Gary Barlow `went slowly insane` after Take That split

The 40-year-old X Factor judge's solo career flopped while his former bandmate, Robbie Williams, achieved global success, and Gary confessed that the rejection eventually became too much for him.

'I was living in Cheshire at the time, going to London and back on the train,' he told The Guardian. 'I used to heavily disguise myself, with a hat and everything. I was overweight, I wasn't feeling great. I was embarrassed to be me, to have people recognise me. I did this for about three years, every day.

'It wasn't not being famous any more, or even not being a recording artist. It was having nobody who needed me, no phones ringing, nothing to do, because I'm still too young to do nothing. I was only 24 when all that happened.'

He continued, 'It was all a bit of a torment. I had this beautiful white piano, my lucky piano. Every hit I'd had I'd written on this piano.

'Within six months of this not happening any more, this piano drove me mad. To the point where I spent days just looking at it, lying underneath it, lying on top of it, rubbing my face on it, going slowly insane, trying to work out why this thing wasn't delivering to me like it used to.'

But he finally got peace when Take That's reunion tour sold out in 2006.

'That day was the first time in years that I got on the train, took my hat off and just sat there,' he said. 'People were coming up and being so nice. It felt so good. I felt so, I don't know… valid again.'