Gary Barlow Opens Up About the Dark Side of Popularity in His Youth

JAKARTA - Take That's main man, Gary Barlow, has made a surprising statement about the psychological impact of being an idol in adolescence.

In his honest confession, the 55-year-old singer said, achieving massive popularity at a young age is a very unhealthy situation and far from the reality of normal life.

Barlow, who first tasted global fame at the age of 20 with Take That, admitted that his big ambitions and the pressure of the music industry had made him sink into a hole of depression and eating disorders after the group disbanded in the late 1990s.

Barlow reflected on his winding journey, where he disappeared from the public eye after his solo career faded. He admitted that there was a sense of pride that enveloped him at that time, but he also emphasized that the industry environment often exploited the ambitions of young artists for financial gain alone.

According to him, the more ambitious an artist is and the more money he makes, the greater the support from those around him who also take advantage.

"There's a lot of arrogance in my story, sure. I don't want to sit here defending my actions," Barlow said in a recent interview with the Daily Telegraph.

"This situation has been unhealthy from the beginning - you know yourself, being a bloody pop star at the age of 20 is very unhealthy. You can't compare it to a normal life," he continued.

This confession comes ahead of the release of Take That's latest three-part documentary on the Netflix platform. Barlow admitted that it took him a week to finish watching the second episode which highlighted the dark side of their fame.

He said the episode was a very heavy viewing because it brought up old memories that he had buried deep for years.

The documentary also reveals the struggles of his bandmate, Howard Donald, who had fallen into depression and even thought about ending his life when the group disbanded.

To this day, even though Take That has returned to active duty as a trio with Mark Owen and Howard Donald, the discomfort with fame still haunts them.

Howard Donald bluntly stated that he still had trouble reconciling with his status as a public figure, even though he had been in the business for decades.