George Michael

Profession: Musician
Place/Date of Birth: Finchley, 25 June 2020

George ’trying to smoke less dope’ - Oct 1 2007
Pop star George Michael does not see his marijuana use as a major problem but he would like to smoke less, the singer revealed.

In a candid interview for BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs, Michael talked openly about his drug use, the depression he felt at the deaths of his lover and then his mother and the struggle he had revealing his sexuality.

Speaking to presenter Kirsty Young, 43-year-old Michael said of his drug use: "I’m constantly trying to smoke less marijuana. I’d like to take less and to a degree it’s a problem."

But he added: "Is it a problem in my life? Is it getting in the way of my life? I really don’t think so. I’m a happy man and I can afford my marijuana so that’s not a problem."

The former Wham! singer hid his sexuality for decades for fear of upsetting his mother, he admitted.

Hiding his sexuality, he says, made him feel "fraudulent" and being caught exposing himself to an undercover policeman in Beverly Hills in 1998 was a subconsciously deliberate act.

"In a strange way I’ve spent the last 15 to 20 years trying to derail my own career, he says. "But it never seems to suffer. I suffer like crazy. I’ve suffered bereavements and public humiliations, but my career always seems to right itself like a plastic duck in the bath. In some ways I resent that."

The songwriter, the son of Cypriot immigrants, has sold more than 85 million records and is the most played artist on radio.

In June he was sentenced to 100 hours of community service after being convicted of driving while under the influence of prescription drugs. Police found him slumped behind the wheel of his Mercedes at a road junction in London in October.

Among his musical selections is Amy Winehouse, another star struggling with drink and drugs. "This is the best female vocalist I’ve heard in my entire career and one of the best writers," he says. "So all I can say is ’Please, please understand how brilliant you are’, and I wish her every success in the future. She’s a fantastic talent and we should support her."

George: Amy is a fantastic talent - Sept 28 2007
George Michael has sent out a message of support to troubled singer Amy Winehouse.

The star told Kirsty Young on Desert Island Discs: "This is the best female vocalist I’ve heard in my entire career and one of the best writers, so all I can say is, ’Please, please understand how brilliant you are’, and I wish her every success in the future.

"She’s a fantastic talent and we should support her."

The singer, who recently began touring again, added: "It’s been a very bizarre year because you can’t imagine what it’s like playing to people who have been loyal to you for 25 years and haven’t seen you for 15, that’s been the most life-affirming thing I could have done. I’m so glad I did it.

"It’s not the adulation that’s been nice, it’s the absolute warmth, it’s the complete generosity.

"I genuinely believe the purpose of what I do is a positive one."

The singer said his fans did not care about his personal life.

"What’s wonderful is that a lot of them who think they are true, really don’t care, so I’m such a lucky man," he said.

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Biography

Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou was born on the 25th June 1963 in Finchley. Obviously the name was a bit cumbersome for a popstar, so upon forming 80s teen sensation Wham! with everyone’s favourite ’where are they now?’ candidate Andrew Ridgley, he changed it to the slightly less tongue twisting George Michael.

Michael had hit after hit with Wham! - Club Tropicana, Wham Rap, Wake me Up Before You Go Go all remain classics, featuring on every best of the eighties compilation going. Whilst in Wham! George had solo success with one of his most famous hits, Careless Whisper.

When the mighty Wham! split in 1986 Michael found he had to prove himself to music critics who thought he was just another flash in the pan boy band reject. He did it easily with hit after hit, a duet with Aretha Franklin and a blue eyed soul boy image. In the nineties he kept the good work up, duetting with Elton John on Don’t Let the Sun Go Down On Me and in 1992 was announced to be one of the richest men in the UK thanks to incredible record sales.

But in the mid to late nineties things started to turn sour with George’s record label, Sony and despite producing one of the most successful albums of the decade with Older, he left Sony to create his own label - Aegean Records. A year later George hit the headlines after being arrested for committing ’lewd acts’ in a public toilet (you all know that story), forcing the singer to come out publicly.

Many thought it would be the end of his career, but the master of reinvention hit back with arguably his finest single to date, Outside. The video for his hit single featured the cheeky Greek dressed as a policeman gyrating about a disco-balled toilet, a great two fingers up to the press and police who had outed him. George has since played up his gayness, recently telling the world about his ’open relationship’ with boyfriend Kenny Goss and his ’Vanilla’ tastes in sex. In between revealing all he has become increasingly political, releasing slated single Freeeek!, an anti Iraq war song and using interviews to champion the causes close to his heart.

The ex Wham! star remains a force to be reckoned with even after announcing that he is bowing out of the music business to release his recordings online for free. Good news for skint George Michael fans, not so much for the industry.
By Laura Walton
October 2007

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