British singer Robbie Williams says he could have ended up like Michael Hutchence had fatherhood not saved him from a life of drugs.
Williams is in Australia this week to promote his Swing Both Ways tour in September.
In a candid interview on the ABC's 7.30 program on Thursday night, the 40-year-old admitted early fame, depression and access to drugs had led him down a dark path.
"I was that befuddled and that chemically induced that I didn't care if I was going to die," he said.
The singer believes he was a night away from death, and in hindsight is relieved he didn't share the same fate as INXS lead singer Michael Hutchence, who was found hanged in his Sydney hotel room in 1997.
"I easily could have (ended up the same way)," he told the ABC's Sarah Ferguson.
"There is something inside me that, left to my own devices, I could veer off into that path very, very easily."
But the ex-Take That band member has since turned a corner, and says he keeps his depression under control through medication and the love of his family.
"I don't know if it's hereditary or because I took loads of ecstasy and cocaine," he said.
"I've got a wife and a kid and reasons to keep on the straight and narrow."
He says his relationship with actress Ayda Field and his 17-month-old daughter, Theodora Rose, have made him realise how immature he was.
"I am a man child, I realise now more than ever."
But that's changed now, he says.
"On the pie chart of being a daddy, there's a cosmic love that I cannot explain for this child."
"Then there's five per cent of resentment that I've got to do this on the weekend too, but that goes by the wayside when you realise what you're getting in return."
Williams is touring his new album Swing Both Ways in Australia in September.
