Robbie Williams hits out at Damon Albarn’s comments on Taylor Swift: “Just get a few ribs removed and give yourself a nosh, you twat!”

"All you’re doing is going, 'Hey, I’m fucking amazing!'"

Robbie Williams has hit out at Damon Albarn over his inaccurate past claim that Taylor Swift “doesn’t write her own songs”.

Back in January, the Blur and Gorillaz frontman said that Swift’s “co-writing” approach to making music was at odds with his “traditionalist” view of songwriting during an interview with the LA Times.

The journalist then put it to Albarn that Swift is “an excellent songwriter”, to which he responded: “She doesn’t write her own songs.” Albarn said he believed co-writing “doesn’t count”.

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Swift subsequently hit back, tweeting: “I write ALL my own songs. Your hot take is completely false and SO damaging. You don’t have to like my songs but it’s really fucked up to try and discredit my writing. WOW.”

Later, Albarn apologised “unreservedly and unconditionally” to Swift, claiming that his words had been “reduced to clickbait”. He said: “The last thing I would want to do is discredit your songwriting. I hope you understand.”

During a new interview with NME, Williams – who has co-written five of his seven Number One singles to date – dismissed the idea that solo songwriting is more credible than a collaborative approach.

side-by-side images of Damon Albarn and Taylor Swift performing live onstage
Damon Albarn and Taylor Swift perform live. CREDIT: Getty Images

“I think that when people say that, what they’re actually doing is having a wank about themselves,” the singer explained.

“It’s true! You know, it’s like, why don’t you cut the middle man out – just get a few ribs removed and give yourself a nosh, you twat! Because all you’re doing is going, ‘Hey, I’m fucking amazing!'”

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Williams continued: “Nothing good comes from it in any way, other than it’s a sort of dopamine hit for themselves, going, ‘Do you know – I’m a real one.’ OK. Good for you. Fuck off.”

As for his own writing process, Williams told NME: “If you break down the maths of what I’m doing musically on a song, I do the same thing that Morrissey does.

“I’m not saying in any way, shape or form that I’m as good as or better than Morrissey, I’m just saying: I do the same thing. He sings to melody and puts a lyric to it.”

He added: “Same with Elton – he does it the other way around. It’s only annoying when there’s disrespect brought to it. I’m not bothered, but if it’s levelled against me that I don’t [write] or it’s ‘his songwriters’, then I’m like, ‘Fuck you‘.”

Many artists and fans were quick to defend Swift after Albarn’s comments first emerged, including her recent collaborators Jack Antonoff and Aaron Dessner. The former tweeted: “If you were there…cool…go off. If not…maybe…shut the fuck up?”

Williams’ former rival Liam Gallagher later waded into the row, telling NME: “All them fucking gorilla albums are co-writes aren’t they? I get it – Noel bangs on about it as well: ‘I’m more important than you because I write my fucking songs.'”

Gallagher continued: “Well, [Albarn] won’t be saying that again in a hurry, though, will he? Did he not get ran out of fucking town by the Swifters? I think [Taylor’s] fucking cool, man. She does write her songs and I’m sure she’s co-wrote with people.”

Robbie Williams is due to release his new 25th anniversary album ‘XXV’ this Friday (September 9) via Columbia.

Swift’s 10th studio record ‘Midnights’ is scheduled to arrive on October 21. It’ll follow on from her surprise 2020 sister albums, ‘Folklore’ and ‘Evermore’.

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