I don’t know whether when I was 20 years old or 25 years old if somebody would have come along with incredible wisdom whether I would have really listened.
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.
For me the most interesting thing about Leigh Bowery was the way he used his body as a style statement. He was a big guy, but, because he was tall and had long legs, he looked in proportion – even sexy – despite being overweight by conventional standards.
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 suppose all of those New Romantic clubs were quite up their own asses in a way. Well, Taboo was up its own ass in a different way, but not in terms of rules.
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.
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.
