A BLACKBURN dad got the surprise of his life when he found himself chatting online with pop megastar Robbie Williams.

The former Take That singer hosted a live chat session on Instagram on Tuesday night and Damien Riley was watching.

The 44-year-old joiner messaged Robbie on the social media platform to tell him how he has been sober for 13 years.

The musician then invited the dad-of-two, from Lammack, to join him on the live chat, while thousands of fans watched on.

Damien told the 45-year-old about his four or five years of drinking to ‘stop the shakes’ and having his ‘head down the toilet’ before realising enough was enough in 2006.

Damien said: “I am a family man now, it is just life.

"Now I get such a buzz off my children."

Robbie, who has two million followers on Instagram, responded: “Me too. I get to be a father, a good father, a good husband and I don’t have anything in my way of me achieving things.

“You can see how much happiness has come my way just because of being sober.”

They talked about their pasts and the joiner talked about how the 90s were a ‘bit crazy’.

Robbie added: “Tell me about it. I remember everybody was going to Blackburn to go raving.

“I think the rave scene was incredible but it also caused a lot of problems.”

Damien talked about their different experiences of recovery, asking if it was harder for Robbie being a celebrity.

He replied: “I started to realise I had to give myself to the concept of being sober. I did not really want to go out for four, five or six months and, if I did, I went out with sober people.”

Damien, who has daughters Alice, 15, and Grace, six, spoke about going to a Liam Gallagher concert with his eldest daughter and being worried about people drinking around him.

Robbie, who has three children with wife Ayda Field, added: “That is okay and I understand as it is similar to what I had.

“We are middle aged now and we did all that and there is nothing there for us.

“You are getting your joy from being a dad and those days of being wild and crazy are gone.”

Speaking to the Telegraph after the chat, Damien says he was shocked to find himself chatting with the superstar.

He said: “I messaged him to thank him for chatting to me and he just text back the muscle emoji.

"He was just so interested in my recovery and it was amazing to think of someone like him speaking to me.”