What Is Robbie Williams’ ‘Come Undone’ About? Inside the Song His Partner Called ‘Very Aggressive’

Some of the darkest times inspire the best music. For example, one of Robbie Williams’ songs was inspired by his personal demons. The track in question was part of a string of hits from one album.

Robbie Williams wrote a hit song after boozing too much

Williams was a member of the boy band Take That. Like so many boy band members, he struck out on his own. His solo career was pretty huge.

During a 2023 interview with GQ, songwriter Guy Chambers recalled working with Williams. He went so far as to claim that “Robbie Williams” was a band and he was half of that band. Williams discussed how the two of them divided up their labor. “Well, he’s obviously the frontman — the loudmouth, the face, the voice, the charisma,” he said. “Of course the lyricist as well.” Chambers said that whenever they wrote songs together, Williams took the lead.

Chambers recalled what led Williams to write his hit “Come Undone.” “Well, he was fighting demons,” he remembered. “All the way through our relationship, he was using alcohol or drugs — or he was fighting to stay clean. That wasn’t easy: he was part of a pretty boozy touring party. Nobody was allowed to use Class As, and if anyone was found with them, they’d get fired. But there’d be a lot of marijuana.”

Guy Chambers said Robbie Williams made the track too aggressive

Chambers said that “Come Undone” led to the dissolution of their partnership. “It didn’t come out of nowhere,” he said. “There was tension with songs that he wrote with other people. Rob got it in his head that I didn’t take them as seriously as the ones we wrote together. I would tend to prioritize what I saw as the singles. I knew he was really excited about ‘Come Undone,’ but I just found that lyric really challenging. It’s very aggressive — I just didn’t really get it.”

Cambers and Williams parted ways for a long time after “Come Undone.” That song was released back in 2002. The pair did not collaborate again until Williams put out the track Reality Killed the Video Star. Even if the two had never worked together again, Chambers will always be an important part of Williams’ career, considering that Chambers co-wrote and produced so much of Williams’ material.

How the song took over the United Kingdom

While “Come Undone” caused a songwriting partnership to temporarily come undone, it did well on the charts. The Official Charts Company reports the track peaked at No. 4 in the United Kingdom, lasting on the chart for 14 weeks. The song appeared on Williams’ album Escapology. That was No. 1 for seven of its 53 weeks on the chart.

Escapology produced three other singles. They were “Feel,” “Something Beautiful,” and “Sexed Up.” Each of them reached the top 10 in the U.K. While Williams is not a massive celebrity in the United States, he’s huge in the U.K. Perhaps the release of the movie Better Man will change that. Even if it doesn’t, Williams has made his mark.

Williams was struggling with his demons and he turned it into a big hit.