Robbie Williams has shared his thoughts on The 1975‘s Matty Healy – see what Williams had to say below.
This past weekend, Williams took to social media to pen his thoughts on Healy, who has been in the forefront of several controversies in recent times. In his post, Williams noted that he was “lamenting the death of friction, danger, personality”, while calling the music scene “boring”, but clarifying that he’s “not attacking the music itself”.
Williams went on to state that he understands why everyone’s being safe: “I get it everyone’s scared. No one knows what you’ll say that will get you cancelled. No one knows what you’ve already said or written that will end you. So many people to offend.”
With this in mind, he’s hailed Matty Healy as “the only commercially viable Pop/Rock star that I can see who is willing to be something other than beige”.
Williams wrote: “I really like Matt he’s unhinged, super smart, super talented and willing to upset. Upsetting for a cause. The cause being a complicated inner life a rebellious streak and boredom.”
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Williams is now seeking to inject some of Healy’s character into his own music, writing: “I’ve gotta get some of that energy back in my musical life. Like I say ‘so many people to offend’ I hope I have time to fit them all in. It’s time to take the piss again… and I’m looking forward to it.”
One such instance of Healy’s “willing to upset” and “upsetting for a cause” that Williams alluded to saw The 1975 getting band from Malaysia while performing at the Good Vibes Festival in the Southeast Asian country last year.
During their headlining slot on the opening night of the three-day festival, Healy criticised the Malaysian government for anti-LGBTQ laws during their headlining set at Kuala Lumpur’s Good Vibes Festival.
Healy would go on to kiss bandmate and bassist Ross MacDonald on the lips onstage before their set was cut short two songs later – just seven songs into their setlist – and it was announced that the band were, from then, banned from Malaysia . The following day, the Malaysian government ordered the cancellation of the remaining two days of Good Vibes Festival.
Future Sound Asia (FSA), the organiser of Good Vibes Festival, demanded the band pay RM12.3million (£2,099,154) in damages after the band’s frontman Matty Healy‘s “indecent behaviour”. In August, the band’s lawyers confirmed that they were working on resolving the dispute, though it’s currently unclear what the outcome was.
In October, the band announced that they will be taking a hiatus – and confirming that they are not breaking up – and were at the centre of controversy after Healy’s comments about Asians on a podcast led to backlash from Rina Sawayama, who dedicated her track ‘STFU’ to him at Glastonbury.
That same month, Healy issued an apology to those that he has “hurt” while trying to take on the “character role of 21st Century rock star”. Healy’s discussion about “playing pretend” and taking on the “character role of 21st Century rock star” follows similar comments he made during an interview with NME in 2022.
Speaking with NME’s Andrew Trendell, the singer recalled the reasons behind his controversial comments and “shit-posts” online, stating: “I’d rather be a pretend supervillain than some pretend hero.
“We used to want our artists to be cigarette-smoking, bohemian outsiders. Now, we want them to be liberal academics. Well, on Twitter we do, but then I get really popular all of a sudden when I come back. Why’s that? Is that because I’m not pretending to be a liberal academic and there are real people who have actually got something to say instead of just continuing this infographic-sharing era of the same shit that we all fucking know?”
In other news about The 1975, in February it was confirmed that the band have already begun work on a new album. Healy took to the stage in Birmingham on February 21 to announce the news, and used the gig to briefly tease a new song. It also came shortly after he told fans that The 1975 would be going on an “indefinite hiatus” from live concerts when their current tour ends this month.
Elsewhere, it was reported last month that Healy tried to buy the flat at the centre of the Night & Day Cafe noise dispute in a bid to help save the Manchester venue.