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I'm With The Boy
03/12/2001 7:00 PM, Yahoo! Music
Pamela Des Barres
For several years in the swinging '80s, Boy George ruled the pop world. His refreshingly upbeat band Culture Club enjoyed massive success all over the globe, and George O'Dowd brilliantly brought gender-bending to the mainstream. Breaking all the rules (like any good rock star should), George's difficulties with love, drugs, and the law became Technicolor tabloid fodder, his every wrong move chronicled and dissected. After his arrest in 1986 and public confession that he was, indeed, a junkie, the man known as Boy cleaned up in public. But Culture Club was over.
Undaunted, George went on to rack up several solo smashes. He was nominated for a Grammy in '94 for his single "The Crying Game," and even won a Best Dance Recording Grammy in '98--the same year that Culture Club reformed, recorded two new songs, and went on the road. The reunion generated little hoopla, but no matter--for the last few years, Boy George has been busy reinventing himself as a successful, highly paid DJ, packing dance clubs in Britain and Europe to capacity. And he recently released a new dance-trance CD, Essential Mix.
After catching Boy's DJ show in Las Vegas--which had me mesmerized--I had the chance to chat with George at the Spanish-style Hollywood Hills home of his friend, singer-songwriter Amanda Ghost. He was dressed in "slob mode"--wearing a T-shirt that read, "Beer: Proud sponsors of casual sex since 1858"--but his hair was spiky platinum and his face, of course, was immaculately made-up...
PAMELA/LAUNCH: Your Vegas show was pretty wild.
BOY GEORGE: I was surprised at how good it was. The DJ booth is one of the few places where I feel that I have total control over what I do artistically. I don't have to acknowledge what's on the radio or in the dance charts. I have total freedom, and I like it.
PAMELA/LAUNCH: Are you enjoying your U.S. tour?
BOY GEORGE: The dance thing in the U.K. is established and thriving, but you really don't know what to expect in America. I've been DJing for seven years in England. And America's such a huge place. Every city is like a new country. I feel like a pioneer!
PAMELA/LAUNCH: Maybe it's because you are a pioneer.
BOY GEORGE: Thank you. You're a bit of a legend yourself!
PAMELA/LAUNCH: Wow! Coming from you...Actually, I'm more infamous than famous.
BOY GEORGE: That's not a bad thing to be [laughs uproariously]. We were very successful here [in America] with Culture Club, and I ask, "How the f--k did I do it?" You need a lot of stamina to conquer America.
PAMELA/LAUNCH: Now you're successful as a DJ--how many more incarnations do you think you have left?
BOY GEORGE: Being a Gemini, when something doesn't work, I busy myself with something else. It's not really a conscious thing; I don't make a list of things I want to achieve. I'm much more of a "winger." You know that saying, "Throw enough sh-t at the fan and something sticks"?
PAMELA/LAUNCH: I don't think that's quite how the saying goes, but I know what you mean. So you don't plot and scheme?
BOY GEORGE: I'm not Madonna. You've got the wrong...
PAMELA/LAUNCH: ...icon? It sounds like I'm more like you are. Whatever feels good...
BOY GEORGE: You know what? You just took the words out of my mouth. The feeling
thing is really the issue for me. I'm probably in a luxurious position, in that I don't have to do things I don't want to do.
PAMELA/LAUNCH: Yes, you are in a luxurious position. I'm glad you recognize that.
BOY GEORGE: You know what? You earn that. Nobody gives it to you.
PAMELA/LAUNCH: You definitely earned it.
BOY GEORGE: We all earn it.
PAMELA/LAUNCH: We all get exactly what we ask for in the long run, don't you think?
BOY GEORGE: Don't I know it. So now I'm gonna get Tom Cruise?
PAMELA/LAUNCH: Well, he's available. Does it surprise you that you keep having
resurgences?
BOY GEORGE: I just get on with what I'm doing. I used to worry about my profile when
I was a lot younger, but I got over that with therapy, and realizing that having fun and enjoying what you're doing is more important.
PAMELA/LAUNCH: Did it make it more difficult to be in therapy and have to conquer addiction in the public eye?
BOY GEORGE: Not really--the great thing about therapy is that you do it behind closed doors. But I don't find any embarrassment about it. People think it's a weak thing to do, but it takes a lot of strength to go in there and say, "I'm f--ked up, and I need help."
PAMELA/LAUNCH: Talking about it helps other people to get help.
BOY GEORGE: Most people have to have a major crisis before they sort their sh-t out.
I wish I'd gotten it before I needed it. Hmmm. But maybe then I wouldn't be as interesting!
PAMELA/LAUNCH: You might not have as much to write about.
BOY GEORGE: Or sing about.
PAMELA/LAUNCH: Did you always know you could sing?
BOY GEORGE: I've sung from an early age. When I was very young, I was obsessed with Busby Berkley, old Hollywood movies, Carmen Miranda, Liz Taylor. Did you see her on the Golden Globes? It looked like she had taken quite a large pill. I really recognized that look. I met her once at Maxim's in Paris, and I think they had actually lit the whole backstage. She was glowing.
PAMELA/LAUNCH: They lit the area just for her?
BOY GEORGE: They must have. There was this extra layer of light around her body.
Maybe I was on something...
PAMELA/LAUNCH: Quite a large pill, perhaps. Anyway, you're such a fantastic songwriter--are you still writing?
BOY GEORGE: Oh, yes. I'm going to do a new solo record this year. Probably more rhythm-based. But whether I do dance songs or pop songs, I write stories. I've done so many musical styles in my career, it makes it really hard to place me in the market. At the moment, it's all about categories--market research and demographics.
PAMELA/LAUNCH: It's become a bit of soulless big business.
BOY GEORGE: I think that will change. The problem is, young people have less and
less to rebel against. In America, the most exciting music is coming from black artists--Missy Elliott, Busta Rhymes. Even though they're part of the mainstream, they're still on the edge because they're black in America, and I think there's still a real separation here.
PAMELA/LAUNCH: Do you think Eminem is dangerous?
BOY GEORGE: No, I don't find him threatening at all. I think he's a bit brattish. Musicians should rally against convention, rather than kiss its bottom. Bowie affected me so much because he was against tradition--he was this alien concept. I just see that Eminem suffers from massive sexual paranoia, and his audience suffers from the same thing. It's like a big transparence going on.
PAMELA/LAUNCH: People are still frightened of the sex issue in America.
BOY GEORGE: Trust me, they're the same in England.
PAMELA/LAUNCH: Do you consider yourself an optimist or a pessimist?
BOY GEORGE: My favorite quote is: "A cynic is just a disappointed optimist." That really sums me up. I think that being cynical, in the long term, can make you more optimistic. You develop a realistic attitude about things. If you're an open and observant human being, you can see that people are vulnerable and hurting, however aggressive they may appear.
PAMELA/LAUNCH: What's your religious upbringing? It sounds like you're a spiritual
person.
BOY GEORGE: As I've gotten older, I've become a fan of ritual things that remind me
that life is special and that people are special. I'm not sure if I would call myself spiritual, because sometimes these so-called spiritual people have a really haughty look on their face.
PAMELA/LAUNCH: But we're all one. We are the world. We are the children.
BOY GEORGE: We are, but most people don't seem to realize that.
PAMELA/LAUNCH: Do you have a relationship with God? A higher power?
BOY GEORGE: I think we are all our own higher power, really. I know that can sound
arrogant, but I don't think of God in an orthodox way. I just think God is in everything. That's where I am. I think that God is in everyone and everything, every inanimate object. If you think like that, then you realize that everybody has Buddha potential.
PAMELA/LAUNCH: What a spectacular realization. Are you in love right now?
BOY GEORGE: I'm always in love. I've been telling everyone I'm not in love, but I'm open to persuasion! I haven't been in love for seven years. I've made love, but I'm not in love. I tend to meet people who want to be mothered or fathered--looked after. I'm drawn to the pretty things, but I'd like to meet somebody I could have fun with who's [also] intellectual. I have this line in a song: "When I look at you, all I see is jewels/The glitter often mesmerizes fools." I'm really drawn to vulnerability. Not because I want to control or lord it over anyone. I guess it's a part of me that I've lost--I'm searching for that little child I lost when I was a kid.
PAMELA/LAUNCH: The Buddhists believe it's Maya--all an illusion, so you can have fun with life or make it hard on yourself.
BOY GEORGE: I actually have a song called "In Maya." Yes, I'm in the Maya, and I've decided I quite like it.
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