Gary Barlow thinks being a pop star at a young age is “highly unhealthy”.
The 55-year-old singer found fame at the age of just 20 as the main singer and songwriter in Take That and when the band first split in the late 1990s, his solo career floundered and he dropped out of the spotlight, battling bulimia and depression, and while he has admitted there is “a lot of hubris” in his journey, he was already in an abnormal situation.
He told the Daily Telegraph newspaper: “There’s a lot of hubris in my story, definitely. I don’t want to sit here defending my actions.
“A big part of what people are going to be talking about is my character in the Nineties, the fact that I held so much control and didn’t want to relinquish it. But I think one thing to always remember is that we were really young guys, and none of us knew the future.
“I was extremely ambitious, and I was in a scenario where people encouraged you, because the more ambitious I was, and the more money I made, the more money they made.
“The situation was unhealthy to start with – you know, being a bloody pop star at 20 is highly unhealthy. You can’t compare it to normal life.”
Take That are the focus of a new three-part Netflix documentary and the Back for Good singer admitted watching the second episode, which looks at the darker sides of fame, was tough to sit through.
He said: “I’ll be honest with you, it took me about a week to get through that second episode.
“It was a really, really hard watch. A lot of the things in it, I haven’t thought about for a long, long time, and they’ve actually stuck with me since viewing it.”
Gary’s bandmate Howard Donald struggled with depression and even contemplated suicide when the band first split, and while it was “difficult” to work out what he’d do with his life away from the group, he also finds fame tricky.
He said: “Whatever my thoughts and feelings were of what I wanted to do, it was quite short-lived.
“It was a difficult thing to handle, feeling sorry for yourself, thinking that this band of the Nineties was going to go on forever, and what am I going to do now? I didn’t have a clue, because apart from vehicle painting, this was the only thing I knew…
“As much as I am blessed with the success and what comes with it, fame, for me, is a real struggle. I don’t think I’ve ever got comfortable with it, even now, when you have screaming women grabbing hold of you, just like in the Nineties. I cannot get my head around it.”
Take That began as a five-piece but following the departures of Robbie Williams and Jason Orange, they have operated as a trio since 2014, but they don’t think they’d go on if anyone else wanted to leave.
Gary said: “I think three is as small as we’re gonna get.”
Mark Owen quipped: “We could change it to Take Two.”
Gary added: “That’s not a bad name.”
