Neil 'Razor' Ruddock claims Robbie Williams was axed from Take That after he "kidnapped" the singer.
Robbie Williams
Robbie left the chart-topping band in 1995, and the retired soccer star has now claimed that he and his Liverpool team-mates were partially responsible for his exit, revealing they took him off to Marbella for a boozy holiday when he was meant to be at a recording session.
In his autobiography, 'The World According To Razor', the former sports star writes: "One of us gave him a call and, instead of biting our hands off, he tried to blow us out.
"‘B******* to that,’ I said to the lads. ‘Let’s kidnap the f*****’. We turned up at his place a few hours before the flight, grabbed his passport, packed him a few clothes and then forced him on to the minibus."
Razor believes that he and his former team-mates now deserve some credit for Robbie's stellar solo career.
In his book - excerpts of which have been published in The Sun newspaper's Bizarre column - he says: "If it wasn’t for me he might never have got the sack and if he hadn’t been sacked we’d never have had 'Angels', 'Let Me Entertain You' and everything else the talented sod’s done since.
"In fact, he would have nothing if it weren’t for me getting him the sack. So, I invented Robbie Williams."
The 46-year-old singer left the group after being confronted about his attitude by the other band members ahead of a tour.
Robbie had already decided he wanted to leave Take That and he didn't worry about his exit at the time.
He previously recalled: "During the afternoon, Jason Orange said, 'Bob, we need to sit you down and have a chat'.
"So you're going to leave after this tour and what we've decided is, we think it's best you go now, so we can prove we can do this as a four-piece. What do you think?'
"That was the opening of the door. That's all I needed."
Tagged in Robbie Williams Take That Neil Ruddock