Williams Walked Out On Take That Reunion

The singer officially rejoined the pop group in July (10), 15 years after he quit to pursue a solo career, but he had already taken part in a number of studio sessions to put together songs for their reunion record, Progress.

Williams has now admitted he came close to walking away from the project when he saw Take That perform without him at the Children In Need concert in London last November (09) - because he didn't feel strong enough to deal with the pressures of fame.

In scenes for the band's new documentary Take That: Look Back, Don't Stare, Williams says, "I didn't think I had the energy to do it. That's the point I thought I had to walk... It was a scary prospect to be out there among something so huge, when you're feeling depleted of life force."

Gary Barlow reveals he was furious with Williams for changing his mind, recalling, "When I heard that Rob didn't want to do it anymore, I was like, 'What the f**k is this? What are we going to do?' We had big songs already written and it was like, 'What a waste.'"

But it was Mark Owen who convinced the Angels hitmaker to stay.

Owen adds: "I went round to Rob's house a couple of times because it's just better if you can talk to each other, I think. We worked it out that day. We said forget about promotion, forget about touring because that's a big thing. It's always daunting.

"Let's just say we make this record. Look at how many days it's going to take us max (maximum). We worked out it is going to take about 30 days of being in the studio this year. 'Do you want to do it?' 'Yeah, I wanna do it.' 'Well, right, let's do it.'"

The stars are set to tour with a full line-up next year (11) for the first time since Williams left the band in 1995, while Progress will be released later this month (Nov10).