The Darkness’ Justin Hawkins on how he “soured” his relationship with Robbie Williams

The Darkness frontman Justin Hawkins has reflected on the moment he may have unintentionally “soured” his relationship with Robbie Williams.

The rock artist supported Williams at his historic Knebworth Park gigs in 2003, which saw the pop sensation perform three consecutive shows from 1–3 August.

Hawkins reflected on the gigs in a recent episode of his Justin Hawkins Rides Again podcast shared to his YouTube channel Sunday (December 10), after a fan asked him to recall some memories from the time.

He first pointed to a framed picture on the wall of him and Williams at one of the gigs, describing it as the “only memory I have”.

The musician then went on to remember an encounter he had while the pop star was in the catering area with friends. “I was in the habit in those days of just running up and smacking people on the arse,” he said, adding: “Not the sort of thing you can get away with nowadays, but I did it on that day, he turned around like he wanted to punch whoever it was, and then he realised it was me and backed down a little bit.”

Hawkins continued: “It kind of soured my relationship with him a little bit, and I love Robbie Williams. I was really grateful for the opportunity to play to so many people, and basically we were famous the next day and it was all because of him.”

The artist added that he’d intended for it to be an “affectionate slap on the arse”, but he “misjudged the velocity with which I smacked it”.

In the video description for the new episode, Hawkins wrote: “It was an honour to support Robbie Williams at Knebworth, but I think I accidentally ruined our relationship too with a massive faux pas.”

Hawkins was reflecting on the gigs in light of the release of Williams’ self-titled Netflix documentary about his life and career last month.

In a four-star review of the four-part series, NME wrote that it “makes clear the perils of pop stardom”, adding: “This often powerful documentary series combines shocking archive footage with Robbie’s modern-day ruminations.”

Elsewhere, The Darkness were one of the bands to pay tribute to the late Shane MacGowan by leading a crowd through a sing-along of The Pogues’ ‘Fairytale of New York’.

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