With Radical Honesty, Robbie Williams is making an exhibition of himselfMay 27, 2025 Ā· By Craig McLean The legendary singer-songwriter Robbie Williams has turned his hand to visual art, with a humorous, pop art-inspired body of work that reflects on fame, addiction and social anxiety. But the last thing he wants is to be taken seriously. In the glitzy galleries of Moco Museum London, a shiny new space by the traffic-clogged vortex-cum-roundabout of Marble Arch, the singer-songwriter-provocateur Robbie Williams has splurged his innermost thoughts and outermost scribbles. Radical Honesty is the first major showing of the pop starās āartā (Robbie would be OK with the quote marks). Theyāre rendered via iPad drawings, wall scrawls, wonky spelling and wayward punctuation, giant executive toys, greetings-card aphorisms on Athena-size posters, and outsized comfort knitwear (bear with us here). All that and an actual tombstone, placed on astroturf on the floor, for the artist formerly known as the most rewarded musician in the history of the BRIT Awards. The epitaph of Robert Peter Williams, age 51, of Stoke-on-Trent? āIām dead now please like and subscribeā. The results arenāt always pretty. Robbie Williams would be OK with that, too. āBefore party practising conversation topics that wont sound insane,ā run the runes on one wriggly Shrigley self-portrait of this sober anti-socialite as he gazes into the bathroom mirror. āāSmelt anything cool lately?āā āI forgive you for being a Dickhead. You twat,ā begins another reflected image of a tatted and vested Robbie. āOK, we still need to work on this.ā These convos-with-self are the outward manifestations of the inner turmoil of a father of four with the mother of all neuroses. āViolets are blue, roses are red, lock the pill cabinet or Iāll steal your meds,ā this once-and-forever addict writes under a thirsty Hirst-y medicine cabinet. āJust because youāre dyslexic doesnt mean youre not stupid,ā heās felt-penned onto a mixtape. āGive your anxiety a silly name. Mine is called Blanche,ā he writes over a black and white doodle of a wild-haired granny. āThis is Blanche.ā As he revealed in 2023ās warsānāwartsānāall Netflix documentary series Robbie Williams, this gazillion-selling pop star and hero to a generation (or two) wrestles with ādyspraxia, dyslexia, ADHD, neurodiversity, body dysmorphia, hypervigilance⦠Thereās a new one that I acquired recently: HSP. Highly sensitive person. Post-traumatic stress disorder. And, obviously, I have an addictive personality.ā Hence Radical Honestyās Emotion Sweater, capacious enough even for the head of the world-wobbling talent with a 1999 album called the The Ego Has Landed. Itās an artwork in which he wears his superpowers embroidered on its sleeve and chest: āAnxiousā; āNarcissisticā; āParanoidā; āResilientā; āProudā; āShameā. You get the turmoiled picture. Another piece of clobber is an equally XXXXL hoodie. āRobbie Williams sews his story into Prescribed Identity Hoodie,ā explains the accompanying descriptor, āan oversized statement on addiction and self-medication. Typically tucked away in secrecy, these addictions can expose the ingredients to a carefully tailored persona, a means of self-soothing, self-medicating, and, at times, self-preserving, with multiple pockets, each bearing the name of a prescription drug.ā Ozempic, Ambien and Xnax, oh my! And so on. Radical Honestyāhanging (out) at Moco until Octoberāis, like last yearās marvellous monkey-biz biopic Better Man, both larky nonsense and poignantly powerful. For the man himself, staring down the barrel of a stadium tour (another one) that takes him all round Europe from this month until deep into autumn, the artās function is clear. Better out than in. āFirst of all,ā I say to Robbie when we sit down together in a room in Mocoās basement, shortly before doors open on Radical Honestyās Private View, ātell me about your balls.ā āWhich ones?ā says the taking-the-piss-artist, clear-eyed and gym-fit, perking up immediately. I tell him I mean the giant clacking steel spheres in the gallery upstairs. āOh, yeah! Iām really happy with them. Because [it means] Iāve got a sculpture,ā he says proudly, leaning forward and toying with the iPad that contains many of his (literally) daily drawings. āIs that a sculpture. Is that what it is?ā I think we can agree itās a sculpture. āItās a hefty thing. Itās heavy. It came out of my brain. And if I do say so myself, I think the idea is quite smart. Thereās them and thereās us, isnāt there? And look, weāre just in the middle, at the end of the day. Two sides of the same coin, et cetera, et cetera. But smarter than that.ā What is Radical Honesty? Radical Honesty is a series of drawings that Iāve done. When itās out there, it looks as though Iām saying: āIām radically honest, and so should you be.ā Iām actually taking the piss. The Radical Honesty series of drawings that Iāve done are things that I think in my head that I would never say out loud. So my radical honesty isnāt that radical. Isnāt that radically honest? Did you always have these visual art impulses? This is a late blooming thing. From when I used to live in Notting Hill and I went to the art supply store and just bought shitloads of everything, and thought I was going to do collage, and then I did, and it was shit. But it went up in the Tate! Itās not my fault. It did go up in the Tate, the very first thing that I made, obviously, ācause Iām Robbie Williams. And Peter Blake owns it. Did you get some cash for that? No, no, no, no, no. I bought something from him, and he gave me the W.C. Fields [cardboard cut-out] from the Sgt. Pepper album cover. So itās not even a fair swap. Anyway, this has been a process, probably since before 2006. And here I am now trying to be witty. Or at least doing things that make me titter. Finally having them out in the in the world, after all these years of secretly doing āartā, does that speak of confidence, boredom, a mixture of both, something elseā¦? I think it speaks of there being [lots of ideas]. Iāve got 3000 of these ideas, and they just keep coming every day. Thereās a proper backlog of them. And I suppose [it speaks of] feeling brave enough to show people, and thinking maybe they should exist in other places, other than on my iPad or in my garage. How serious do you want people to take it? Dude, Iām Robbie Williams. Iāve been in the [music] industry since I was 16. Theyāre not going to start taking me seriously now. I just want them to buy it! I gave up on wanting to be taken seriouslyā¦. last week! [No,] a while ago, letās put it that way. But you have to understand that a lot of my early education informed my later life, too. I was a pop person in a pop band that just got in the car and turned up. I took that into my solo career, too. I didnāt realise you could make your own album covers, as stupid as that sounds. I didnāt realise you could make your own merchandise. I didnāt realise that youād want to. So Iām still learning.Robbie Williams You recently said āI hope my stuff is ridiculousā. Presumably you yourself donāt want to be ridiculous, but you donāt mind the art being seen that way? I think I want toā¦. You know, all of my heroes, I suppose, are comedic more than musical. My dad was and is a comedian. And I would like to generate a titter in somebodyās mind. If I can make them actually verbalise that titter, then thatās a victory. So I suppose this is my version of stand-up comedy. Who are your art heroes or inspirations? All of the traditional pop art people. Thereās nobody off the beaten track that I know. Iām not a student of the game, as Roy Keane would mockingly say. There is no art history degree. I donāt know all of their names. I donāt know if Iād recognise a Magritte from a Renoir. Iām not that person. Much like when I left Take That and I was asked about my musical credentials. I donāt know Buffalo Springsteenās album [sic] [and wink]. I didnāt listen to it! [My attitude was:] āI just like f***ing music, f*** off!ā I like images. What do your kids make of your art? They are intrigued by it. They want to make their own. Is your eldest Teddy, going: āMate, I could do better than that?ā Yeah, she is, and she will. And my son [Charlie, 10] is drawing his own and trying to come up with his own jokes too. But his own jokes normally revolve around him coming up to me and going: āDaddy, is it OK if I swear?ā And me going: āYeah, OK.ā And then him misspelling ānarcissistā over a drawing of me. That sounds like a great piece, we need to get that up in a gallery. It is! Iāve got it somewhere. Is that Radical Honesty 2: Robbieās Kids Speak? Yeah, itās how they see me. The Prescribed Identity Hoodie: can you unpack, unpick or, even, unravel that for me? Can you? Yeah, no, I canāt really. Iām actually doing a line of clothing, and it was going to be a hoodie. And I thought: āWouldnāt it be funny if all the pockets were advertising antidepressants or anxiety medication?ā Thatās it. That is it. If you want to delve further into that, then please do. But for me, it was just: āWouldnāt it be funny ifā¦ā ⦠if all your drugs were available on your body at the same time? Yeah! Legal drugs these days, of course, kids. Is there a crossover with your merchandise for your imminent tour? Yes! Yes, which we need to do⦠[Robbie looks questioningly at his management perched nearby] So can we get a move on? Imagery allied with music also still matters to you, it seems⦠More than ever now. But you have to understand that a lot of my early education informed my later life, too. I was a pop person in a pop band that just got in the car and turned up. I took that into my solo career, too. I didnāt realise you could make your own album covers, as stupid as that sounds. I didnāt realise you could make your own merchandise. I didnāt realise that youād want to. So Iām still learning. But to be fair, pop bandsāespecially boy bandsādidnāt have that agency. Certainly in the Nineties, they generally werenāt given the power by labels to have a visual input. It was just: crank out the tunes, crank out the gigs ā and weāll cream off the cash. Yeah, but I also think that [musicians] didnāt know they could or should. You just turned up with the tunes, and thatās your bit done. Then everybody else does everything else. Unless you want to. And I want to, now. Radical Honesty, Moco Museum London. Tickets here. Robbieās tour stars in Edinburgh on 31st May. Main image: Marc Roses A Rabbit's Foot With Radical Honesty, Robbie Williams is making an exhibition of himself - A Rabbit's Foot