I try to exist in a world where there is freedom of opinion, where you’re allowed to make jokes. I don’t want to live in some PC world where no-one’s allowed to say anything.
I have the best job in the world. There’s not really a lot to moan or whine about. I’ve got the privilege of going out and doing something I absolutely love.
I cried. I absolutely wept, because it wasn’t the usual stuff like, “Oh, he was a drug addict and he did this and that…” It was really looking at the music and it was really complimentary. It was a huge thing.
I was about 16 when punk started to happen. It was so exciting. You had a social depression going on in the U.K. There was a sanitation strike. London was really grim, gray. You had Margaret Thatcher coming in. It was a really revolutionary time.
A lot of people felt I was getting work because I was Boy George. My response at the time was that there’s a lot of DJs making records, they’re not all making good records, but they have the right to do that.
I’m a big Bob Dylan fan, a huge David Bowie fan… none of those people have orthodox, cabaret voices. These are people where what they’re singing about is just as important as how they’re singing it.
As a gay man I feel very strongly about those issues around the world – there’ve been huge changes and developments, but there are still places where things are scary.
And it’s taken me the best part of 54 years to reach that point where I’m like, “I’m very lucky, I’m lucky, I’m blessed” – all of those things. I wish I could impart that to other people but I think when you’re young, you just don’t listen.
