Are you ready to return to a golden age? Aka—the mid-1990s?
Robbie Williamscertainly is. To travel back to that blissful era of shaggy hair, polo shirts, bucket hats, and Tony Blair, the former Take That singer is getting help from a different Tony: Tony Iommi, the founding guitarist of heavy metal pioneersBlack Sabbath.
The two British icons partnered up for “Rocket,” the lead single of Robbie’s newly announced LP, Britpop. Opening up with a surging guitar riff, the song takes off like the titular spacecraft.
Robbie first burst on the music scene in 1990 as a member of the boy band Take That. The group was a massive success before breaking up after Robbie decided to go solo.
At the time of his departure, Britpop was in full effect. The U.K. music movement emphasized Britishness, with bright guitar pop and grittiness dominating the U.K. charts. The scene launched the careers of Oasis, Blur, Pulp, Suede, Elastica, and Supergrass, to name a few.
With Britpop, Robbie “set out to create the album that I wanted to write and release after I left Take That in 1995.”
“It was the peak of Britpop and a golden age for British Music,” he said in a social media post. “I’ve worked with some of my heroes on this album; it’s raw, there are more guitars, and it’s an album that’s even more upbeat and anthemic than usual.”
“There’s some ‘Brit’ in there and there’s certainly some ‘pop’ too – I’m immensely proud of this as a body of work and I’m excited for fans to hear this album,” added Robbie.
The lead single is a different sound for Robbie. Though he never really broke through in America, he was hugely successful in Britain and Europe after leaving Take That. His solo career spawned chart-topping albums and hits like “Angels,” “Millennium,” “Feel,” “Candy,” and “Rock DJ.”
His life was the subject of the fantastical biopic, Better Man. The 2024 movie featured Robbie as a CGI apeman as it detailed his career’s rise, fall, and resurgence.
Tony will reunite with Ozzy Osbourne and the rest of Black Sabbath for a farewell show on July 5. Metal icons from across the decades will perform at this event—except one.
Related: Iconic Metal Band’s Singer Reveals Why They’re Not Playing Ozzy’s Final Show
