phones had taken off. “That God!” replied both Cohen and Stiles.
Last year saw Madonna experience a similarly awkward encounter during her ‘Celebration Tour’. “What are you doing sitting down over there?” she asked, pointing at the fan at the LA’s KIA Forum. “What are you doing sitting down?” After taking the microphone and walking to the edge of the stage, the realisation dawned on her. “Oh. OK,” she said.
The concertgoer later defended the Queen Of Pop’s actions, saying: “Some people are in wheelchairs and can stand. She had no idea I was paralysed.”
Williams’ anecdote came after the star was asked on Cohen’s talk show to confirm a rumour that he “once pooped himself onstage due to food poisoning”. See what he had to say about that in the clip above.
Elsewhere in his interview on Watch What Happens Live, Williams recalled “doing shrooms at Bono’s house” and revealed why he turned down a performance at King Charles’ coronation concert.
He was appearing on the programme in support of his new biopic Better Man, directed and co-written by Michael Gracey (The Greatest Showman).
Williams is depicted in the film by a CGI monkey (voiced by Jonno Davies). In a three-star review of the movie, NME wrote: “This is ‘Rudebox’ on film: some of it good, some of it very bad, all of it a bit of a mess.
“Still, the monkey musical is a big swing that no-one else would have taken. You can’t fault the chutzpah or the ambition. If it makes back its reported budget, we’ll eat $110m worth of bananas.”
It was recently reported that Better Man had endured a difficult opening weekend in US cinemas.
Williams released a reflective single called ‘Forbidden Road’ from the biopic’s soundtrack last November. This month, he shared his thoughts on the song being disqualified from the Oscars 2025 shortlist.
The singer is set to embark on a huge tour across the UK, Ireland and Europe this year. The announcement came shortly after he’d hinted to fans that he would be hitting the road again “soon”. Find any remaining tickets here.
During an interview with NME last month, Williams responded to reports that Black Sabbath’s Tony Iommi would be appearing on a track from his new “guitar rock” record. He has since expressed his desire to “make a new Rat Pack album”.
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