ROBBIE WILLIAMS’s addiction to prescription drugs was so out of control the star insists he was just hours away from death.

The Angels hitmaker has long battled with drink and drug problems, most recently fighting a three year addiction to painkillers and anti-depressants during the mid 2000s.

And his dependence on the substances was so severe, Williams confesses he almost lost his life.

He tells Britain’s The Sun newspaper, “I would do 20 Vicodin in a night. I was on my way out. I might have been 24 hours away from dying. At the time you don’t give a s**t if you pop your clogs. I must have been close.

“I would have carried on (taking drugs), to be honest. You get to the point that far into your addiction, you’re not bothered whether you live or die, because that’s where it takes you.”

The 35 year old checked into the Meadows rehab centre in Arizona on his 33rd birthday in 2007 - a decision which proved easy for the star.

He adds, “They (his managers) came in and I think they were expecting a fight. They sat down opposite me and said, ‘Rob, you look f**king awful.’

“I said, ‘I’ll go to rehab, you don’t have to say f**king nasty things to me. That’s what they (his management team) want me to do, isn’t it?’ And they said, ‘Yes’. They had a plane waiting for me. They packed my bags and I got on it, thankfully.”

Williams is delighted he has now overcome his problems - because the drug-related deaths of high-profile celebrities in recent years have been so shocking.

He says, “I was on my way out. It wasn’t the best period of my life. You see Anna Nicole Smith goes off (dies) - pills. Michael Jackson goes off - pills. And Heath Ledger. I can relate to all of that.”