The singer returns to the spotlight after surviving a drug addiction - just.

After a weird performance on UK reality show The X Factor, Robbie Williams has fans worried he's fallen prey to his drug demons.

In his first official appearance in three years, the 35-year-old was wide-eyed, fidgety and glistening with sweat as he interrupted singing his new single to shake hands with people in the audience.

‘What a pleasure, what a pleasure,' he gushed, leaning over the stage. ‘It's good to be back.'

Fresh fears for his health come after the singer's recent shock confession. At the lowest point of addiction two years ago, in which he revealed he was 24 hours from death, Robbie admitted to guzzling a ‘heart stopping' cocktail of prescription drugs, not caring if they killed him.

‘[When] you get that far into your addiction, you're not bothered whether you live or die, because that's where it takes you,' he reveals. ‘I must have been very, very close. I was on a sofa coming in and out of consciousness.'

Turning point

After an intervention by his managers, Robbie voluntarily entered rehab.

‘I was on this plane kicking the seats,' he recalls. ‘I was so angry that I had let myself get into that place.'

The former Take That singer described in detail the extent of his drug battle, which worsened after he moved to LA five years ago.

‘It was the American addiction,' he says, referring to the fate of Anna Nicole Smith, Michael Jackson and Heath Ledger, who all died from prescription-drug overdoses.

‘I would do 20 Vicodin a night, then I'd take Adderall, which was like speed for people with ADHD. I'd be doing colossal amounts of that. You can buy Sativa, which is basically LSD for five minutes. You try your best to balance them off against each other, but you never manage it.'

For the past three years, Robbie's shunned the limelight to rebuild his life, with the help of his girlfriend Ayda Field and mum Jan, ironically a drugs counsellor.

The accomplished singer's about to release his eighth album, featuring new single Bodies, and denies he's not ready for the challenge.

‘I still struggle with bits and bobs but everything seems to be going really well right now,' he says. And of his The X-Factor performance he says, ‘It all felt so electric. Like three years of anxiety leaving my body.'

His spokesman put his behaviour down to adrenaline.

‘He wasn't on anything. What you saw was a great performer doing what he does best.'

 

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