Robin

I NEVER GET UP UNTIL MIDDAY
Robin Gibb's interview

IBee Gee Robin Gibb, 42, currently recording a new album, talks to Corina Honan

We have what we call a 'freak file', one entire drawer of a filing cabinet where all the death threats go. Some are along the lines of: 'You don't realize this but I am you, you are me, everything you do is being transmitted.' The worst are those from people who say they want to kill you on a certain day. It's very difficult to be blase when you get stacks of letters saying the same thing.

In America, it's agains the law to make threatening phone calls but the police say they can't do anything about letters. Once I was at the front of my house in Miami seeing a friend off. At that moment a guy drove up in a white Ferrari. He opened up his door, then just pointed a mock gun at my head and said: 'One day. ' I literally froze to the spot. You're so taken aback you just can't believe it.

But the fear, one real fear doesn't come till afterwards. What if the gun
had been real ? You suddenly realise that could have been it. After he's sped off I called the police and gave them his car number. They said they'd see the guy but he would have to do something before they could arrest him. Afterwards I started thinking: I wonder if it was a good idea to give them his number ? Maybe he'll come and take revenge.

I certainly wouldn't go stolling in Miami on my own. An occasional bike ride is as far as I go. I don't much like Miami. We live there because the studio is there, we all have homes there. We have homes in England too, but Barry seems to love Miami, while Maurice is in between, loves both places,. I think England is a pretty safe country, that's I spend so much time here.Compared to America, it's like living in Toyland.

I've always hated violence, I'd run away from fights as a little boy, get physically nauseous at the sight of people using their fists. I used to think I was a coward but now I know it was the right thing to do. There is definitely a feminine side to my nature. I don't like hanging out in pubs,watching football, any of that. I get slightly threatened in the presence of men; it's easier to open up to women I hardly know than to men. I like androgynous bodies in both men and women, and I like independent-minded women, with slightly masculine natures. My own body is pretty androgynous,just under 10 stone and 5ft 10 inches.

Like most people, I started out thinking everybody else was better looking.I thought I had a terribly big nose. I probably do, but as life goes on, you become happy with yourself. I prefer to be slightly eccentric. My haircut is short sides and long at the back; a style not many people would wear. But long hair is natural, more sensual.

In my teens I was painfully self-conscious about how I looked walking across a room. I really hated chatting girls up, just couldn't do it. When I did have girlfriends, it was because they did the chatting up. I'd get called Bugsy at school because of my prominent teeth. My twin brother Maurice, who looks completely different, an olive-skinned Italian type, was always much more confident than me. These days, I'm indifferent to to what people think.
I'm still shy but it's not so intense. I'm not gregarious; most of the time I'd rather be working in the studio or at home, reading. As I got older, I
also decided I rather liked the way my teeth looked. I did have them fixed eventually but they're still deliberately slightly prominent. In America,everyone thinks teeth have to be perfect so people all look like clones.

I got married to my first wife when I was just coming up to my 19th birthday, because her father was dead against us living together. When he had our first baby, I was still pretty much a child myself. The jealousy towards the mother and child relationship was hard to deal with. I was 21 and wanted the attention. It's not till you're older that you realise the children are more important than you are.

Fortunately, I was frightened still of the drug scene. My lifestyle then was crazy enough as it was. You'd have to work all night because studio time was expensive and soon I wasn't sleeping or eating, thought it was okay to survive on fresh air and cigarettes. I ended up in hospital with malnutrition and it took me six weeks to get back to normal. I remember just wanting to keep on going, hating the idea of going to bed.

End of Part I

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