Gary Barlow will never quit music.
The Take That frontman and soloist is amazed he’s still going strong after three decades in the industry, and never sees himself kicking back and hanging up his microphone anytime soon.
He told The Sun newspaper’s Bizarre column: “I could never see myself having a quieter life.
“I’ve always thought, if I can play and sing a bit, I could probably do [this job] for a long time.
“But I never imagined it would be like this. I never thought I’d still be performing at this level 30 years on. This is quite amazing. So, just to continue doing this is more than enough for me.
“Whether it’s theatre shows, Take That, my own gigs. The audience deserve us to push [ourselves] to our limit and to keep doing this for as long as they want us.”
The 51-year-old singer was speaking to promote his one-man theatre show, ‘A Different Stage’, at London’s Duke Of York’s Theatre.
Meanwhile, Gary recently confessed he was “drowning in jealously” after Robbie Williams quit Take That for a solo career.
The ‘Back For Good’ hitmaker wishes he was the one who ditched his bandmates to become a wild pop star like the ‘Angels’ hitmaker, who became one of the world’s biggest solo stars after leaving the band in 1995.
Writing in his new tome, ‘A Different Stage’, he spilled: “I felt a bit jealous that I wasn’t the one who’d stood up and said, ‘Up yours, I wanna have some fun. I’m a pop star, I’m going to behave like one for a bit’.
“None of us wanted to leave Take That, but watching someone else leave I — we all — couldn’t help but think about taking the leap too.”
The following year, Gary released his debut solo single, ‘Forever Love’, but he’s failed to achieve the same success alone as Robbie has.
No matter how successful they were, both stars were plighted by substance abuse.
Gary recalled piling on the pounds after he turned to marijuana, nicotine and food for comfort after his solo career failed to alight, and then locking himself away as he was “ashamed” of his eating disorder.
He penned: “My confidence was shot, I had become terrified of my piano. I went to my studio most days only to pretend to work.
“Weed, fags, coffee, booze and beige food were a way to take the pain away.
“I purged into darkness, in private, alone, in the farthest corners of my pop-star mansion. I was ashamed of my bulimia.
He described himself as “drowning in jealousy for my old bandmate Robbie.”
The 51-year-old star added: “Was that my shame at what had happened with my career and all the feelings I had that I couldn’t make sense of? Was the bulimia my ‘unexpressed emotions’ . . . come forth in uglier ways?”
Take That – also formerly including 52-year-old Jason Orange – are now a three-piece with Gary joined by Mark Owen, 50, and Howard Donald, 54.