Gary Barlow: Take That's Lost Era & Finding My Way Back

So I went through this whole period then of being unhappily overweight, but kind of happy because it was doing something for me. Yeah, it was a great coat of armour, and I'd killed the pop star. So it was like I'd controlled something for the first time in ages. And it sounds, it sounds incredibly dark what I'm saying here, but that's the way I was thinking at that point. That is the distinctive voice of legendary singer-songwriter Gary Barlow.

Now, if you're a fan of Take That, or even if you're not, you will, of course, know the story by now, and I hope like me you've enjoyed the recent Netflix documentary that has charted the highs, but also the lows of their time together, including the big split and the comeback. But I guess what the cameras couldn't capture was the internal collapse of just one man during the band's darkest period, because Gary was the songwriter, he was the leader, he was the kid who grew up dreaming of being a musician. He's the one that everyone expected would then go on to have the huge solo success. Yet the reality is that he was drowning whilst Robbie was soaring.

The band had split. Robbie was enjoying this unprecedented solo success and Gary will He was trying to launch himself in America with a cover version that he hadn't written on a remix he didn't understand, at a pre-grammy party he wasn't ready for and didn't want to be at. And what happened next would define the next seven or so years of his life. This is a remarkably honest conversation.

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