Robbie Williams Smoked Shoe

12/04/08 1:30pm

by Kate Harper (CHARTattack)

Here's something that might explain a lot about Robbie Williams (particularly that alien obsession): He once smoked rubber — from a shoe.

Williams told Britain's The Mirror tabloid that he smoked rubber in an interview where he detailed his love of marijuana and his skill at rolling a joint in one hand while driving a car.

"It was the only Scout badge that I ever wanted," he said.

"Once I bought a lump of resin and it was rubber from someone's shoe, so I smoked it anyway."

We told you last year that Williams would have to "get his kicks in new ways" after he shut his Los Angeles soccer team down. We didn't really think he'd take that headline literally. We've heard of people mistakenly smoking oregano and thinking it was pot, but never intentionally smoking a shoe.

According to The Mirror, Williams wrote a blog on his website last week that he once almost stabbed himself during a bad acid trip. He was 16 and had just seen The Prodigy perform.

"American footballs were coming out of the TV," he said of what happened when he returned home. "So I decided to go downstairs and stab myself. Mum came out of her room and said, 'What are you doing?'

"'I'm just going downstairs to stab myself – do you want a cup of tea?' I said."

Williams became hooked on alcohol and drugs after Take That split up in 1995. He checked into rehab to be treated for prescription drug addiction on his birthday last year.

Williams' former Take That bandmate Gary Barlow recently told BBC Newsbeat that he thinks Williams will eventually rejoin the band, but he's not sure when that will happen. Barlow said he and the other members of Take That — Howard Donald, Jason Orange and Mark Owen — hung out with Williams earlier this summer. We hope he didn't show him any shoe tricks.

"We're all keeping in touch," Barlow said. "It's really fun getting to know him again, I must say. The five of us are rebuilding our friendship, and that's really the only place to start."

We wonder if Williams brought his gorilla suit to these hangouts? That'd make them much more fun, since everything's more fun in a gorilla suit.

Take That (without Williams) reunited in 2005 and released a new album called The Circus in the U.K. on Monday.