Music : Robbie Williams on why he hates the lyrics to ‘Millennium’: “I could have done better there”

Robbie Williams has admitted that he hates his hit single ‘Millennium’.

The song features on his 1998 album ‘I’ve Been Expecting You’ and interpolates the theme from the 1967 James Bond movie You Only Live Twice.

It was also the pop star’s first single to top the UK singles chart. But in an interview with Colin Paterson on BBC Breakfast earlier this week, he heavily criticised the song.

Paterson shared: “I interviewed Robbie Williams for @bbcbreakfast about his Golden Globe nominated chimpanzee biopic Better Man, which is spending its second week in the UK Box Office Top 10. He was very funny on his dislike of his own song ‘Millennium’.”

Reflecting on the hit single, Williams said: “I just don’t like the lyric in that song. I wrote that crap.”

Quoting the lyrics, he continued “‘We’ve got stars directing our fate’, have we? ‘And we’re praying it’s not too late‘, are they? ‘Cause we know we’re falling from grace,’ are we? ‘Millennium’ is just like welded onto the end there. So er you asked me my memories and mine are, ‘I could have done better there’.”

Meanwhile, Williams recently said he wants to make a “new Rat Pack album”.

The pop star released his big band swing covers collection, ‘Swing When You’re Winning’, in 2001 and followed it up with 2013’s ‘Swings Both Ways’. Both albums went to Number One in the UK.

“I would like to write a new Rat Pack album,” he said. “I think I might do it. And whether they join in or not, it’s up to their estates, but we’ll see.”

The Rat Pack was an informal group of vocalists in the 1950s and ’60s, including the likes of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr. Many consider them to be the founding fathers of Las Vegas, with the entertainers performing together at casino venues in the city.

Meanwhile, Williams recently responded to reports that Black Sabbath’s Tony Iommi would be appearing on a track from his new “guitar rock” album.

Speaking to NME last month, he said: “I wanted to make the album that I’d make if I’d left Take That now, knowing what I know. This particular song encapsulates that perfectly.

“Unfortunately and fortunately for me, pop songs turned up along the way, too. I’m like: ‘Ah, fuck – a hit!’ This [track] is massive guitars, as you can imagine. It’s adrenaline-filled and balls-to-the-wall. That one in particular is my favourite song off my new album – that I’ve just announced is happening!”

NME then asked when the track and album would be out, to which Williams replied: “I dunno – let’s see how well the film does.” You can watch the full video interview above.

Elsewhere, he also reflected on his time making new biopic Better Man and said that he compared himself to Eminem in 8 Mile.

In a three-star review of Better Man, NME wrote: “Better Man begins like a John Lewis ad and swerves into an R-rated hodgepodge that somehow does too much while also barely skimming the surface of Robbie Williams’ career. 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.”

Williams is due 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.