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I felt the cry in his voice.

2
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I felt the cry.

3
00:00:28,840 --> 00:00:31,800
I felt the joy and I felt the pain.

4
00:00:55,520 --> 00:00:57,520
"My name is Georgios
Kyriacos Panayiotou"...

5
00:00:57,560 --> 00:00:59,240
that's how it's said. - Wonderful.

6
00:00:59,280 --> 00:01:00,960
"Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou.

7
00:01:01,000 --> 00:01:03,800
"To the outside world, I am and
always will be known as

8
00:01:03,840 --> 00:01:07,080
"something else, but it's not
my name. As a boy..."

9
00:01:07,120 --> 00:01:08,760
- I haven't read this for ages.
- I know.

10
00:01:08,800 --> 00:01:13,640
"As a boy, my biggest fear was what
my huge ambitions would stay just

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"out of reach of the child that
I saw in the mirror

12
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"so I created a man in
the image of a great friend

13
00:01:21,360 --> 00:01:24,840
"that the world could love
if they chose to.

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"Someone who could realise my dreams
and make me a star."

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Basically we've been friends
since we were 12 years old,

16
00:01:51,840 --> 00:01:53,600
and, er, when we eventually got

17
00:01:53,640 --> 00:01:57,200
a recording contract, we didn't
see any reason to, er,

18
00:01:57,240 --> 00:01:58,840
to bring anyone else in.

19
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We thought the image would be very
good. Two friends, you know.

20
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Is it true that you were unemployed
before you were successful?

21
00:02:04,680 --> 00:02:07,000
- Yeah, we were both on the dole.
- Both on the dole.

22
00:02:07,040 --> 00:02:08,560
A friend of mine, Mark Dean,

23
00:02:08,600 --> 00:02:11,200
had just launched a label
called Innervision

24
00:02:11,240 --> 00:02:14,200
and he decided to sign his mum's
next-door neighbour.

25
00:02:14,240 --> 00:02:17,240
He was already struck by
George's star quality

26
00:02:17,280 --> 00:02:20,960
because when he'd signed
to Innervision, George went

27
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for holiday immediately in
Greece for two weeks

28
00:02:23,760 --> 00:02:26,600
but flew back in the middle of it
to get his hair cut!

29
00:02:26,640 --> 00:02:30,240
And Mark thought that was
so over the top and so superstarry.

30
00:02:30,280 --> 00:02:31,600
It was not a good deal.

31
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With young artists, one of the things

32
00:02:33,360 --> 00:02:36,480
I say to them in that jubilant
moment when they sign their first

33
00:02:36,520 --> 00:02:39,600
contract is, "All you've done is
get into the casino.

34
00:02:39,640 --> 00:02:41,920
"You haven't even started
playing the tables."

35
00:02:41,960 --> 00:02:44,120
The actual demo tape that got us

36
00:02:44,160 --> 00:02:47,760
the contract was about four minutes
long, and, er,

37
00:02:47,800 --> 00:02:51,360
it was just... We did it
for £20 in Andrew's front room.

38
00:02:51,400 --> 00:02:54,160
I first met George when he was
an unknown teenager.

39
00:02:54,200 --> 00:02:57,840
Erm, I met him at a small

40
00:02:57,880 --> 00:03:02,160
gay disco above a pub by Manor House
Tube Station in North London.

41
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He was a great dancer.

42
00:03:03,840 --> 00:03:05,680
He'd just sing along to all the songs

43
00:03:05,720 --> 00:03:08,440
with a very good voice.
I remember him telling me,

44
00:03:08,480 --> 00:03:10,240
"One day I'm gonna be a pop star."

45
00:03:10,280 --> 00:03:12,960
I thought to myself, "Well, maybe."

46
00:03:13,000 --> 00:03:14,880


47
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48
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49
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50
00:03:20,880 --> 00:03:23,600
Two cute, gorgeous bubbly boys

51
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and those voices together,

52
00:03:25,080 --> 00:03:26,360
the harmonies.

53
00:03:26,400 --> 00:03:29,760
They were box-fresh,
minty clean, wholesome but sexy.

54
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They just had everything from the go.

55
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They were happy and poppy,

56
00:03:33,240 --> 00:03:35,000
but had a little bit more sustenance.

57
00:03:35,040 --> 00:03:36,760
I think I liked Wham in the very beginning

58
00:03:36,800 --> 00:03:39,040
because of the stuff I read
about them having

59
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a social conscience
and venting about being on the dole,

60
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and that appealed to me so much more

61
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than them just being pop artists.

62
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They were just the sort
of perfect pop package,

63
00:03:48,480 --> 00:03:50,480
and really smart as well.

64
00:03:50,520 --> 00:03:52,800
That kind of intelligence
kind of billowed off them,

65
00:03:52,840 --> 00:03:54,600
but they didn't make an issue of it.

66
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That was the kind of clever thing
about George -

67
00:03:56,840 --> 00:03:58,480
the intelligence was sort of there,

68
00:03:58,520 --> 00:04:00,600
but he didn't really care if you
noticed it or not.

69
00:04:00,640 --> 00:04:04,120
He was just looking
to wow you as a pop star.

70
00:04:04,160 --> 00:04:06,200
Pop became a very dirty word in England

71
00:04:06,240 --> 00:04:08,440
for a good four or five years. Erm,

72
00:04:08,480 --> 00:04:10,400
but it's definitely, er,

73
00:04:10,440 --> 00:04:13,200
it's definitely
the music of '83 in England.

74
00:04:13,240 --> 00:04:15,440
You know, when George looked at Andrew,

75
00:04:15,480 --> 00:04:18,520
that was Wham as far as he was concerned.

76
00:04:18,560 --> 00:04:21,880
I actually thought Andrew was
the key figure

77
00:04:21,920 --> 00:04:25,520
because he was more confident,
he looked good,

78
00:04:25,560 --> 00:04:27,680
and he wasn't wearing a string vest.

79
00:04:27,720 --> 00:04:30,120
People would say to George,
"You're the songwriter,

80
00:04:30,160 --> 00:04:32,680
"you're the singer,
well, what does Andrew do?"

81
00:04:32,720 --> 00:04:35,320
Andrew was the kind of look,
the essence of it.

82
00:04:35,360 --> 00:04:38,880
I just remember being, you know,
immediately struck

83
00:04:38,920 --> 00:04:42,640
by their bonhomie, you know. They
were incredibly easy to be around.

84
00:04:42,680 --> 00:04:45,600
You know, they were funny
and they were bright.

85
00:04:45,640 --> 00:04:47,760
I mean, they were 18 years of age.

86
00:04:51,200 --> 00:04:53,560
George's father was Greek, Greek Cypriot.

87
00:04:53,600 --> 00:04:55,200
When you grow up in England

88
00:04:55,240 --> 00:04:57,840
but your parents aren't English, or
at least in this case one

89
00:04:57,880 --> 00:05:01,760
of your parents isn't English,
the predominant pop cultural form

90
00:05:01,800 --> 00:05:04,520
of your time is what you will turn to,

91
00:05:04,560 --> 00:05:07,960
to find out who you are.
And pop is more often than not

92
00:05:08,000 --> 00:05:09,640
the engine of that realisation.

93
00:05:09,680 --> 00:05:12,960
It tells you what you are.
And Top Of The Pops,

94
00:05:13,000 --> 00:05:17,200
I mean, Top Of The Pops,
for someone like George, was

95
00:05:17,240 --> 00:05:20,240
a news programme. It wasn't just an
entertainment programme.

96
00:05:20,280 --> 00:05:22,080
It was where you got your news from.

97
00:05:23,280 --> 00:05:25,160
It wasn't cool, it wasn't hip,

98
00:05:25,200 --> 00:05:27,240
but as far as young people were
concerned, it was

99
00:05:27,280 --> 00:05:28,840
the centre of the universe.

100
00:05:28,880 --> 00:05:32,240
And it hit 15, 16, 17 million every week.

101
00:05:32,280 --> 00:05:34,800
Who's in, who's out, who's top,

102
00:05:34,840 --> 00:05:36,680
who's bottom, and who we
need to care about.

103
00:05:36,720 --> 00:05:39,480
And that was how we talked about it
in the playground.

104
00:05:41,320 --> 00:05:43,160
Good evening, welcome to Top Of The Pops.

105
00:05:43,200 --> 00:05:45,560
A load of firsts tonight -
it's the first chart of November,

106
00:05:45,600 --> 00:05:46,920
it's my first Top Of The Pops,

107
00:05:46,960 --> 00:05:50,040
and it's THEIR first
Top Of The Pops. Wham!

108
00:05:50,080 --> 00:05:51,520
The debut was very important cos

109
00:05:51,560 --> 00:05:53,480
a debut was how you sort
of announced yourself to

110
00:05:53,520 --> 00:05:57,160
the world. And some artists came
across as quite naive,

111
00:05:57,200 --> 00:05:59,520
quite overwhelmed,
like they hadn't thought it through.

112
00:05:59,560 --> 00:06:03,320
And then there were other artists
that had clearly... Knew all about

113
00:06:03,360 --> 00:06:05,480
cameras and about red lights

114
00:06:05,520 --> 00:06:07,760
and where to look when there was
a red light on,

115
00:06:07,800 --> 00:06:09,560
and George had that down to a T.

116
00:06:09,600 --> 00:06:14,160
George was like a scholar of how to
carry yourself on television.

117
00:06:14,200 --> 00:06:16,400

seen your face around town a while

118
00:06:16,440 --> 00:06:18,240


119
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120
00:06:20,360 --> 00:06:22,360

with a fatal charm

121
00:06:22,400 --> 00:06:24,920
I said, "Soul Boy, let's hit the town"...

122
00:06:24,960 --> 00:06:28,080
They had their routines,
they had the girls,

123
00:06:28,120 --> 00:06:29,720
they had each other, of course,

124
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and they were clearly going to be stars.

125
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Right, now, I'm here in
the middle of the nearest

126
00:06:36,120 --> 00:06:38,160
to mass hysteria I've ever been in any way.

127
00:06:38,200 --> 00:06:40,840
Last week I was an unknown, and
suddenly I've got all these girls

128
00:06:40,880 --> 00:06:43,640
around me. Anyway, I hear apparently
you're in the process of trying

129
00:06:43,680 --> 00:06:45,960
to change your record company or something?

130
00:06:46,000 --> 00:06:49,040
Well, there's a lot of legal
difficulties we're having

131
00:06:49,080 --> 00:06:51,560
at the moment, erm, which is why we
haven't got a single out at

132
00:06:51,600 --> 00:06:52,880
the moment, which is a shame.

133
00:06:52,920 --> 00:06:56,800
They had big hit records early on as Wham!

134
00:06:56,840 --> 00:07:00,280
but these were dance records
sold on 12-inch vinyl.

135
00:07:00,320 --> 00:07:02,120
They didn't get a royalty for this.

136
00:07:02,160 --> 00:07:04,600
It's very easy to say that we were
all naive

137
00:07:04,640 --> 00:07:06,280
and didn't know what we were doing,

138
00:07:06,320 --> 00:07:09,200
but, you know, they had lawyers,
I had lawyers,

139
00:07:09,240 --> 00:07:12,120
erm, so I don't know really.

140
00:07:12,160 --> 00:07:15,400
Basically, he knew what he was doing
when he went to

141
00:07:15,440 --> 00:07:17,760
the business just that much
more than we did at first,

142
00:07:17,800 --> 00:07:19,880
a considerable amount more,
because he'd been in

143
00:07:19,920 --> 00:07:21,640
the business for four or five years.

144
00:07:21,680 --> 00:07:23,120
All the records they were selling,

145
00:07:23,160 --> 00:07:26,680
they were absolutely making zero money for.

146
00:07:26,720 --> 00:07:30,840
They needed money to get out of
the Innervision contract.

147
00:07:30,880 --> 00:07:36,120
The plan was then going on tour
and creating Wham-mania.

148
00:07:36,160 --> 00:07:38,960
I went to see them at Hammersmith
Odeon where both Andrew

149
00:07:39,000 --> 00:07:41,400
and George were putting shuttlecocks
down their shorts

150
00:07:41,440 --> 00:07:43,840
and then batting them out
into the audience, which

151
00:07:43,880 --> 00:07:45,880
seemed pretty gross to me at the time!

152
00:07:45,920 --> 00:07:48,800
I must have been one of
the only 12-year-old boys there.

153
00:07:48,840 --> 00:07:50,120
I was there with my sister.

154
00:07:50,160 --> 00:07:51,600
I must have seen thousands of gigs,

155
00:07:51,640 --> 00:07:54,440
but that one I remember where I was
standing, looking up at the stage,

156
00:07:54,480 --> 00:07:56,680
and just watching this ridiculous
kind of, erm,

157
00:07:56,720 --> 00:07:58,640
cabaret happening onstage!

158
00:07:58,680 --> 00:08:01,440
Fila sponsored the tour and
George and Andrew took,

159
00:08:01,480 --> 00:08:05,240
you know, great perverse fun at
Whitley Bay Ice Rink, which was

160
00:08:05,280 --> 00:08:08,200
the coldest venue this side of, you know,

161
00:08:08,240 --> 00:08:12,000
the Arctic Circle. And
I remember having jeans on

162
00:08:12,040 --> 00:08:14,600
and a chunky jumper, and George going,

163
00:08:14,640 --> 00:08:16,560
"You're not going on like that."
I said,

164
00:08:16,600 --> 00:08:18,800
"What are you talking about?
It's freezing out there."

165
00:08:18,840 --> 00:08:20,400
"No, Gary, we've got a deal with Fila.

166
00:08:20,440 --> 00:08:23,160
"You've got to put the shorts on
and the T-shirt." "What?!"

167
00:08:23,200 --> 00:08:24,920
Actually the joke was on George

168
00:08:24,960 --> 00:08:26,720
because halfway through the tour, he was

169
00:08:26,760 --> 00:08:29,560
the one who ended up in bed
with bronchitis.

170
00:08:29,600 --> 00:08:30,960
How are you actually feeling now?

171
00:08:31,000 --> 00:08:33,200
Er, on the mend, definitely on the mend.

172
00:08:33,240 --> 00:08:35,280
Er, the voice is still not quite back yet,

173
00:08:35,320 --> 00:08:38,080
but I feel fine otherwise really.

174
00:08:38,120 --> 00:08:39,680
He's better now, though, isn't he?

175
00:08:39,720 --> 00:08:43,000
During the tour, you started
to hear this word Wham-mania.

176
00:08:43,040 --> 00:08:46,600
On the front pages of
the newspapers this was splashed,

177
00:08:46,640 --> 00:08:49,080
and you saw the tension build

178
00:08:49,120 --> 00:08:53,240
and the excitement as they
conquered the country.

179
00:08:53,280 --> 00:08:54,520
This was excellent

180
00:08:54,560 --> 00:08:57,360
because it would provide money
to fight the court case.

181
00:08:57,400 --> 00:09:01,480
Innervision, they were a subsidiary of CBS

182
00:09:01,520 --> 00:09:06,120
and so the plan was to force CBS
to keep Wham!

183
00:09:06,160 --> 00:09:08,440
and say cheerio to Innervision.

184
00:09:08,480 --> 00:09:12,320
I think Mark Dean had
an amazing eye and ear for talent,

185
00:09:12,360 --> 00:09:14,840
and he correctly spotted
George's potential.

186
00:09:14,880 --> 00:09:17,320
I think one can feel
a little bit sorry for Mark Dean

187
00:09:17,360 --> 00:09:20,160
because he did provide great
initial impetus.

188
00:09:20,200 --> 00:09:22,280
A very self-determined young man,

189
00:09:22,320 --> 00:09:24,600
totally in control of what he wanted to do.

190
00:09:24,640 --> 00:09:30,080
George was pretty ruthless
and knew what he wanted, and

191
00:09:30,120 --> 00:09:32,920
Mark provided the stepping stone for him.

192
00:09:32,960 --> 00:09:35,360


193
00:09:35,400 --> 00:09:37,000


194
00:09:37,040 --> 00:09:39,360
They moved from something overtly political

195
00:09:39,400 --> 00:09:41,280
to something far more hedonistic.

196
00:09:41,320 --> 00:09:44,200

you hit that high

197
00:09:44,240 --> 00:09:48,000
It was as though they had received
Thatcher's memo that your money is

198
00:09:48,040 --> 00:09:49,240
to be made and enjoyed.

199
00:09:49,280 --> 00:09:51,640
I thought, "This has got to be
number one, and it was."

200
00:09:51,680 --> 00:09:53,480


201
00:09:53,520 --> 00:09:56,480


202
00:10:04,840 --> 00:10:09,000
I remember talking to Ray Parker
Junior in his studio in Los Angeles

203
00:10:09,040 --> 00:10:13,280
and he was saying,
"Guilty feet have got no rhythm.

204
00:10:13,320 --> 00:10:15,280
"Damn, that's a good line!"

205
00:10:22,720 --> 00:10:24,000
If you're obsessed with pop,

206
00:10:24,040 --> 00:10:25,480
if you're buying those records,

207
00:10:25,520 --> 00:10:28,600
your whole life is an apprenticeship
for those moments when

208
00:10:28,640 --> 00:10:30,800
a Careless Whisper lands into your head.

209
00:10:33,120 --> 00:10:34,480
I can just remember being

210
00:10:34,520 --> 00:10:37,440
a songwriter in Germany hearing
Careless Whisper for

211
00:10:37,480 --> 00:10:39,600
the first time on Armed Forces radio.

212
00:10:40,920 --> 00:10:44,120
And I remember thinking, "How can a guy,

213
00:10:44,160 --> 00:10:47,640
"you know, so young, write something
so beautiful and mature?"

214
00:10:47,680 --> 00:10:50,640
It was so, like, it was so
elegant and mature

215
00:10:50,680 --> 00:10:54,080
and so full of... of some kind of

216
00:10:54,120 --> 00:10:56,760
French boulevardier,

217
00:10:56,800 --> 00:11:00,360
his vision of life like Aznavour
and these guys who've seen life

218
00:11:00,400 --> 00:11:02,920
and they're kind of even a bit,
you know, the schadenfreude

219
00:11:02,960 --> 00:11:06,160
is, like, just overwhelming.
Like, who the fuck are you,

220
00:11:06,200 --> 00:11:07,800
that you're a teenager

221
00:11:07,840 --> 00:11:10,400
and you're writing things like
Careless Whisper?

222
00:11:10,440 --> 00:11:13,440
The answer was that George,
despite having written

223
00:11:13,480 --> 00:11:17,640
a pop masterpiece, was just
a teenager having teenage fun.

224
00:11:17,680 --> 00:11:20,440
Sarah Jane Barker's on the line.
Hello, Sarah Jane Barker.

225
00:11:20,480 --> 00:11:22,520
- Hello. - Hello. - Hello.
- They're all yours.

226
00:11:22,560 --> 00:11:23,680
George Michael, please.

227
00:11:23,720 --> 00:11:27,680
What things make you angry
and how do you show it?

228
00:11:27,720 --> 00:11:29,560
What things make me angry? - Angry.

229
00:11:29,600 --> 00:11:32,480
And how... I could slam
the phone down! - I may say...

230
00:11:32,520 --> 00:11:34,040
Oh, I make George angry.

231
00:11:34,080 --> 00:11:36,840
Andrew makes me angry, yeah.
And how do I show it?

232
00:11:36,880 --> 00:11:39,960
Well, I make the occasional
solo record and say, like,

233
00:11:40,000 --> 00:11:42,480
"You're gonna act that way, geezer,
I'm off!"

234
00:11:42,520 --> 00:11:45,000
I just like the fact that on
Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go,

235
00:11:45,040 --> 00:11:47,720
he actually sings "I'm not planning
on going solo"

236
00:11:47,760 --> 00:11:49,880
and then the next record's a solo record.

237
00:11:49,920 --> 00:11:52,840
We've got a new single coming out
off the album, it's a brand-new one.

238
00:11:52,880 --> 00:11:53,920
Great.

239
00:11:53,960 --> 00:11:55,440
Called Last Christmas.

240
00:11:55,480 --> 00:11:57,080


241
00:11:57,120 --> 00:11:59,200
Sleigh bells and everything
actually. - Oh, really?

242
00:11:59,240 --> 00:12:01,080


243
00:12:01,120 --> 00:12:03,480
You've never seen us look
so stupid in your life!

244
00:12:03,520 --> 00:12:07,560


245
00:12:07,600 --> 00:12:10,680
The lyrics were so clever and, you
know, it might have been about

246
00:12:10,720 --> 00:12:12,920
teenage angst and it didn't matter
what age you were at,

247
00:12:12,960 --> 00:12:15,560
whether you were going through it
yourself or whether you'd been

248
00:12:15,600 --> 00:12:17,840
through it, you could relate
to what they were saying.

249
00:12:17,880 --> 00:12:19,800
So, you'd see the video for Last Christmas,

250
00:12:19,840 --> 00:12:23,080
and it would just be so plaintive
and so painful and so brilliant.

251
00:12:23,120 --> 00:12:25,200
Of course, Last Christmas is

252
00:12:25,240 --> 00:12:28,360
the best-selling number two of all time

253
00:12:28,400 --> 00:12:30,640
because it kept out of number
one by Band Aid.

254
00:12:34,000 --> 00:12:36,840
Last Christmas is a song that is
obviously gonna snare

255
00:12:36,880 --> 00:12:39,600
the mums and dads and the grans
and the kids and stuff,

256
00:12:39,640 --> 00:12:41,040
but of course, on the flip side,

257
00:12:41,080 --> 00:12:43,320
you've got this
song like Everything She Wants.

258
00:12:43,360 --> 00:12:46,160


259
00:12:46,200 --> 00:12:50,680

everything she sees"

260
00:12:50,720 --> 00:12:53,280
Those lyrics are painful, painful,

261
00:12:53,320 --> 00:12:56,280
you... It just gives you
a physical reaction to it.

262
00:12:56,320 --> 00:12:58,240
It was kind of ostensibly about a girl

263
00:12:58,280 --> 00:13:00,560
but actually it was also
a metaphor for capitalism

264
00:13:00,600 --> 00:13:02,920
and the way capitalism works
in the modern world.

265
00:13:06,160 --> 00:13:10,160
So, why not become the capitalist
world's representative of youth

266
00:13:10,200 --> 00:13:12,840
culture and go to communist China?

267
00:13:12,880 --> 00:13:15,680
And take along a world-famous film
director with you,

268
00:13:15,720 --> 00:13:18,040
Lindsay Anderson, and make a film of it.

269
00:13:18,080 --> 00:13:20,720
I thought it was quite an inspired
choice, I've got to be honest.

270
00:13:20,760 --> 00:13:23,840
You know, Lindsay very left-wing
film-maker,

271
00:13:23,880 --> 00:13:26,480
you know, a pop band
going to China, first time,

272
00:13:26,520 --> 00:13:28,000
you know, closed borders,

273
00:13:28,040 --> 00:13:30,160
terrified of the Western world
kind of thing.

274
00:13:30,200 --> 00:13:33,480
But we were dealing with a country
that had never seen this before.

275
00:13:33,520 --> 00:13:37,040
They just brought everything in from
the airport on flat-bed trucks.

276
00:13:37,080 --> 00:13:40,160
If it had rained that day,
we'd never have played China.

277
00:13:40,200 --> 00:13:44,200

and everything you see

278
00:13:44,240 --> 00:13:47,960


279
00:13:48,000 --> 00:13:51,160
The audiences was extraordinary
cos they weren't allowed to clap.

280
00:13:51,200 --> 00:13:53,640
They weren't allowed really to respond.

281
00:13:53,680 --> 00:13:57,040
They're not allowed to shake,
scream or make any kind...

282
00:13:57,080 --> 00:13:59,600
and there are guards at all the tiers,

283
00:13:59,640 --> 00:14:01,280
all the way round the auditorium.

284
00:14:01,320 --> 00:14:03,360
The police were trying to contain

285
00:14:03,400 --> 00:14:05,200
the crowds, telling them not to stand up.

286
00:14:05,240 --> 00:14:07,440
The Chinese audience were pretty
well behaved,

287
00:14:07,480 --> 00:14:09,880
but the foreigners in
the audience were going crazy.

288
00:14:09,920 --> 00:14:13,720
They were all up dancing.
The speakers were so loud -

289
00:14:13,760 --> 00:14:15,680
boom, boom, boom.

290
00:14:15,720 --> 00:14:17,760
Our Chinese concerts were never that loud.

291
00:14:17,800 --> 00:14:19,400
My heart was jumping out of my chest.

292
00:14:19,440 --> 00:14:22,000
It was very obvious that they
actually wanted very much,

293
00:14:22,040 --> 00:14:24,440
erm, to be able to appreciate what
we were doing

294
00:14:24,480 --> 00:14:26,720
even though there was
no precedence for them,

295
00:14:26,760 --> 00:14:29,680
and even though they obviously
had no idea of how

296
00:14:29,720 --> 00:14:32,400
to react to a concert,
erm, a Western concert.

297
00:14:32,440 --> 00:14:35,440
That was a kind of seminal moment.

298
00:14:35,480 --> 00:14:39,280
I think what Wham! in China did
was mark them out

299
00:14:39,320 --> 00:14:41,240
as different from the crowd.

300
00:14:46,120 --> 00:14:49,560
Motown returns to the Apollo!

301
00:14:49,600 --> 00:14:50,960
And starring Debbie Allen,

302
00:14:51,000 --> 00:14:53,040
Tempestt Bledsoe, Lisa Bonet,

303
00:14:53,080 --> 00:14:54,520
Keshia Knight Pulliam,

304
00:14:54,560 --> 00:14:57,880
Patty LaBelle, Little Richard,
the manhattans,

305
00:14:57,920 --> 00:15:00,640
Marilyn McCoo, George Michael of Wham!

306
00:15:05,960 --> 00:15:11,320
It was the idea of doing something
spontaneously as we did then.

307
00:15:11,360 --> 00:15:14,920
Maybe he felt a little... maybe
nervous, is,

308
00:15:14,960 --> 00:15:18,280
and I just told him, "Don't tense
up, it's all good."

309
00:15:18,320 --> 00:15:19,360
You know, and we could.

310
00:15:19,400 --> 00:15:21,160


311
00:15:21,200 --> 00:15:23,360
You know he had a great voice.

312
00:15:23,400 --> 00:15:24,800
It was fun, we just, you know,

313
00:15:24,840 --> 00:15:27,280
we said,
"Let's just have a good time."

314
00:15:30,760 --> 00:15:32,240
So don't go away!

315
00:15:58,840 --> 00:16:01,640
He was having hair extensions put in
for this Different Corner shoot.

316
00:16:01,680 --> 00:16:03,920
I just remember looking at him
and thinking, you know,

317
00:16:03,960 --> 00:16:05,160
"Why are you so sad

318
00:16:05,200 --> 00:16:08,400
"when everything's going so well?"
You know.

319
00:16:08,440 --> 00:16:10,960
I mean, you've just had
an album which is getting on

320
00:16:11,000 --> 00:16:14,480
to sell 20 odd million records in a year,

321
00:16:14,520 --> 00:16:17,560
and none of that success at
this point seemed

322
00:16:17,600 --> 00:16:20,720
to be making him to any degree happy.

323
00:16:22,000 --> 00:16:26,000


324
00:16:26,040 --> 00:16:32,320

never would have met

325
00:16:35,440 --> 00:16:39,080


326
00:16:39,120 --> 00:16:43,000
A Different Corner is
the first time where you can feel

327
00:16:43,040 --> 00:16:44,720
the sexuality of the man,

328
00:16:44,760 --> 00:16:49,640
not just as a subtext but as the
context of everything he's doing.

329
00:16:49,680 --> 00:16:52,680
It certainly felt as though we were
being given access

330
00:16:52,720 --> 00:16:55,720
to another side of him completely.

331
00:16:55,760 --> 00:16:57,520
It's clearly the work of a confused person.

332
00:16:57,560 --> 00:17:00,120
It's heartfelt
and you want to help this guy.

333
00:17:00,160 --> 00:17:03,960
It's a beautiful song which
you can read about

334
00:17:04,000 --> 00:17:08,360
a man absolutely fighting
the tenets of his...

335
00:17:08,400 --> 00:17:10,400
the central tenets of his sexuality.

336
00:17:10,440 --> 00:17:11,680
Forget the composition,

337
00:17:11,720 --> 00:17:16,000
just the way he presented that
super-confident, brave song.

338
00:17:16,040 --> 00:17:18,160
He used the image

339
00:17:18,200 --> 00:17:22,720
to focus people's attention more
by reducing it,

340
00:17:22,760 --> 00:17:23,760
by making it simpler,

341
00:17:23,800 --> 00:17:27,240
by making it more austere, if you like.

342
00:17:27,280 --> 00:17:29,040
More like a Rembrandt late self-portrait,

343
00:17:29,080 --> 00:17:32,920
so that you only focus on
the sound of his voice

344
00:17:32,960 --> 00:17:34,680
and the words that he's singing.

345
00:17:42,000 --> 00:17:46,480
Shortly after A Different Corner was
released, George announces the end

346
00:17:46,520 --> 00:17:50,120
of Wham! and a huge concert at
Wembley Stadium, the final.

347
00:17:56,680 --> 00:18:00,320
These three amazing dancers -
very sassy, all dressed in black,

348
00:18:00,360 --> 00:18:03,320
and George is the middle one.
No sign of Andrew.

349
00:18:03,360 --> 00:18:07,000
He's gonna do that thing
and he's gonna do it on his own.

350
00:18:09,560 --> 00:18:13,120
It struck me that this wasn't
Wham's last gig,

351
00:18:13,160 --> 00:18:16,040
this was George's first as a solo artist.

352
00:18:41,200 --> 00:18:45,640


353
00:18:51,440 --> 00:18:54,720
She's the best, quite simply
she's the best.

354
00:18:59,000 --> 00:19:02,120
And when Aretha turned up in the limousine,

355
00:19:02,160 --> 00:19:06,120
she had just come from her
fear of flying course.

356
00:19:06,160 --> 00:19:08,880
She had an abject fear of planes.

357
00:19:08,920 --> 00:19:12,280
She was trying to get round it,
and that day they'd reached

358
00:19:12,320 --> 00:19:14,800
the stage where you go hurtling
down the runway

359
00:19:14,840 --> 00:19:17,120
but you don't actually lift off.

360
00:19:17,160 --> 00:19:20,640
So she was kind of nervous
having come through that.

361
00:19:22,760 --> 00:19:25,200
The pair of them just hit it off instantly.

362
00:19:25,240 --> 00:19:27,360
You can hear it on the song,
the ad-libbing.

363
00:19:27,400 --> 00:19:29,680
It just worked out very well.

364
00:19:29,720 --> 00:19:31,720
The Aretha video, shot in Detroit,

365
00:19:31,760 --> 00:19:33,160
George and I flew to Detroit

366
00:19:33,200 --> 00:19:36,520
and we went to a studio which
had been booked.

367
00:19:36,560 --> 00:19:39,520
Aretha arrived with 30 people

368
00:19:39,560 --> 00:19:41,960
and six limos, basically.

369
00:19:42,000 --> 00:19:45,800
And the interesting thing is people
think it was shot in different

370
00:19:45,840 --> 00:19:48,760
places because the shots of him

371
00:19:48,800 --> 00:19:52,200
and Aretha don't quite look like
they're together, and they were.

372
00:19:52,240 --> 00:19:55,160
And what we found was that
Aretha wouldn't look at

373
00:19:55,200 --> 00:19:59,160
George when they were singing.
She'd only look at her entourage.

374
00:19:59,200 --> 00:20:02,040


375
00:20:02,080 --> 00:20:05,120
So, for her to get kind of eye-lined
to George, we used

376
00:20:05,160 --> 00:20:06,600
to have to move her entourage

377
00:20:06,640 --> 00:20:10,600
all the way along
the street behind his shoulder

378
00:20:10,640 --> 00:20:13,560
so it looked like she was singing to him.

379
00:20:13,600 --> 00:20:15,720
Any artist who wants to have
a career in music

380
00:20:15,760 --> 00:20:18,280
has to have a public image, and it has

381
00:20:18,320 --> 00:20:21,080
to be separate from your
private self, otherwise

382
00:20:21,120 --> 00:20:24,040
destruction is lurking on the way.

383
00:20:24,080 --> 00:20:26,960
It started with the styling. So
the jacket, and then I found

384
00:20:27,000 --> 00:20:28,440
the guitar at this pawn shop.

385
00:20:28,480 --> 00:20:31,320
He had a stylist in
LA that he didn't like and Mel -

386
00:20:31,360 --> 00:20:33,560
his sister - and I went down Melrose

387
00:20:33,600 --> 00:20:36,240
and found most of that stuff in
Leathers and Treasures,

388
00:20:36,280 --> 00:20:38,960
and there was a jacket
with "revenge" on the back,

389
00:20:39,000 --> 00:20:41,720
and then he put his pearls on,
you know, which was his kind of

390
00:20:41,760 --> 00:20:44,800
secret sign of his sexuality.

391
00:20:44,840 --> 00:20:48,280
The public image has
to have its roots in truth.

392
00:20:48,320 --> 00:20:50,920
So it has to be some aspect
of yourself that is true

393
00:20:50,960 --> 00:20:54,520
but then you are performing that person.

394
00:20:54,560 --> 00:20:57,160


395
00:20:57,200 --> 00:20:59,600

but everybody should

396
00:20:59,640 --> 00:21:02,240


397
00:21:02,280 --> 00:21:04,520


398
00:21:04,560 --> 00:21:07,600
I honestly can't think of really

399
00:21:07,640 --> 00:21:10,800
a more tasteless verse than,

400
00:21:10,840 --> 00:21:12,640
"Sex is natural, sex is good,

401
00:21:12,680 --> 00:21:14,920
"not everybody does it,
but everybody should."

402
00:21:14,960 --> 00:21:20,000
I mean that would rank really as one
of the most banal and trite

403
00:21:20,040 --> 00:21:22,680
three lines in rock and roll.
- How...? I don't think it's trite.

404
00:21:22,720 --> 00:21:25,350
How many people have you met in your
life that you think are better

405
00:21:25,360 --> 00:21:27,120
for not having sex?
If you think about it,

406
00:21:27,160 --> 00:21:28,920
sex is natural, sex is good,
nobody does it,

407
00:21:28,960 --> 00:21:31,710
but everything should. I genuinely
believe it, I think sex is a natural

408
00:21:31,720 --> 00:21:34,150
part of life. I didn't say, "Have it
now," or, "Have it when you're 12,"

409
00:21:34,160 --> 00:21:36,640
or, "Have it when you're 14." I
said everybody should have sex.

410
00:21:36,680 --> 00:21:38,760
I'm not gonna sit and think,
"Well, they wouldn't

411
00:21:38,800 --> 00:21:41,320
"fancy me if I wasn't a pop star or
if I wasn't a singer,

412
00:21:41,360 --> 00:21:44,560
"if I wasn't rich." Because I am
all those things, you know.

413
00:21:44,600 --> 00:21:47,720
Once you create a persona
for yourself in public

414
00:21:47,760 --> 00:21:51,400
for your career that's separate from
your private persona,

415
00:21:51,440 --> 00:21:54,640
then you blow it up to
cartoon-like proportions.

416
00:21:54,680 --> 00:21:56,720


417
00:21:56,760 --> 00:21:59,480


418
00:21:59,520 --> 00:22:01,960


419
00:22:02,000 --> 00:22:05,200


420
00:22:05,240 --> 00:22:07,240
Faith, I like that.

421
00:22:07,280 --> 00:22:11,520


422
00:22:11,560 --> 00:22:14,360
You take some music
and put an image with it, OK.

423
00:22:14,400 --> 00:22:19,720
Take some music and put what George
Michael did with Faith to it,

424
00:22:19,760 --> 00:22:22,320
wow, you know, then it becomes
a work of art.

425
00:22:22,360 --> 00:22:24,760
And it is its own commercial masterpiece.

426
00:22:24,800 --> 00:22:29,080
He was the only British artist who
was competing at that level.

427
00:22:29,120 --> 00:22:30,880
When the Faith tour came along, that was on

428
00:22:30,920 --> 00:22:34,160
George's shoulders completely,
there was no Andrew any more.

429
00:22:34,200 --> 00:22:37,080
So, George definitely ramped his game up.

430
00:22:37,120 --> 00:22:39,160
He decided he wanted Americans in the band.

431
00:22:39,200 --> 00:22:42,200
So we trundled off
to New York to get musicians

432
00:22:42,240 --> 00:22:44,840
and then LA, and then we got a bass player

433
00:22:44,880 --> 00:22:47,440
and a guitar player
and a background vocalist from there

434
00:22:47,480 --> 00:22:49,720
and that then became the band.
And I remember

435
00:22:49,760 --> 00:22:51,160
the sound check when he suddenly

436
00:22:51,200 --> 00:22:53,240
realised that he had musicians behind him,

437
00:22:53,280 --> 00:22:57,280
and we weren't machines.
I could see it turn in his head,

438
00:22:57,320 --> 00:23:00,640
"I've got real musicians here,"
and then that's how we got

439
00:23:00,680 --> 00:23:04,000
to do Stevie Wonder covers cos he
suddenly realised that he had people

440
00:23:04,040 --> 00:23:05,960
that could actually play that stuff,
you know.

441
00:23:06,000 --> 00:23:07,680
He knew that this was all on him,

442
00:23:07,720 --> 00:23:10,400
and he was far more involved in
the planning stages.

443
00:23:10,440 --> 00:23:12,840
George always wanted the record live,

444
00:23:12,880 --> 00:23:16,600
cos I made that mistake on
Faith - rehearsing with

445
00:23:16,640 --> 00:23:19,960
the American band and putting a
little extra guitar here

446
00:23:20,000 --> 00:23:21,920
and a little bit...

447
00:23:21,960 --> 00:23:24,040
He was not pleased when he heard it.

448
00:23:24,080 --> 00:23:26,960
He wanted everything absolutely

449
00:23:27,000 --> 00:23:29,160
the same, and every night.

450
00:23:29,200 --> 00:23:31,240
He was far more aware of what was going on

451
00:23:31,280 --> 00:23:34,440
and how this thing was building
towards what ended up being

452
00:23:34,480 --> 00:23:36,640
the biggest world tour in 1988.

453
00:23:50,640 --> 00:23:53,000
Faith had this incredibly long run
at number one in

454
00:23:53,040 --> 00:23:56,480
the States, won the Grammy and so forth,

455
00:23:56,520 --> 00:24:00,760
and produced five number ones,
I believe. Er, incredible.

456
00:24:00,800 --> 00:24:05,200
- George Michael! - George Michael!
- George... Michael!

457
00:24:09,800 --> 00:24:12,960
He came down into the lobby
of the Bel Age Hotel,

458
00:24:13,000 --> 00:24:15,440
and George had the ripped jeans thing down,

459
00:24:15,480 --> 00:24:18,080
you know? Long before it
became fashionable.

460
00:24:18,120 --> 00:24:19,320
He had this sense.

461
00:24:19,360 --> 00:24:22,240
George had this sense
of what was gonna be cool.

462
00:24:22,280 --> 00:24:26,320
And he walked down into
the Lobby of the Bel Age

463
00:24:26,360 --> 00:24:29,480
with these ripped jeans on
and I went, "Listen, mate,

464
00:24:29,520 --> 00:24:32,280
"you know, we're just sort
of breaking here in America.

465
00:24:32,320 --> 00:24:34,080
"This is a pretty cool restaurant,

466
00:24:34,120 --> 00:24:36,080
"and there's a dress code
down there."

467
00:24:36,120 --> 00:24:38,520
And he said,
"Listen, come with me," he said.

468
00:24:38,560 --> 00:24:40,680
"I'll show you why a dress code
doesn't matter

469
00:24:40,720 --> 00:24:42,080
"when you're George Michael."

470
00:24:42,120 --> 00:24:43,600
And hey, we got out the limousine.

471
00:24:43,640 --> 00:24:46,160
When George put his leg out
the limousine, I could see

472
00:24:46,200 --> 00:24:48,400
the security guy at
the door looking at his jeans,

473
00:24:48,440 --> 00:24:50,720
going, "Oh, he's going nowhere!"

474
00:24:50,760 --> 00:24:53,120
But then George followed his legs
out the limousine

475
00:24:53,160 --> 00:24:57,400
and the doors just flew open.
You know? Best table in the house.

476
00:25:01,960 --> 00:25:03,600
He was suddenly a world superstar,

477
00:25:03,640 --> 00:25:05,960
and I think that scared the life out of him

478
00:25:06,000 --> 00:25:09,280
because Faith had made him such
a... You know, he was such

479
00:25:09,320 --> 00:25:11,920
a strong image and the record
company wanted to

480
00:25:11,960 --> 00:25:13,640
turn him into this celebrity.

481
00:25:13,680 --> 00:25:16,600
That was the kind of period when he
just didn't wanna be seen by anyone,

482
00:25:16,640 --> 00:25:21,000
you know. He was upset that he was
mobbed when he came off

483
00:25:21,040 --> 00:25:22,880
a plane from LA or somewhere.

484
00:25:22,920 --> 00:25:24,560
And he had a cowboy hat on,

485
00:25:24,600 --> 00:25:27,720
a pointed cowboy,
he had all the Faith gear on.

486
00:25:27,760 --> 00:25:31,080
And I said, "Well, why don't you
dress down a bit?" You know.

487
00:25:31,120 --> 00:25:35,320
The problem is once you are
seen in that light,

488
00:25:35,360 --> 00:25:39,280
once you have... once they realise
the money in you

489
00:25:39,320 --> 00:25:41,720
and they see that you are a golden goose,

490
00:25:41,760 --> 00:25:44,480
the complete focus becomes about that.

491
00:25:44,520 --> 00:25:45,960
They were trying to control him

492
00:25:46,000 --> 00:25:48,560
and, you know, keep him doing promo
all around America

493
00:25:48,600 --> 00:25:50,320
for months and months and months.

494
00:25:50,360 --> 00:25:53,480
And, you know, being on every TV
show and chat show and...

495
00:25:53,520 --> 00:25:55,080
Are you gay? - Am I gay?

496
00:25:55,120 --> 00:25:58,000
That's a pretty direct first question!

497
00:25:58,040 --> 00:25:59,840
Although pop is all about theatre

498
00:25:59,880 --> 00:26:02,480
and performance, it has to have
an authentic core.

499
00:26:02,520 --> 00:26:03,600
No, I'm not.

500
00:26:03,640 --> 00:26:05,840
There was mismatch between what

501
00:26:05,880 --> 00:26:09,720
George was presenting and who he was.

502
00:26:09,760 --> 00:26:14,360
But the main, the main, er,
thing I like to express is that

503
00:26:14,400 --> 00:26:16,520
I don't think it's anybody's business.

504
00:26:16,560 --> 00:26:19,880
Most people seriously underestimate

505
00:26:19,920 --> 00:26:22,480
what that kind of pressure is like,

506
00:26:22,520 --> 00:26:24,720
that goldfish bowl existence.

507
00:26:24,760 --> 00:26:27,720
Cos what I'm saying is I don't think
it benefits anybody listening to my

508
00:26:27,760 --> 00:26:29,960
music to know whether or not I was
in bed with a dog

509
00:26:30,000 --> 00:26:31,440
or a man or a woman last night.

510
00:26:31,480 --> 00:26:34,080
You know, it doesn't make any difference.

511
00:26:34,120 --> 00:26:36,400
Life seemed to be getting very
difficult for him.

512
00:27:07,480 --> 00:27:10,000
The way he marketed himself,

513
00:27:10,040 --> 00:27:12,560
he made a rod for his own back.

514
00:27:12,600 --> 00:27:16,600
So, the question about George is
that having created this passion

515
00:27:16,640 --> 00:27:19,440
play, having created this conundrum,

516
00:27:19,480 --> 00:27:21,240
how the fuck do I get out of it now?

517
00:27:21,280 --> 00:27:24,760
He was the most successful
recording star in the world,

518
00:27:24,800 --> 00:27:27,560
but he was basically unhappy.

519
00:27:27,600 --> 00:27:29,840
If I use the analogy of American baseball,

520
00:27:29,880 --> 00:27:32,040
you're no longer able
to hit really cool singles and

521
00:27:32,080 --> 00:27:34,720
doubles any more. Everything had
to be a home run or grass them out

522
00:27:34,760 --> 00:27:37,600
the park, and there was no...
there was no visceral

523
00:27:37,640 --> 00:27:41,360
width to the situation any more.

524
00:27:41,400 --> 00:27:45,120
This is the moment that he turns
from being a...

525
00:27:45,160 --> 00:27:47,040
a Janet, or, you know,

526
00:27:47,080 --> 00:27:49,720
a megastar on the global stage

527
00:27:49,760 --> 00:27:51,720
to being one of the most serious

528
00:27:51,760 --> 00:27:54,760
and interesting songwriters
of his generation.

529
00:27:54,800 --> 00:27:58,240
He does this meditative,

530
00:27:58,280 --> 00:28:01,800
sad, hopeful,

531
00:28:01,840 --> 00:28:04,920
beautiful suite of songs.

532
00:28:04,960 --> 00:28:07,320
The music usually came first. Erm,

533
00:28:07,360 --> 00:28:11,480
so we would construct some parts of

534
00:28:11,520 --> 00:28:15,000
the song, and that may be
constructed with just George

535
00:28:15,040 --> 00:28:17,800
and a drum machine
and some basic keyboards.

536
00:28:17,840 --> 00:28:21,440
George needed the focus of
the songs to be on his voice.

537
00:28:21,480 --> 00:28:24,320
George wasn't a fantastic
musician. However,

538
00:28:24,360 --> 00:28:26,440
what he was able to do,

539
00:28:26,480 --> 00:28:28,680
he could hear that music

540
00:28:28,720 --> 00:28:31,480
and he would take quite
a bit of time to work out how

541
00:28:31,520 --> 00:28:33,160
to actually play that music.

542
00:28:33,200 --> 00:28:36,720
And he was using incredibly
expensive studios as almost like

543
00:28:36,760 --> 00:28:39,040
demo writing sketchbooks.

544
00:28:39,080 --> 00:28:41,720
The drum track is this -
hopefully it should come up now.

545
00:28:41,760 --> 00:28:44,960
He particularly hated cymbals and tom-toms.

546
00:28:45,000 --> 00:28:47,400
So, the music became very simple.
Everything had

547
00:28:47,440 --> 00:28:50,720
to be in his earphones
as he was singing it.

548
00:28:50,760 --> 00:28:54,560
So, he'd say, "Now, the reverb
is still not bright enough yet.

549
00:28:54,600 --> 00:28:56,760
"Make it brighter, make it longer.

550
00:28:56,800 --> 00:28:59,960
"Make those S's and T's last longer.

551
00:29:00,000 --> 00:29:03,760
"I need every one
to disappear into the distance."

552
00:29:03,800 --> 00:29:07,480
And he needed that part of the process

553
00:29:07,520 --> 00:29:10,040
to be right before he could move on.

554
00:29:10,080 --> 00:29:12,360
And he would then start to write words in

555
00:29:12,400 --> 00:29:14,600
the studio, sitting in front of
the microphone.

556
00:29:14,640 --> 00:29:16,600
And just build it up line by line.

557
00:29:16,640 --> 00:29:19,720
Singing them, see how they sound,
recording them.

558
00:29:19,760 --> 00:29:21,560
"No, it doesn't sound right," change it.

559
00:29:21,600 --> 00:29:24,480
It's like an artist with a brush and a...

560
00:29:24,520 --> 00:29:27,760
"No, that line's not right."
Get rid of that line

561
00:29:27,800 --> 00:29:29,960
and try this new line cos it's
got more impact,

562
00:29:30,000 --> 00:29:32,400
it's rhythmically better, it sounds better,

563
00:29:32,440 --> 00:29:34,520
the consonants are better.
Well, let's say, erm,

564
00:29:34,560 --> 00:29:35,920
Praying For Time, for instance.

565
00:29:35,960 --> 00:29:38,240
If you go to a song like Praying for Time,

566
00:29:38,280 --> 00:29:40,400
we had a band to record the rhythm track.

567
00:29:40,440 --> 00:29:43,840
He sang the lyrics as they came
into his head.

568
00:29:54,640 --> 00:29:59,080
It was a way of working that
I'd never, ever seen before.

569
00:29:59,120 --> 00:30:03,200
There was never any lyrics
written down, ever at all.

570
00:30:03,240 --> 00:30:06,160
And he changed the lyrics as we
were recording.

571
00:30:06,200 --> 00:30:07,720
Praying for Time is his masterpiece.

572
00:30:07,760 --> 00:30:10,360
A real anthem against poverty
and injustice.

573
00:30:10,400 --> 00:30:11,880
There comes a point where you have

574
00:30:11,920 --> 00:30:14,440
to write something which you have
not written before

575
00:30:14,480 --> 00:30:19,760
and which you're interest, erm, your
interest in any particular topic

576
00:30:19,800 --> 00:30:22,880
or subject will inspire you, and that's why

577
00:30:22,920 --> 00:30:27,280
I suppose eventually most lyricists do

578
00:30:27,320 --> 00:30:30,360
approach wider topics than sex and love.

579
00:30:30,400 --> 00:30:32,360
You can listen to Praying For Time,

580
00:30:32,400 --> 00:30:34,560
and it's completely consistent

581
00:30:34,600 --> 00:30:36,520
with this kind of character

582
00:30:36,560 --> 00:30:41,120
who is trying to be worthy of his
fame and what's happened to him.

583
00:30:41,160 --> 00:30:44,120
What is my fame good for?
How's it made things better for me?

584
00:30:44,160 --> 00:30:48,120
He understands that really art
gets reinvented

585
00:30:48,160 --> 00:30:51,440
in the heart and the soul of
the person experiencing it.

586
00:30:51,480 --> 00:30:54,000
Every personal experience is
slightly different,

587
00:30:54,040 --> 00:30:55,680
and that's quite important to preserve.

588
00:30:55,720 --> 00:30:58,200
The best pop songs are like
Rorschach tests,

589
00:30:58,240 --> 00:31:00,600
like the ink blot tests
that psychologists give

590
00:31:00,640 --> 00:31:04,200
to patients, where they see in those
shapes whatever it is that's going

591
00:31:04,240 --> 00:31:08,440
on for them. And in a way, pop
stars are like Rorschach tests too.

592
00:31:08,480 --> 00:31:12,160
People project onto them
the person they want to see,

593
00:31:12,200 --> 00:31:17,240
and when they become devoted to
a particular artist, it's

594
00:31:17,280 --> 00:31:19,880
because they perceive in that artist
something that they're

595
00:31:19,920 --> 00:31:21,240
missing in their own lives.

596
00:31:21,280 --> 00:31:24,120
I don't believe that
I am important as a pop star.

597
00:31:24,160 --> 00:31:26,600
I don't think that there are many
people that are important as

598
00:31:26,640 --> 00:31:28,520
pop stars in
the sense that they used to be.

599
00:31:28,560 --> 00:31:32,520
I don't believe that I will leave
a great mark as a, er,

600
00:31:32,560 --> 00:31:36,920
as an entity. You know? I want to
leave something as a writer.

601
00:31:47,480 --> 00:31:52,000
At the centre of this beautiful
suite of songs is a song,

602
00:31:52,040 --> 00:31:55,720
Freedom 90, which is about him
shedding his Faith image

603
00:31:55,760 --> 00:31:57,800
and shedding his fame skin.

604
00:31:57,840 --> 00:32:02,320


605
00:32:02,360 --> 00:32:04,960


606
00:32:05,000 --> 00:32:08,160


607
00:32:08,200 --> 00:32:11,720


608
00:32:11,760 --> 00:32:14,920


609
00:32:14,960 --> 00:32:18,200


610
00:32:18,240 --> 00:32:22,320
Then suddenly it's about artistic
reach being everything.

611
00:32:22,360 --> 00:32:25,480
They burn the Faith leather jacket
in a closet.

612
00:32:25,520 --> 00:32:28,160
You could not get anything any more
symbolic than that.

613
00:32:28,200 --> 00:32:30,800
You know he was saying,
you know, "I wasn't that.

614
00:32:30,840 --> 00:32:33,280
"I'm not that George Michael that
was in Faith any more."

615
00:32:33,320 --> 00:32:36,080
But I never wanted to be someone else.

616
00:32:36,120 --> 00:32:38,880
I wanted to be a star,
and I wanted people to love me

617
00:32:38,920 --> 00:32:41,760
and recognise me in the street.
As a child that was what I wanted,

618
00:32:41,800 --> 00:32:44,120
but I never really wanted
to be someone else.

619
00:32:44,160 --> 00:32:46,560
But you don't have that many
supermodels in your videos

620
00:32:46,600 --> 00:32:48,320
unless you want attention.

621
00:32:48,360 --> 00:32:50,520
Fame is the worst drug of all.

622
00:32:50,560 --> 00:32:52,760
I've seen it destroy people.

623
00:32:52,800 --> 00:32:56,560
There is no drug human beings
will ever come in contact with

624
00:32:56,600 --> 00:32:59,160
as powerfully narcotic as fame.

625
00:32:59,200 --> 00:33:02,440
To be there and then down to be here

626
00:33:02,480 --> 00:33:05,600
is, for some of them, more painful
than any drug addiction.

627
00:33:05,640 --> 00:33:09,400
They dynamic is, "Yeah,
I wanna be famous, I love fame,

628
00:33:09,440 --> 00:33:11,000
"I like the attention."

629
00:33:11,040 --> 00:33:14,400
On the other hand, "Don't disturb
me, I'm a private person,

630
00:33:14,440 --> 00:33:16,920
"I wanna close the doors, I don't
want paps outside my house.

631
00:33:16,960 --> 00:33:19,120
"I don't want people
investigating this."

632
00:33:19,160 --> 00:33:21,760
It seems to me there's always a paradox,

633
00:33:21,800 --> 00:33:23,920
what Jung called the tension of opposites.

634
00:33:23,960 --> 00:33:26,080
He loved fame and hated it.

635
00:33:26,120 --> 00:33:28,040
He loved the media and hated it.

636
00:33:28,080 --> 00:33:31,040
He loved music but also hated the system.

637
00:33:31,080 --> 00:33:32,200
So, there's the paradox.

638
00:33:32,240 --> 00:33:36,400
On the one hand, what you long
for is anonymity

639
00:33:36,440 --> 00:33:39,800
and your individualism and your privacy

640
00:33:39,840 --> 00:33:42,000
in a public space.
And on the other hand,

641
00:33:42,040 --> 00:33:44,280
you're required to play the game.

642
00:33:47,080 --> 00:33:50,680
And to keep up appearances,
and to put on a show from

643
00:33:50,720 --> 00:33:53,960
the moment you get out of your front door.

644
00:33:54,000 --> 00:33:56,400
It is true, yes, when you put
yourself out there as

645
00:33:56,440 --> 00:34:02,400
a performer, then you know your
life belongs to the public.

646
00:34:03,400 --> 00:34:06,000
But your soul belongs to God.

647
00:34:17,800 --> 00:34:23,080
When he was at his most happiest
was, I would say, after Rock in Rio.

648
00:34:23,120 --> 00:34:27,240


649
00:34:27,280 --> 00:34:29,320
He was fantastic!

650
00:34:29,360 --> 00:34:33,320

make them true somehow

651
00:34:33,360 --> 00:34:37,920


652
00:34:45,960 --> 00:34:48,480
He met the man who was
going to be the love of his life,

653
00:34:48,520 --> 00:34:50,240
Anselmo Feleppa.

654
00:34:50,280 --> 00:34:54,000
He was so happy, he was a joy to work with.

655
00:34:54,040 --> 00:34:55,560
The sense of humour.

656
00:34:55,600 --> 00:34:59,760
Anselmo was a great bloke
who'd come to the gigs,

657
00:34:59,800 --> 00:35:03,200
sitting with the band and have a
couple of beers with everybody.

658
00:35:03,240 --> 00:35:05,040
We assumed that was George's partner

659
00:35:05,080 --> 00:35:08,000
but he never introduced Anselmo
at all in that way.

660
00:35:08,040 --> 00:35:10,640
Anselmo was great to have around.

661
00:35:10,680 --> 00:35:13,000
We all knew.

662
00:35:13,040 --> 00:35:16,000
You're amongst friends,
it's fine. Not a problem.

663
00:35:16,040 --> 00:35:19,160
But for him, psychologically,
there was a problem.

664
00:35:21,480 --> 00:35:23,240
He then had the conflict

665
00:35:23,280 --> 00:35:26,640
of not being able
to tell anyone about this.

666
00:35:26,680 --> 00:35:31,560
Cypriot culture around sexuality is
very... it's, you know,

667
00:35:31,600 --> 00:35:34,440
it was, "Oh, you'll bring shame
upon the family."

668
00:35:34,480 --> 00:35:36,320
Since he came from an immigrant family,

669
00:35:36,360 --> 00:35:40,040
and I had come from an immigrant
family in America, I then felt

670
00:35:40,080 --> 00:35:45,400
quite a bit of empathy for him of
the torture for coming out for him.

671
00:35:45,440 --> 00:35:46,920
It's a very difficult childhood.

672
00:35:46,960 --> 00:35:49,360
Father, a Greek immigrant, which
wouldn't have been easy,

673
00:35:49,400 --> 00:35:51,720
worked incredibly hard.

674
00:35:51,760 --> 00:35:55,520
Disappointed having two daughters
to start with.

675
00:35:55,560 --> 00:35:58,840
Er, George came along - thrilled, but, erm,

676
00:35:58,880 --> 00:36:00,720
George wasn't the son he wanted.

677
00:36:00,760 --> 00:36:03,720
As soon as a boy realises he's
a disappointment

678
00:36:03,760 --> 00:36:06,800
to his father,
there's such a crushing feeling.

679
00:36:06,840 --> 00:36:09,520
It's like a cold hand gripping the heart.

680
00:36:09,560 --> 00:36:11,000
Jack wasn't a bad man.

681
00:36:11,040 --> 00:36:16,880
He grew up himself with his Greek
patriarchal ideas that, you know,

682
00:36:16,920 --> 00:36:18,600
the son follows the father.

683
00:36:18,640 --> 00:36:22,160
And his business by this time
was successful,

684
00:36:22,200 --> 00:36:26,400
and of course, in that high
expectation and traditional way,

685
00:36:26,440 --> 00:36:28,960
he'd expected George to go into
the business.

686
00:36:29,000 --> 00:36:32,120
I spent my whole childhood
between seven and about, well,

687
00:36:32,160 --> 00:36:35,160
really until the day that I got my
record contract having rows

688
00:36:35,200 --> 00:36:37,320
with my parents and specifically my father.

689
00:36:37,360 --> 00:36:41,800
And during family rows he would
escape to his bedroom.

690
00:36:41,840 --> 00:36:44,800
Erm, he lived a fantasy life.

691
00:36:44,840 --> 00:36:47,240
The experience of not being loved,

692
00:36:47,280 --> 00:36:52,200
not being properly seen
had tended to validate it,

693
00:36:52,240 --> 00:36:54,280
is traumatic as well.

694
00:36:54,320 --> 00:36:56,720
When you're troubled or you've had trauma,

695
00:36:56,760 --> 00:36:59,360
a way of dealing with it is
to sort of reinvent yourself,

696
00:36:59,400 --> 00:37:02,920
is to create a number
of personas over the years,

697
00:37:02,960 --> 00:37:04,640
try them out for size.

698
00:37:04,680 --> 00:37:07,520
It helps you push back the bad stuff.

699
00:37:07,560 --> 00:37:11,400
I knew Master George struggled
within his life as I did.

700
00:37:11,440 --> 00:37:14,960
I was just looking for my father to say,

701
00:37:15,000 --> 00:37:17,160
"I respect you, I respect your way."

702
00:37:17,200 --> 00:37:19,600
A lot of creative artists are

703
00:37:19,640 --> 00:37:22,000
initially driven in their childhood

704
00:37:22,040 --> 00:37:24,280
by a bad relationship with their father.

705
00:37:24,320 --> 00:37:28,440
It's later in life that they come
to realise that that bad

706
00:37:28,480 --> 00:37:31,880
relationship has led to their creativity.

707
00:37:31,920 --> 00:37:35,680
Trying to become famous is
a way of getting validation

708
00:37:35,720 --> 00:37:36,880
for yourself as a person

709
00:37:36,920 --> 00:37:39,880
that you don't feel in a personal way

710
00:37:39,920 --> 00:37:41,880
because you feel you're kind of, you are

711
00:37:41,920 --> 00:37:43,960
the person your parents warned you against.

712
00:37:44,000 --> 00:37:47,360
But if you can get lots of people
to love you on a stage,

713
00:37:47,400 --> 00:37:49,960
that will kind of make up for it
and validate you

714
00:37:50,000 --> 00:37:52,560
and make you a worthwhile person.

715
00:37:52,600 --> 00:37:54,520
If they find the love that they
were seeking from

716
00:37:54,560 --> 00:37:57,920
the crowd in an individual
who'll nourish them

717
00:37:57,960 --> 00:38:01,920
and give them that support
and love and validation,

718
00:38:01,960 --> 00:38:05,440
then something interesting can
happen in their career.

719
00:38:05,480 --> 00:38:09,320
For the first time,
George was really, really happy.

720
00:38:09,360 --> 00:38:13,320
They'd spent time at George's
fabulous home in California.

721
00:38:13,360 --> 00:38:15,760
Anselmo travelled with him for concerts

722
00:38:15,800 --> 00:38:17,560
and that sort of thing.

723
00:38:17,600 --> 00:38:18,920
But tragedy struck.

724
00:38:20,520 --> 00:38:23,920
There is now a danger that has
become a threat to us all.

725
00:38:23,960 --> 00:38:27,520
It is a deadly disease
and there is no known cure.

726
00:38:29,560 --> 00:38:32,600
The virus can be passed during
sexual intercourse with

727
00:38:32,640 --> 00:38:37,400
an infected person.
Anyone can get it, man or woman.

728
00:38:37,440 --> 00:38:41,040
Anselmo was diagnosed HIV positive.

729
00:38:41,080 --> 00:38:42,400
For the man who once sang,

730
00:38:42,440 --> 00:38:45,440
you know, "Wise guys realise
there's danger in emotional ties,"

731
00:38:45,480 --> 00:38:46,840
I mean, my God,

732
00:38:46,880 --> 00:38:51,600
because of a disease that there's
no cure for at that point,

733
00:38:51,640 --> 00:38:55,040
you probably are.
I think I knew, I was canny,

734
00:38:55,080 --> 00:38:58,600
that was my insurance policy
against this heartache.

735
00:39:18,920 --> 00:39:21,480
The rock group Queen said tonight
they were planning

736
00:39:21,520 --> 00:39:24,280
a big musical event dedicated
to their lead singer,

737
00:39:24,320 --> 00:39:26,760
Freddie Mercury, who died last
night of Aids.

738
00:39:26,800 --> 00:39:32,400
George, knowing that his great love
was seriously ill

739
00:39:32,440 --> 00:39:34,600
and might not survive,

740
00:39:34,640 --> 00:39:38,640
had to go onstage and be George Michael.

741
00:39:38,680 --> 00:39:42,000
That's a performance you've been
rehearsing your whole life for.

742
00:39:42,040 --> 00:39:44,520
But knowing Anselmo was there,

743
00:39:44,560 --> 00:39:47,120
he wasn't just performing it,
he was living it.

744
00:39:47,160 --> 00:39:51,400
How he had the nerve to just pull
off such a moment of perfection.

745
00:39:51,440 --> 00:39:57,120


746
00:40:00,720 --> 00:40:06,200


747
00:40:06,240 --> 00:40:07,480
Come on!

748
00:40:07,520 --> 00:40:09,720


749
00:40:24,280 --> 00:40:27,720
Anselmo died, and George wrote
his mum and dad

750
00:40:27,760 --> 00:40:30,880
a letter explaining what had
happened to him.

751
00:40:30,920 --> 00:40:33,640
And of course,
his mum was absolutely horrified

752
00:40:33,680 --> 00:40:37,640
that he'd gone through all this
without her knowing.

753
00:40:37,680 --> 00:40:44,480
And his dad responded also in a
very sympathetic way.

754
00:40:54,200 --> 00:40:58,160
It's a ridiculous situation to sign
a contract when you're 18 years old

755
00:40:58,200 --> 00:41:01,280
and be held to it for your entire
professional career.

756
00:41:01,320 --> 00:41:06,200
I am bound to a very old contract.

757
00:41:06,240 --> 00:41:08,670
The end result is that I'm still
a very wealthy man, so really

758
00:41:08,680 --> 00:41:12,200
I can understand people thinking,
"He should shut his mouth."

759
00:41:12,240 --> 00:41:13,840
But the principal is wrong.

760
00:41:16,400 --> 00:41:21,040
George reacted to Anselmo's death
with anger.

761
00:41:21,080 --> 00:41:23,440
There was an allegation at this time
that one of

762
00:41:23,480 --> 00:41:27,280
the executives at Sony had described
George Michael as a faggot.

763
00:41:27,320 --> 00:41:30,600
When this got back to George,

764
00:41:30,640 --> 00:41:33,000
he told his lawyers that come what may,

765
00:41:33,040 --> 00:41:36,200
the arrangement had to come to an end.

766
00:41:36,240 --> 00:41:39,280
The copyright belongs to
the record company.

767
00:41:39,320 --> 00:41:42,160
They have loaned the artist
the money to make

768
00:41:42,200 --> 00:41:45,960
the recording.
If an artist repays all those loans

769
00:41:46,000 --> 00:41:48,960
and the cost of production has
been paid off,

770
00:41:49,000 --> 00:41:51,880
the copyright doesn't return to the artist.

771
00:41:51,920 --> 00:41:54,120
I think that's what upsets artists
the most,

772
00:41:54,160 --> 00:41:55,840
is the fact that they've made the records,

773
00:41:55,880 --> 00:41:57,120
and especially true artists,

774
00:41:57,160 --> 00:41:59,480
they've kind of put their heart
and soul into it.

775
00:41:59,520 --> 00:42:01,760
They've actually made a person investment

776
00:42:01,800 --> 00:42:05,360
into the record, and to find that
then somebody can lock it away.

777
00:42:05,400 --> 00:42:08,480
Imagine you go to the bank
and borrow money to buy a house,

778
00:42:08,520 --> 00:42:11,920
and you place the deeds of
the house in the bank's vault.

779
00:42:11,960 --> 00:42:15,360
You pay the mortgage
and the bank keeps the deeds

780
00:42:15,400 --> 00:42:17,240
and continues to own the house.

781
00:42:17,280 --> 00:42:19,880
There isn't one other industry

782
00:42:19,920 --> 00:42:22,320
that operates on this basis.

783
00:42:22,360 --> 00:42:26,960
The music business uses you,
so you're allowed to use it back.

784
00:42:27,000 --> 00:42:30,440
The lawyers often were on both sides
of the fence.

785
00:42:30,480 --> 00:42:32,840
The lawyers were often representing

786
00:42:32,880 --> 00:42:34,760
a lot of the senior executives in

787
00:42:34,800 --> 00:42:37,440
the record company as well as
representing the artist.

788
00:42:37,480 --> 00:42:40,760
Label bosses and label heads of Aandamp;R

789
00:42:40,800 --> 00:42:44,080
have got just as big egos as artists

790
00:42:44,120 --> 00:42:47,760
but they haven't got
the release of all the glory.

791
00:42:47,800 --> 00:42:51,480
So they very often are
quite hard on artists.

792
00:42:51,520 --> 00:42:54,080
This is one industry which has
been getting away with

793
00:42:54,120 --> 00:42:56,600
the kind of stuff that the film industry

794
00:42:56,640 --> 00:42:59,320
and the sports industry
and the publishing industry

795
00:42:59,360 --> 00:43:03,320
and just about every other industry
has had to address.

796
00:43:03,360 --> 00:43:06,440
You know, the right of
the individual, the freedom of

797
00:43:06,480 --> 00:43:10,880
the individual has been obtained in
just about every other industry.

798
00:43:10,920 --> 00:43:14,000
After three days, I knew it was a no-go.

799
00:43:14,040 --> 00:43:15,320
Just look at the judge.

800
00:43:17,200 --> 00:43:19,480
The judge was a property lawyer.

801
00:43:19,520 --> 00:43:23,760
As far as he's concerned, Sony had
a piece of property.

802
00:43:23,800 --> 00:43:25,080
The judge who's trying him,

803
00:43:25,120 --> 00:43:29,920
he's seen a guy complaining about
the nuances of a life

804
00:43:29,960 --> 00:43:31,680
of a very beautiful young superstar,

805
00:43:31,720 --> 00:43:35,200
a very wealthy superstar. And I
remember thinking at some point

806
00:43:35,240 --> 00:43:37,120
that that wasn't gonna play well.

807
00:43:37,160 --> 00:43:39,240
A terrible time
of life that was, getting through

808
00:43:39,280 --> 00:43:41,440
a three-month lawsuit when
you know you haven't got

809
00:43:41,480 --> 00:43:42,920
a hope in hell of winning.

810
00:43:45,800 --> 00:43:48,040
I am shocked and extremely disappointed

811
00:43:48,080 --> 00:43:50,240
at the judgment of Mr Justice Parker.

812
00:43:50,280 --> 00:43:53,280
When Mr Justice Parker
sent down his judgment,

813
00:43:53,320 --> 00:43:56,040
the clue is in the first paragraph,

814
00:43:56,080 --> 00:43:59,680
because he refers
to George being a wealthy man.

815
00:43:59,720 --> 00:44:01,600
I think we all realised, erm,

816
00:44:01,640 --> 00:44:04,400
that he had made
so much money that it seemed

817
00:44:04,440 --> 00:44:07,160
a bit churlish to be splitting
the difference over

818
00:44:07,200 --> 00:44:08,560
a contract. On the one hand,

819
00:44:08,600 --> 00:44:10,680
we'd heard how grown up he was
and how independent

820
00:44:10,720 --> 00:44:12,480
and how self-assured,

821
00:44:12,520 --> 00:44:15,280
and yet we were being told
that he was some kind of

822
00:44:15,320 --> 00:44:19,040
little patsy being played around
with by the record company.

823
00:44:19,080 --> 00:44:21,880
The perception was that
the men in the suits

824
00:44:21,920 --> 00:44:24,320
and the record executives
that came over from

825
00:44:24,360 --> 00:44:27,520
New York were serious businessmen,

826
00:44:27,560 --> 00:44:30,400
and this was a whiney recording artist

827
00:44:30,440 --> 00:44:33,600
who had made lots of money and wanted more.

828
00:44:33,640 --> 00:44:37,080
Even though I both created
and paid for my work,

829
00:44:37,120 --> 00:44:39,960
I will never own it
or have any rights over it.

830
00:44:40,000 --> 00:44:43,920
There is no such thing as
resignation for an artist

831
00:44:43,960 --> 00:44:45,440
in the music industry.

832
00:44:45,480 --> 00:44:49,680
And peppered throughout
the judgment, he refers to

833
00:44:49,720 --> 00:44:51,960
the amount of money George has made.

834
00:44:52,000 --> 00:44:55,240
At one point echoing
a statement made by Sony.

835
00:44:55,280 --> 00:44:59,280
George Michael was going from being
excessively overpaid

836
00:44:59,320 --> 00:45:02,080
to being grossly excessively overpaid.

837
00:45:02,120 --> 00:45:03,920
When you get into court,

838
00:45:03,960 --> 00:45:08,440
you know, it's a pretty
vicious, dirty place.

839
00:45:08,480 --> 00:45:10,280
Litigation is hideous.

840
00:45:10,320 --> 00:45:13,480
It's exhausting,
its unbelievably stressful.

841
00:45:13,520 --> 00:45:17,840
For an artist to voluntarily do
that, it's a real tribute

842
00:45:17,880 --> 00:45:19,800
to the strength of their feeling.

843
00:45:19,840 --> 00:45:22,560
They do understand how important
it is for us to create,

844
00:45:22,600 --> 00:45:24,720
and they will always have that
particular leverage.

845
00:45:24,760 --> 00:45:27,480
You have to face yourself and say,
"What's more important to me?"

846
00:45:27,520 --> 00:45:30,560
Is it going further in this fight,
or is it getting back

847
00:45:30,600 --> 00:45:32,400
and just writing songs and making music?

848
00:45:32,440 --> 00:45:34,200
You're not just fighting for yourself,

849
00:45:34,240 --> 00:45:36,760
you're fighting for
a greater sense of what could make

850
00:45:36,800 --> 00:45:39,440
the industry also greater.
Because it was not necessarily

851
00:45:39,480 --> 00:45:41,200
an industry that's ever embraced

852
00:45:41,240 --> 00:45:44,520
change, even when that change
has been clearly to its benefit.

853
00:45:44,560 --> 00:45:47,440
All I know is, in this situation,

854
00:45:47,480 --> 00:45:50,880
I can only move up from that position.

855
00:45:50,920 --> 00:45:54,680
I mean, I've lost everything
in terms of, erm,

856
00:45:54,720 --> 00:45:57,520
what I tried to achieve with this action.

857
00:45:57,560 --> 00:45:59,080
Well, what happens now, then?

858
00:46:00,840 --> 00:46:01,920
Well...

859
00:46:01,960 --> 00:46:05,520
What about if they said, "George,
we'll release you absolutely,

860
00:46:05,560 --> 00:46:09,520
"we're not even gonna ask for any
transfer fee as long as just as

861
00:46:09,560 --> 00:46:12,640
"a parting gift you give us one
final album"?

862
00:46:12,680 --> 00:46:14,040
I couldn't do that.

863
00:46:14,080 --> 00:46:16,400
He knew he was gonna lose.

864
00:46:16,440 --> 00:46:20,920
He knew it, he was a realist
in things like that.

865
00:46:20,960 --> 00:46:25,400
But, as he said, you know,
"OK, so we'll lose,

866
00:46:25,440 --> 00:46:28,480
"they win the lawsuit."

867
00:46:28,520 --> 00:46:30,880
I'll never make a record for them again

868
00:46:30,920 --> 00:46:34,360
and when I do, somebody else
will pay the legal fees.

869
00:46:34,400 --> 00:46:38,680
The legendary music mogul
David Geffen went to Sony

870
00:46:38,720 --> 00:46:41,800
and said, "Look, George is never
gonna record for you again.

871
00:46:41,840 --> 00:46:45,520
"Why don't you sell his contract to
me, then at least you're covered,

872
00:46:45,560 --> 00:46:48,000
"and we can all move forward?"

873
00:46:49,920 --> 00:46:51,880


874
00:46:51,920 --> 00:46:56,800


875
00:46:56,840 --> 00:46:59,880


876
00:46:59,920 --> 00:47:02,360


877
00:47:02,400 --> 00:47:06,600


878
00:47:06,640 --> 00:47:09,560
We were in the studio and George
is beginning to write the lyrics

879
00:47:09,600 --> 00:47:11,520
to Jesus To A Child.

880
00:47:11,560 --> 00:47:13,720
They're coming at me,

881
00:47:13,760 --> 00:47:17,000
with this gorgeous Latin music,

882
00:47:17,040 --> 00:47:18,880
and it is heart breaking.

883
00:47:18,920 --> 00:47:22,080
What I liked about George's voice

884
00:47:22,120 --> 00:47:24,880
were songs that were talking about

885
00:47:24,920 --> 00:47:27,920
you know, painful situations,

886
00:47:27,960 --> 00:47:29,840
and I felt the pain.

887
00:47:29,880 --> 00:47:35,080
When he suffered the loss of Anselmo dying

888
00:47:35,120 --> 00:47:38,440
is when the very personal songs
started to surface

889
00:47:38,480 --> 00:47:40,480
because he'd had his validation,

890
00:47:40,520 --> 00:47:42,240
he'd lost his validation

891
00:47:42,280 --> 00:47:45,840
and there was nothing else to do
but tell the truth.

892
00:47:59,880 --> 00:48:02,200
With all that George again had gone
through,

893
00:48:02,240 --> 00:48:05,920
a grieving process with Anselmo,
and what Pray To Me,

894
00:48:05,960 --> 00:48:08,240
like, turning up on this record,

895
00:48:08,280 --> 00:48:12,560
I just turned up as a 25-year-old kid

896
00:48:12,600 --> 00:48:16,840
just full of positivity
and anything was possible.

897
00:48:16,880 --> 00:48:19,680
George just had a unique tongue.

898
00:48:19,720 --> 00:48:22,120
I can't understand the magic of it,

899
00:48:22,160 --> 00:48:26,280
but some people have just got
a tongue that just works,

900
00:48:26,320 --> 00:48:29,000
it just goes into your ears,
and it works in your brain,

901
00:48:29,040 --> 00:48:32,040
it goes down to your heart or
wherever else in your body,

902
00:48:32,080 --> 00:48:35,720
it just is a lovely thing to listen to.

903
00:48:35,760 --> 00:48:40,320

You ain't home

904
00:48:40,360 --> 00:48:43,280


905
00:48:43,320 --> 00:48:45,520


906
00:48:48,240 --> 00:48:51,960


907
00:48:52,000 --> 00:48:55,000


908
00:48:55,040 --> 00:49:00,240
Spinning the Wheel is an absolute
masterwork about safe sex.

909
00:49:00,280 --> 00:49:02,680
These are incredible songs.

910
00:49:02,720 --> 00:49:07,720
These are songs that nobody
else was writing, music like that,

911
00:49:07,760 --> 00:49:10,360
with that subject matter, at that time,

912
00:49:10,400 --> 00:49:13,760
and this is where he's starting
to present himself

913
00:49:13,800 --> 00:49:18,560
as a documenter
of gay men's interior lives.

914
00:49:18,600 --> 00:49:21,080
When I first met him,
George hadn't even come out,

915
00:49:21,120 --> 00:49:23,920
so even that was very much
of a kind of secret.

916
00:49:23,960 --> 00:49:27,560
There'd be stuff about lyrics
and I think I was such a fan,

917
00:49:27,600 --> 00:49:30,880
I didn't ever wanna ask him
to kind of spoil all that illusion

918
00:49:30,920 --> 00:49:35,000
which is bizarre, even songs that
I've kind of written with him.

919
00:49:35,040 --> 00:49:37,150
When Fast Love came along
I just thought it was one of

920
00:49:37,160 --> 00:49:39,200
the best records I'd ever heard.

921
00:49:39,240 --> 00:49:43,440
Fast Love on his original demo
was like a Latin kind of ballad,

922
00:49:43,480 --> 00:49:47,160
it was like a salsa,
very chilled out kind of thing,

923
00:49:47,200 --> 00:49:49,360
and I just put on my disco pants.

924
00:49:52,360 --> 00:49:55,840
George had this way
of giving you something that created

925
00:49:55,880 --> 00:49:58,960
a particular dialogue
between your hips and your heart,

926
00:49:59,000 --> 00:50:01,960
but also your head.

927
00:50:02,000 --> 00:50:04,600
We spent about three months on it
and I thought,

928
00:50:04,640 --> 00:50:07,480
"That's it, it done,
it sounds great."

929
00:50:07,520 --> 00:50:11,920
He comes in, he's like, "I want the
track to turn into Forget Me Nots"

930
00:50:11,960 --> 00:50:14,280
I was like,
"What? What you talking about?"

931
00:50:14,320 --> 00:50:16,520


932
00:50:16,560 --> 00:50:18,600


933
00:50:18,640 --> 00:50:21,480
Like all things, George would say
stuff and you'd kind of be like,

934
00:50:21,520 --> 00:50:24,160
"It's just a terrible idea,"
and you'd do it,

935
00:50:24,200 --> 00:50:26,760
and it was an absolutely brilliant idea.

936
00:50:28,560 --> 00:50:31,840


937
00:50:31,880 --> 00:50:33,680


938
00:50:33,720 --> 00:50:39,160
On one level you could put it with
his up tempo disco club hits.

939
00:50:39,200 --> 00:50:42,200
There's an underlying bitter
sweetness to that

940
00:50:42,240 --> 00:50:45,200
with the Forget Me Nots sample
where it's kind of,

941
00:50:45,240 --> 00:50:47,640
there's a pain in there as well.

942
00:50:47,680 --> 00:50:50,680
It's like, "Yes, let's go out,"
and it's about anonymous sex,

943
00:50:50,720 --> 00:50:53,880
it's about one night stands
but then also it's about the pain

944
00:50:53,920 --> 00:50:56,240
and the loneliness that comes
with that at the same time.

945
00:50:56,280 --> 00:50:59,920
Fast Love was when
the layers fell from even

946
00:50:59,960 --> 00:51:02,360
the most naive eyes
and we thought hang on a minute,

947
00:51:02,400 --> 00:51:04,960
"What is George Michael
actually singing about?"

948
00:51:05,000 --> 00:51:06,360
When we were filming George,

949
00:51:06,400 --> 00:51:08,800
it was almost like working
with a Hollywood Icon.

950
00:51:08,840 --> 00:51:12,000
He knew the exact angle that he'd
obviously worked out in the mirror.

951
00:51:12,040 --> 00:51:15,480
He had to see himself reflected
in the map box of the camera.

952
00:51:15,520 --> 00:51:19,440
So, if you were to pan off him and
he'd go, "Whoa, whoa, stop!"

953
00:51:19,480 --> 00:51:22,120
and the minute he couldn't see
himself you'd have to start again.

954
00:51:22,160 --> 00:51:25,440
In the end we invented a kind of
little, erm, playback system

955
00:51:25,480 --> 00:51:28,640
where he could see himself through
the lens of the camera

956
00:51:28,680 --> 00:51:30,960
and so it was almost like performing
to himself.

957
00:51:31,000 --> 00:51:32,520
And then he'd let you edit it,

958
00:51:32,560 --> 00:51:34,840
but he knew exactly how he wanted
to edit it

959
00:51:34,880 --> 00:51:36,080
and it was always in his head.

960
00:51:36,120 --> 00:51:38,280
We'd show him a cut
and he'd go, "Yeah, great."

961
00:51:38,320 --> 00:51:40,560
And then it would be, "OK,
start again."

962
00:51:56,720 --> 00:51:58,280
We met, end of May,

963
00:51:58,320 --> 00:52:00,840
and by the middle of June I came home,

964
00:52:00,880 --> 00:52:04,560
and he said, "Darling, I wanna show
you this jumper"

965
00:52:04,600 --> 00:52:06,760
and he took me back to the house.
I'm like, "Jumper?"

966
00:52:06,800 --> 00:52:09,240
That's something a cheerleader
wears, that's all stretchy,

967
00:52:09,280 --> 00:52:10,680
one piece, that girls wear.

968
00:52:10,720 --> 00:52:12,040
So I went back there

969
00:52:12,080 --> 00:52:14,360
and he pulled out these two rings
he'd got in Maxfield.

970
00:52:14,400 --> 00:52:17,600
"I want you to have this.
Let's be together."

971
00:52:20,080 --> 00:52:22,160
They were best friends in many ways.

972
00:52:22,200 --> 00:52:25,320
Kenny had quite a calming effect.

973
00:52:25,360 --> 00:52:29,240
They both shared a great love of dogs.

974
00:52:29,280 --> 00:52:30,720
For the first time in his life,

975
00:52:30,760 --> 00:52:35,120
he can phone up his mum
because she now knows, erm,

976
00:52:35,160 --> 00:52:37,040
that he's a gay man.

977
00:52:37,080 --> 00:52:39,600
So, he phones up to let her know
that he's met somebody

978
00:52:39,640 --> 00:52:42,800
and of course,
she's wonderfully happy about this.

979
00:52:42,840 --> 00:52:45,920
But during the same phone call

980
00:52:45,960 --> 00:52:50,000
she also tells him that
she's had a cancer scare

981
00:52:50,040 --> 00:52:54,240
and that scare, unfortunately,
became a reality

982
00:52:54,280 --> 00:52:56,680
and she sadly died.

983
00:53:06,920 --> 00:53:10,600
I suppose a lot of people would ask
the question about why you,

984
00:53:10,640 --> 00:53:12,080
as a public figure,

985
00:53:12,120 --> 00:53:14,680
as somebody who is recognised,
both here and America,

986
00:53:14,720 --> 00:53:17,040
why do you take such an outrageous risk?

987
00:53:17,080 --> 00:53:19,080
Well, I suppose that's
the whole point, isn't it?

988
00:53:19,120 --> 00:53:20,920
It gets addictive, reckless behaviour.

989
00:53:20,960 --> 00:53:22,920
So, it becomes a point sometimes

990
00:53:22,960 --> 00:53:27,120
where you're taking more of a risk,
the chance of you being caught,

991
00:53:27,160 --> 00:53:28,880
you're doing things more openly.

992
00:53:28,920 --> 00:53:31,480
Beverly Hills Police Officers
arrested the singer

993
00:53:31,520 --> 00:53:34,120
known as George Michael.

994
00:53:34,160 --> 00:53:35,920
It was a throwback to the '50s.

995
00:53:35,960 --> 00:53:37,560
It was an Agent Provocateur.

996
00:53:37,600 --> 00:53:40,240
The policeman was actively

997
00:53:40,280 --> 00:53:44,040
manipulating himself which is really wrong,

998
00:53:44,080 --> 00:53:45,800
that's entrapment.

999
00:53:45,840 --> 00:53:49,200
There's someone standing there
waving their genitals at you.

1000
00:53:49,240 --> 00:53:51,480
You don't think that they're
an officer of the law!

1001
00:53:51,520 --> 00:53:53,720
It's not your first presumption.

1002
00:53:53,760 --> 00:53:58,080
I quite often see celebrities of
what I call the bubbles of shame.

1003
00:53:58,120 --> 00:54:00,440
So, their lives are kind of all right,

1004
00:54:00,480 --> 00:54:03,560
but then they have a moment where
they do something really reckless

1005
00:54:03,600 --> 00:54:08,080
and really foolish, almost as if
they want to be exposed.

1006
00:54:08,120 --> 00:54:10,800
My reaction to this was,
"I'm not gonna be like another one

1007
00:54:10,840 --> 00:54:13,520
"of these people that's peeking out
from behind their net curtains

1008
00:54:13,560 --> 00:54:14,800
"a month later."

1009
00:54:14,840 --> 00:54:16,640
I thought, I'm just gonna
go out for a meal.

1010
00:54:16,680 --> 00:54:19,560
I know they'll all chase me,
and it did cause havoc,

1011
00:54:19,600 --> 00:54:22,880
you had all these cars
going across red lights,

1012
00:54:22,920 --> 00:54:25,760
and I was just ambling down
to my local restaurant, you know.

1013
00:54:25,800 --> 00:54:28,600
I think it's pretty brave of him to
come and do something like this.

1014
00:54:28,640 --> 00:54:32,640
When you're caught, it's taking
the responsibility away from you,

1015
00:54:32,680 --> 00:54:34,120
because it stops you in your tracks.

1016
00:54:34,160 --> 00:54:35,720
It's the moment where you have to go,

1017
00:54:35,760 --> 00:54:37,800
"Sharp intake of breathe,
what shall I do now?"

1018
00:54:37,840 --> 00:54:40,160
And I literally got a call
the next day going,

1019
00:54:40,200 --> 00:54:42,040
"I'm gonna make a song about it"

1020
00:54:42,080 --> 00:54:43,560
and it's kind of, "Great."

1021
00:54:43,600 --> 00:54:45,360
It was just the perfect answer.

1022
00:54:45,400 --> 00:54:47,240
It was the perfect clap back

1023
00:54:47,280 --> 00:54:49,720
and I think he just wanted
to just go, "Fuck it,"

1024
00:54:49,760 --> 00:54:51,720
and just reply with a load of humour.

1025
00:54:51,760 --> 00:54:53,760
When you get on with somebody
and you gel with them

1026
00:54:53,800 --> 00:54:55,440
and you've got the same sense of humour,

1027
00:54:55,480 --> 00:54:57,480
and when you tell somebody an idea,

1028
00:54:57,520 --> 00:54:59,550
sometimes you tell somebody
and there's a blank look.

1029
00:54:59,560 --> 00:55:01,950
But when you tell George an idea
and you see a little sparkle

1030
00:55:01,960 --> 00:55:03,360
and there's a little smirk...

1031
00:55:03,400 --> 00:55:05,840
So, he was really not George Michael
the superstar,

1032
00:55:05,880 --> 00:55:07,960
George was in the crew van
with all the crew

1033
00:55:08,000 --> 00:55:09,320
and everyone's chatting to him,

1034
00:55:09,360 --> 00:55:11,640
and he was telling everybody
the stories of life.

1035
00:55:11,680 --> 00:55:13,910
He'd be telling about he was in
a restaurant with Lady Di

1036
00:55:13,920 --> 00:55:16,320
and then he'd see someone putting
a parking ticket on his car

1037
00:55:16,360 --> 00:55:18,680
and he'd go running out to
the parking warden

1038
00:55:18,720 --> 00:55:20,080
and just offer his autograph.

1039
00:55:20,120 --> 00:55:22,960
Just really nice things
like that kind of thing.

1040
00:55:23,000 --> 00:55:24,440
He'd say, "What are you thinking?"

1041
00:55:24,480 --> 00:55:26,800
and it would always be, you know,
I'd kind of trigger it.

1042
00:55:26,840 --> 00:55:29,080
I think he had loads of ideas in his head.

1043
00:55:29,120 --> 00:55:31,720
For me, I wasn't quite sure how
to portray the whole thing

1044
00:55:31,760 --> 00:55:35,520
but all I could see was just this
toilet turning into a disco.

1045
00:55:35,560 --> 00:55:38,840


1046
00:55:38,880 --> 00:55:42,480


1047
00:55:42,520 --> 00:55:46,240

what you can...

1048
00:55:46,280 --> 00:55:49,160
He wanted to kind of develop it more
to make a secondary video

1049
00:55:49,200 --> 00:55:51,040
which was slightly more hardcore

1050
00:55:51,080 --> 00:55:54,760
and a more hardcore porn version of
it running at the same time.

1051
00:55:54,800 --> 00:55:58,840
He was around maybe 50% of
the time on the shots

1052
00:55:58,880 --> 00:56:00,120
and things like that.

1053
00:56:00,160 --> 00:56:02,200
Obviously, for his scene he
was there all the time.

1054
00:56:02,240 --> 00:56:03,830
He would just let us go off and do things

1055
00:56:03,840 --> 00:56:05,310
cos a lot of it was shot from the air.

1056
00:56:05,320 --> 00:56:07,520
We wanted people making out in in public,

1057
00:56:07,560 --> 00:56:10,640
as if it was a nude scene or something

1058
00:56:10,680 --> 00:56:14,000
so it had to be done somewhere where
people couldn't see you doing it.

1059
00:56:14,040 --> 00:56:16,920
Some of it was full penetration
as well that we were doing.

1060
00:56:16,960 --> 00:56:19,720
So, yeah, that was full-on
in the control tower.

1061
00:56:19,760 --> 00:56:22,920
People like myself trapped
in that prism almost,

1062
00:56:22,960 --> 00:56:25,600
it was a kind of ray of light.

1063
00:56:25,640 --> 00:56:27,960
It was mocking his tormentors,
it was ridiculing them,

1064
00:56:28,000 --> 00:56:30,960
it was making them look ridiculous
and absurd.

1065
00:56:31,000 --> 00:56:34,360
Like the couple in
the van on top of the cliff,

1066
00:56:34,400 --> 00:56:36,840
then we had the other couple
who are kissing

1067
00:56:36,880 --> 00:56:38,560
on top of the mast on the ship.

1068
00:56:38,600 --> 00:56:41,040
The executive producer on it,
who played the part,

1069
00:56:41,080 --> 00:56:43,840
he was one of the cops snogging
on the roof with his partner.

1070
00:56:43,880 --> 00:56:46,440
He wanted to use it to let his family know.

1071
00:56:46,480 --> 00:56:48,720
The idea was to actually expand the video

1072
00:56:48,760 --> 00:56:51,840
and make a porn movie of it as well.

1073
00:56:51,880 --> 00:56:54,440
That was the idea, but it never got
made. I think it got canned.

1074
00:56:54,480 --> 00:56:56,880
George, why do you feel compelled
to open up

1075
00:56:56,920 --> 00:57:00,040
a very private part of your life
and make it so public?

1076
00:57:00,080 --> 00:57:02,800
Well, I feel because I've kind
of done that, haven't I?

1077
00:57:02,840 --> 00:57:05,400
I've done that in a way that I
didn't really intend to.

1078
00:57:05,440 --> 00:57:07,040
Oh, thank fuck for that.

1079
00:57:07,080 --> 00:57:10,960
Thank fuck that he can actually be
himself cos if he's pretending

1080
00:57:11,000 --> 00:57:13,760
we're having to pretend as well,
you know what I mean?

1081
00:57:13,800 --> 00:57:16,440
Don't wanna be sitting there going,
"Did you see the game, George?

1082
00:57:16,480 --> 00:57:18,320
"Look at the tits on her."
That's pointless.

1083
00:57:18,360 --> 00:57:21,440
There were periods, more than a couple,

1084
00:57:21,480 --> 00:57:26,640
where the country wanted to put
their collective arms around George

1085
00:57:26,680 --> 00:57:28,720
and say, "We like you, it's OK."

1086
00:57:28,760 --> 00:57:32,640
In a way he was in a situation where
the closet door was kicked open

1087
00:57:32,680 --> 00:57:35,600
but then he walked through tall and proud.

1088
00:57:35,640 --> 00:57:39,360
That's the moment that he will be
loved for forever

1089
00:57:39,400 --> 00:57:41,880
by a generation of gay men.

1090
00:57:41,920 --> 00:57:45,280
George had to do community service.

1091
00:57:45,320 --> 00:57:48,960
So, he came here,
and he was put on dessert duty

1092
00:57:49,000 --> 00:57:52,720
and on that day we were making
white cakes as dessert

1093
00:57:52,760 --> 00:57:54,000
for all of our clients.

1094
00:57:54,040 --> 00:57:57,440
He really cared about these clients.

1095
00:57:57,480 --> 00:58:00,840
It wasn't as if he picked a random place

1096
00:58:00,880 --> 00:58:03,040
to do his community service.

1097
00:58:03,080 --> 00:58:07,640
It was a place that he had been
donating to for five years

1098
00:58:07,680 --> 00:58:10,800
and had served people
who were dying of Aids.

1099
00:58:10,840 --> 00:58:15,200
He was very dedicated to doing this
and very serious about it.

1100
00:58:15,240 --> 00:58:17,920
You know, he celebrated it.

1101
00:58:17,960 --> 00:58:20,120
People like George's life are accidents,

1102
00:58:20,160 --> 00:58:24,040
they're purposely designed into the matrix

1103
00:58:24,080 --> 00:58:28,560
to do what it is that they need to
do to move the rest of us forward.

1104
00:58:30,360 --> 00:58:32,120
I used to be in charge of the fundraising

1105
00:58:32,160 --> 00:58:33,520
for the Terrence Higgins Trust,

1106
00:58:33,560 --> 00:58:35,480
the biggest Aids charity around

1107
00:58:35,520 --> 00:58:37,560
and I used to have these little dinners.

1108
00:58:37,600 --> 00:58:38,920
I'd have these big gala ones

1109
00:58:38,960 --> 00:58:41,280
but I'd have little ones for the big names.

1110
00:58:41,320 --> 00:58:45,880
I remember one where
Mick Hucknall and David Gilmore

1111
00:58:45,920 --> 00:58:49,560
and George in a little downstairs
room at Carluccio's.

1112
00:58:49,600 --> 00:58:54,680
I told them about what Terrence
Higgins Trust needed to keep going,

1113
00:58:54,720 --> 00:58:57,800
what the work it was doing,
and everyone around the table

1114
00:58:57,840 --> 00:59:00,640
was being extremely
generous and George said,

1115
00:59:00,680 --> 00:59:05,200
"Erm, I was thinking maybe not
just write you a cheque,"

1116
00:59:05,240 --> 00:59:06,600
and my heart slightly sank.

1117
00:59:06,640 --> 00:59:09,000
But, no, he said, "I've got this new album,

1118
00:59:09,040 --> 00:59:12,600
"this best of called Ladies
andamp; Gentlemen,

1119
00:59:12,640 --> 00:59:16,960
"and I thought maybe you could use
the UK residuals from that."

1120
00:59:17,000 --> 00:59:20,640
I said, "What do you mean?
The money you earn from it?"

1121
00:59:20,680 --> 00:59:23,040
He said, "Yeah."
I said, "All of it?"

1122
00:59:23,080 --> 00:59:26,200
He said, "Yeah,
but don't tell anybody."

1123
00:59:26,240 --> 00:59:28,720
So, I wasn't allowed to tell anyone,
I can tell you now,

1124
00:59:28,760 --> 00:59:31,640
and people know what
an extraordinary man he was.

1125
00:59:31,680 --> 00:59:35,200
But, wow, that generosity.
I mean I... I cried,

1126
00:59:35,240 --> 00:59:38,000
I was just simply amazed by it.

1127
00:59:38,040 --> 00:59:40,480
Cos he was a sweet,

1128
00:59:40,520 --> 00:59:43,480
vulnerable, hurting man,
for most of his life

1129
00:59:43,520 --> 00:59:48,920
and yet he had this giant
sort of strength and courage

1130
00:59:48,960 --> 00:59:53,520
and this ability to say things that
would do him harm as if he wanted,

1131
00:59:53,560 --> 00:59:55,680
like a child will break his own toys.

1132
00:59:55,720 --> 00:59:58,840
As if he wanted to break out
of the space of stardom

1133
00:59:58,880 --> 01:00:00,520
and admiration and riches.

1134
01:00:00,560 --> 01:00:02,760
As if he wanted to be free of that

1135
01:00:02,800 --> 01:00:05,840
so that he could express something
much more primarily about himself.

1136
01:00:05,880 --> 01:00:08,280
And that's almost
the definition of an artist.

1137
01:00:18,240 --> 01:00:21,840
There were times in the last five,
six years that I was very tempted

1138
01:00:21,880 --> 01:00:24,200
to just say you know what,
"Forget it."

1139
01:00:24,240 --> 01:00:27,560
It was a four-year period
of just making track after track.

1140
01:00:27,600 --> 01:00:28,960
"This is too difficult,

1141
01:00:29,000 --> 01:00:31,240
"you're not gonna come up with
the album that you need."

1142
01:00:31,280 --> 01:00:33,000
I think it was just under 1,000 tracks.

1143
01:00:33,040 --> 01:00:35,440
"You're driving yourself
crazy with it."

1144
01:00:35,480 --> 01:00:38,320
I think we whittled it down
to about 300 tracks

1145
01:00:38,360 --> 01:00:40,240
that we had on data cassettes.

1146
01:00:40,280 --> 01:00:42,040
I was almost ready to give up.

1147
01:00:42,080 --> 01:00:43,480
Out of this 300

1148
01:00:43,520 --> 01:00:47,720
I think two ended up
forming on to Patience.

1149
01:00:47,760 --> 01:00:50,720
The fact that it feels more gay
to people is probably due

1150
01:00:50,760 --> 01:00:54,320
to the fact that my life is more of
an open book these days.

1151
01:00:54,360 --> 01:00:57,720
By Patience he was like a blueprint

1152
01:00:57,760 --> 01:00:59,480
for an elder statesman of pop.

1153
01:00:59,520 --> 01:01:02,280
It would be a horrible way
to leave my career,

1154
01:01:02,320 --> 01:01:07,120
to leave people thinking that my
sexuality took away my market

1155
01:01:07,160 --> 01:01:08,560
cos I just knew that wasn't true.

1156
01:01:08,600 --> 01:01:11,040
And he really found his look.

1157
01:01:11,080 --> 01:01:12,480
It's really important to say,

1158
01:01:12,520 --> 01:01:16,560
"Look, it is not damaging,
if you have ability,

1159
01:01:16,600 --> 01:01:21,560
"it is not damaging, erm,
to have the confidence to come out."

1160
01:01:21,600 --> 01:01:25,160
Every album there were enough good
songs on it to justify the wait

1161
01:01:25,200 --> 01:01:28,160
and I think as long as he kept doing
that, his fans were going nowhere.

1162
01:01:28,200 --> 01:01:31,280
For my sins I do check out my fan websites

1163
01:01:31,320 --> 01:01:34,280
and they'll say, "He sounds a bit gay now,"

1164
01:01:34,320 --> 01:01:36,720
or, "That bit at the beginning
there sounds really gay."

1165
01:01:36,760 --> 01:01:38,000
And you're just thinking,

1166
01:01:38,040 --> 01:01:40,200
"It sounds exactly like
I've always sounded.

1167
01:01:40,240 --> 01:01:41,960
"It's just you know I am gay."

1168
01:01:42,000 --> 01:01:44,760
But he just seemed to be cruising
at that point

1169
01:01:44,800 --> 01:01:47,600
into middle age pop serenity.

1170
01:01:47,640 --> 01:01:51,080
I think I have quite
a good take on both sexes,

1171
01:01:51,120 --> 01:01:53,400
maybe cos I grew up with two sisters

1172
01:01:53,440 --> 01:01:55,720
and also because of the relationships I had

1173
01:01:55,760 --> 01:01:57,360
in my earlier life with women,

1174
01:01:57,400 --> 01:02:00,560
and now having totally, err,

1175
01:02:00,600 --> 01:02:02,320
I suppose,

1176
01:02:02,360 --> 01:02:05,400
I feel totally part of gay culture now.

1177
01:02:05,440 --> 01:02:07,800


1178
01:02:07,840 --> 01:02:09,640


1179
01:02:09,680 --> 01:02:11,640


1180
01:02:11,680 --> 01:02:14,280


1181
01:02:14,320 --> 01:02:16,920


1182
01:02:16,960 --> 01:02:18,840


1183
01:02:20,800 --> 01:02:22,160
It was that level of defiance.

1184
01:02:22,200 --> 01:02:26,160
He wasn't going to be a sanitised
air-brushed gay man

1185
01:02:26,200 --> 01:02:28,560
who you could have along at dinner parties

1186
01:02:28,600 --> 01:02:30,400
and "Isn't he so civilised?"

1187
01:02:30,440 --> 01:02:34,800
Freak, when you think of the public,
it was maybe a step too far,

1188
01:02:34,840 --> 01:02:38,600
commercial public, cos it putting
his sexuality out there in such

1189
01:02:38,640 --> 01:02:41,000
an aggressive way that
I think people didn't know how

1190
01:02:41,040 --> 01:02:42,280
to take it at the time.

1191
01:02:42,320 --> 01:02:45,680
It was a rare commercial misstep for him.

1192
01:02:45,720 --> 01:02:48,440
We wanted to do
a ballet which was just like

1193
01:02:48,480 --> 01:02:50,680
where George was the Devil,

1194
01:02:50,720 --> 01:02:53,200
and he also had this big,
long cock which was like his tail.

1195
01:02:53,240 --> 01:02:54,880
He wanted to do it with the Royal Ballet

1196
01:02:54,920 --> 01:02:56,840
with them covered in tattoos glue sniffing.

1197
01:02:56,880 --> 01:02:58,840
George was telling me
the idea and he was saying,

1198
01:02:58,880 --> 01:03:01,960
"I wanna be Captain FF"
which was Captain Fist Fucker

1199
01:03:02,000 --> 01:03:04,280
and all these things
and I was saying, "I'm not sure,

1200
01:03:04,320 --> 01:03:06,880
"I can't see how it's gonna work"
and I didn't get it.

1201
01:03:06,920 --> 01:03:08,680
I just felt it was the wrong way to go,

1202
01:03:08,720 --> 01:03:12,480
to go too far to try
and get a youth audience in.

1203
01:03:12,520 --> 01:03:16,000
Gay people are some of the most
interesting people on the planet

1204
01:03:16,040 --> 01:03:18,640
because they are born into an environment

1205
01:03:18,680 --> 01:03:21,080
which is gonna be difficult for them,

1206
01:03:21,120 --> 01:03:25,840
The world is full of human beings
trying to procreate

1207
01:03:25,880 --> 01:03:27,840
and that's not what we're here for.

1208
01:03:27,880 --> 01:03:32,680
If you are strong enough to realise
that what you are is not wrong,

1209
01:03:32,720 --> 01:03:35,720
and yet a large percentage of
the world is telling you it is,

1210
01:03:35,760 --> 01:03:38,200
then you begin to question everything.

1211
01:03:38,240 --> 01:03:40,560


1212
01:03:40,600 --> 01:03:42,720


1213
01:03:42,760 --> 01:03:43,760


1214
01:03:43,800 --> 01:03:46,880


1215
01:03:46,920 --> 01:03:48,960


1216
01:03:49,000 --> 01:03:54,440
"Shoot The Dog" now is almost
a prophetic song,

1217
01:03:54,480 --> 01:03:58,720
because almost everyone now agrees
with him on the rights and wrongs

1218
01:03:58,760 --> 01:04:00,040
of the Iraq War.

1219
01:04:00,080 --> 01:04:02,280
But he took the stance that was,
at that time,

1220
01:04:02,320 --> 01:04:04,160
considered very threatening.

1221
01:04:04,200 --> 01:04:07,360
Tony Blair has no authority to do this.

1222
01:04:07,400 --> 01:04:10,880
He's the Prime Minister,
he is not someone we are supposed

1223
01:04:10,920 --> 01:04:15,520
to follow into lethal situations
without asking questions.

1224
01:04:15,560 --> 01:04:17,920
I interviewed him in
so many different situations.

1225
01:04:17,960 --> 01:04:20,600
One when he produced this record
called "Shoot The Dog,"

1226
01:04:20,640 --> 01:04:23,800
which was about the Iraq War
in the early 2000s,

1227
01:04:23,840 --> 01:04:27,120
and he was ranting against
George Bush and against Tony Blair.

1228
01:04:27,160 --> 01:04:29,120
He came into the studio, and he sat down,

1229
01:04:29,160 --> 01:04:30,720
and we opened up the microphone,

1230
01:04:30,760 --> 01:04:33,160
and he just laid into to me,

1231
01:04:33,200 --> 01:04:35,440
into Radio 1, into everything.

1232
01:04:35,480 --> 01:04:37,120
You know, I mean, he had the forum,

1233
01:04:37,160 --> 01:04:39,760
you know it was live radio,
he could say what he liked,

1234
01:04:39,800 --> 01:04:41,280
he had me over a barrel

1235
01:04:41,320 --> 01:04:44,080
and, you know, when George was
on a mission, he was on a mission.

1236
01:04:44,120 --> 01:04:46,120
It was a very provocative record,

1237
01:04:46,160 --> 01:04:48,520
and it was a huge risk

1238
01:04:48,560 --> 01:04:52,240
with his American career which
wasn't that big by then anyway,

1239
01:04:52,280 --> 01:04:54,760
so I'm not sure really how big
a risk it was.

1240
01:04:54,800 --> 01:04:57,040
But it was typical George Michael.

1241
01:04:57,080 --> 01:05:00,840
It was provocative, it was designed
to get everybody talking,

1242
01:05:00,880 --> 01:05:02,680
had a very provocative video with it.

1243
01:05:02,720 --> 01:05:06,040
And he knew that the media would be
very important to him to drive

1244
01:05:06,080 --> 01:05:07,880
the narrative of that record.

1245
01:05:07,920 --> 01:05:11,640
This is about Rupert Murdoch
and my making, er,

1246
01:05:11,680 --> 01:05:13,840
what he considered to be statements

1247
01:05:13,880 --> 01:05:16,640
that were anti-American at this time, er,

1248
01:05:16,680 --> 01:05:18,560
is something that is obviously...

1249
01:05:18,600 --> 01:05:20,880
I'm the kind of guy that has
to be slapped down,

1250
01:05:20,920 --> 01:05:23,760
and I'm just saying,
"I won't be slapped down."

1251
01:05:23,800 --> 01:05:26,280
You might even take away my career,
you might manage it,

1252
01:05:26,320 --> 01:05:30,080
but I know that I'm not going to
let it happen without a fight.

1253
01:05:30,120 --> 01:05:35,880
And basically, I am going to be
in the centre of a war of PR

1254
01:05:35,920 --> 01:05:39,760
with Mr Rupert Murdoch
if he doesn't leave me alone.

1255
01:05:39,800 --> 01:05:42,960
It's a fine line, really,
between self-destruction

1256
01:05:43,000 --> 01:05:45,320
and contrariness, and bravery.

1257
01:05:45,360 --> 01:05:47,600
And he exhibits all three to me.

1258
01:05:47,640 --> 01:05:49,200
You take on the Murdoch empire,

1259
01:05:49,240 --> 01:05:51,160
you take on the tabloids at your peril.

1260
01:05:51,200 --> 01:05:54,080
I mean, they are very patient
and very powerful.

1261
01:05:54,120 --> 01:05:57,240
And once you cross them, they don't forget.

1262
01:05:57,280 --> 01:06:01,800
The point that really destroyed him,
I think, was when he came out

1263
01:06:01,840 --> 01:06:03,520
against the Murdoch newspapers,

1264
01:06:03,560 --> 01:06:05,080
and these papers went for him.

1265
01:06:05,120 --> 01:06:07,280
He knew he would get eaten alive,
and he did.

1266
01:06:21,640 --> 01:06:24,880
With George being so upfront about
his sex life and defending

1267
01:06:24,920 --> 01:06:26,560
cruising on Hampstead Heath,

1268
01:06:26,600 --> 01:06:29,040
er, with his political songs,

1269
01:06:29,080 --> 01:06:32,720
with a clear controversial social message,

1270
01:06:32,760 --> 01:06:37,120
he knew that the tabloids would
probably gun for him.

1271
01:06:37,160 --> 01:06:38,440
And, indeed they did.

1272
01:06:38,480 --> 01:06:41,240
..Possession of cannabis after
being found slumped in his car

1273
01:06:41,280 --> 01:06:42,280
on both occasions.

1274
01:06:42,320 --> 01:06:44,160
Sky's Sarah Hughes reports.

1275
01:06:44,200 --> 01:06:46,680
This stuff keeps me sane and happy.

1276
01:06:48,040 --> 01:06:51,960
I could write without it
if I was sane and happy.

1277
01:06:55,040 --> 01:06:57,840
Well, this is the worst possible
timing for George Michael.

1278
01:06:57,880 --> 01:07:00,640
He's just started a 28-city European tour,

1279
01:07:00,680 --> 01:07:03,000
he's only had one date so far -
and now, once again,

1280
01:07:03,040 --> 01:07:05,800
he's in the headlines
for something other than his music.

1281
01:07:05,840 --> 01:07:07,600
The timing is atrocious.

1282
01:07:07,640 --> 01:07:09,840
Is it an accident,
or is there a possibility

1283
01:07:09,880 --> 01:07:11,360
that he does it deliberately?

1284
01:07:11,400 --> 01:07:13,400
Oh, a lot of people speculate
that this is someone

1285
01:07:13,440 --> 01:07:15,000
who just likes the attention.

1286
01:07:15,040 --> 01:07:17,800
So, with that amount of power
that he had in his command,

1287
01:07:17,840 --> 01:07:19,960
and I think he liked to challenge himself.

1288
01:07:20,000 --> 01:07:22,040
And I think what when you're a control...

1289
01:07:22,080 --> 01:07:23,240
..wanting to be in control,

1290
01:07:23,280 --> 01:07:25,840
one of the ways to challenge
yourself or thrill yourself,

1291
01:07:25,880 --> 01:07:28,840
or entertain himself by putting
himself into situations where

1292
01:07:28,880 --> 01:07:30,360
there was a huge challenge,

1293
01:07:30,400 --> 01:07:32,360
and he could potentially lose control,

1294
01:07:32,400 --> 01:07:34,120
he would dance on that knife edge.

1295
01:07:34,160 --> 01:07:35,880
It's the second time of the year...

1296
01:07:35,920 --> 01:07:37,160
George, George, George!

1297
01:07:37,200 --> 01:07:39,200
..an unused spliff in the car...

1298
01:07:39,240 --> 01:07:42,680
and no drink or drugs in my body.

1299
01:07:42,720 --> 01:07:47,800
He did manage to do the thing
that he professed to want to do.

1300
01:07:47,840 --> 01:07:50,360
He destroyed his own star quality.

1301
01:07:50,400 --> 01:07:52,000
And in doing that,

1302
01:07:52,040 --> 01:07:53,920
he didn't become any less special.

1303
01:07:53,960 --> 01:07:56,000
In fact, he became more magical,

1304
01:07:56,040 --> 01:08:00,240
because he became more quantifiable,
and more knowable to you.

1305
01:08:00,280 --> 01:08:02,360
There's no drink or drugs in my body.

1306
01:08:02,400 --> 01:08:05,720
As a journalist,
you're aware it's all good fodder.

1307
01:08:05,760 --> 01:08:09,040
And as a big lifetime fan,

1308
01:08:09,080 --> 01:08:13,760
it's just desperately upsetting
to see that the person that you

1309
01:08:13,800 --> 01:08:18,800
have always celebrated so much
is reduced to becoming that fodder.

1310
01:08:18,840 --> 01:08:22,720
I have not cheated or lied
about my sex life.

1311
01:08:22,760 --> 01:08:24,640
Why are those cameras there?

1312
01:08:24,680 --> 01:08:28,240
To trap an individual in something
which is a completely normal,

1313
01:08:28,280 --> 01:08:32,640
commonplace, er,
part of his cultural activity.

1314
01:08:32,680 --> 01:08:35,840
He revelled in his own sexuality

1315
01:08:35,880 --> 01:08:40,080
and felt it was really important
to be honest, upfront,

1316
01:08:40,120 --> 01:08:43,560
and open about the fact
that he really enjoyed sex.

1317
01:08:43,600 --> 01:08:47,000
If you get some sanity back
into the idea of privacy,

1318
01:08:47,040 --> 01:08:49,200
any kind of privacy, right?

1319
01:08:49,240 --> 01:08:51,760
Then the fact that these people
are doing this to me

1320
01:08:51,800 --> 01:08:53,240
is completely immoral.

1321
01:08:53,280 --> 01:08:55,920
George!

1322
01:08:55,960 --> 01:08:58,120
Guys, watch your legs!

1323
01:08:59,840 --> 01:09:02,280
And the Murdoch newspapers were
camped outside his house

1324
01:09:02,320 --> 01:09:03,680
24 hours a day following him.

1325
01:09:03,720 --> 01:09:06,520
They all knew that he was going
to Hampstead Heath cruising.

1326
01:09:06,560 --> 01:09:08,600
They'd known that for years
and years, and years.

1327
01:09:08,640 --> 01:09:10,080
But now, they went into overdrive.

1328
01:09:10,120 --> 01:09:11,880
Here is the reality of my life.

1329
01:09:11,920 --> 01:09:15,000
And if you're a straight person,
you might not understand

1330
01:09:15,040 --> 01:09:16,920
why it makes me so happy.

1331
01:09:16,960 --> 01:09:20,400
I have a career that I love.

1332
01:09:20,440 --> 01:09:23,560
I live in the most beautiful
house I've ever seen.

1333
01:09:23,600 --> 01:09:26,160
I have a wonderful partner of ten years.

1334
01:09:26,200 --> 01:09:28,960
I'm a very, very happy gay man.

1335
01:09:29,000 --> 01:09:33,320
The fact that I'm portrayed as some
kind of loser by straight society

1336
01:09:33,360 --> 01:09:35,080
is their problem.

1337
01:09:35,120 --> 01:09:40,520
My problem is that I'm expected to
live with people lying constantly,

1338
01:09:40,560 --> 01:09:42,880
one lie laid on top of another lie,

1339
01:09:42,920 --> 01:09:45,000
laid on top of another lie,
and say nothing.

1340
01:10:01,400 --> 01:10:05,280
We was in San Francisco,
and Kenny, George's partner,

1341
01:10:05,320 --> 01:10:09,280
was trying to help me get George to
contribute to this documentary.

1342
01:10:09,320 --> 01:10:11,000
And every time I called, he'd say,

1343
01:10:11,040 --> 01:10:13,240
"George isn't sure he wants to do it now.

1344
01:10:13,280 --> 01:10:15,240
Anyway, I was going back to
England the next day,

1345
01:10:15,280 --> 01:10:17,561
and Kenny calls and says,
"George says he wants to do it!"

1346
01:10:17,600 --> 01:10:20,360
And he was living in Dallas,
Fort Worth, where he had a place,

1347
01:10:20,400 --> 01:10:22,440
an art gallery with Kenny.

1348
01:10:22,480 --> 01:10:26,880
And so, I had to divert the flight
and with the crew, and we...

1349
01:10:26,920 --> 01:10:28,560
We stopped off at Dallas,

1350
01:10:28,600 --> 01:10:32,560
and on the way to his house,
he called up and said,

1351
01:10:32,600 --> 01:10:34,920
"Oh, I can't get my make-up artist.

1352
01:10:34,960 --> 01:10:37,160
"Do you mind if I use yours?"

1353
01:10:37,200 --> 01:10:41,280
I said, "George, I'm making
a documentary series for the BBC!

1354
01:10:41,320 --> 01:10:43,880
"I haven't got a make-up artist!

1355
01:10:43,920 --> 01:10:46,680
"I mean, occasionally there's
a fleck of something on my mouth,

1356
01:10:46,720 --> 01:10:48,920
"someone will tell me to wipe
it away, but..."

1357
01:10:48,960 --> 01:10:51,720
He said, "Oh, oh, really?"
And so, it was so sweet.

1358
01:10:51,760 --> 01:10:55,040
And so, he got someone in, then
he came started talking about Aids.

1359
01:10:55,080 --> 01:10:58,200
And, of course, he immediately
started saying things that were

1360
01:10:58,240 --> 01:11:00,160
dark and dangerous, and aggressive,

1361
01:11:00,200 --> 01:11:03,440
and angry, and political, and real..

1362
01:11:03,480 --> 01:11:06,280
And that's why he'd not wanted to do it.

1363
01:11:06,320 --> 01:11:07,720
And when he finished, he said,

1364
01:11:07,760 --> 01:11:09,680
"I knew I shouldn't have talked to you.

1365
01:11:09,720 --> 01:11:11,520
"I'll only get into trouble for this.

1366
01:11:11,560 --> 01:11:13,960
"'There goes George,
shooting his mouth off.'"

1367
01:11:14,000 --> 01:11:16,880
And he was, you know, saying
how people would respond -

1368
01:11:16,920 --> 01:11:22,200
and yet, he was tugged by this need
to be absolutely raw and honest.

1369
01:11:22,240 --> 01:11:26,560
And by this knowledge that it would
make his life more difficult,

1370
01:11:26,600 --> 01:11:28,720
but, you know, there'd be headlines,

1371
01:11:28,760 --> 01:11:31,680
people would say he was arrogant,
or he was, you know,

1372
01:11:31,720 --> 01:11:33,280
self-regarding or something.

1373
01:11:33,320 --> 01:11:35,880
You just wanted to fold him in your arms.

1374
01:11:35,920 --> 01:11:39,400


1375
01:11:39,440 --> 01:11:41,200


1376
01:11:41,240 --> 01:11:43,480


1377
01:11:43,520 --> 01:11:46,400


1378
01:11:47,920 --> 01:11:51,160


1379
01:11:51,200 --> 01:11:53,680
"Amazing" - it's a good song.
- Thank you, thank you very much.

1380
01:11:53,720 --> 01:11:55,720
Yeah, it really is.
You must be very happy with it.

1381
01:11:55,760 --> 01:11:58,880
Well, it's kind of usual to hear me
singing about love, really,

1382
01:11:58,920 --> 01:12:01,360
in the context of "Ooh, I'm in love" -

1383
01:12:01,400 --> 01:12:05,680
normally it's, "I'm so miserable!
Love me, love me."

1384
01:12:05,720 --> 01:12:10,280
That's a song that I actually enjoy
watching people, er, like, yeah.

1385
01:12:10,320 --> 01:12:13,320
Talking about the joys of meeting
someone and being in love,

1386
01:12:13,360 --> 01:12:15,070
and how it makes a difference in your life.

1387
01:12:15,080 --> 01:12:16,400
This song is really, like,

1388
01:12:16,440 --> 01:12:20,840
"I just can't believe it,
how fantastic and life-changing

1389
01:12:20,880 --> 01:12:22,280
"this relationship is."

1390
01:12:24,680 --> 01:12:28,400
I didn't want it to look like just
some pop star let his boyfriend

1391
01:12:28,440 --> 01:12:31,000
have something that he wanted
to do and just played with it.

1392
01:12:31,040 --> 01:12:32,640
So, he took it very seriously.

1393
01:12:32,680 --> 01:12:35,840
I just didn't want it to be a place
where, er, very wealthy people

1394
01:12:35,880 --> 01:12:37,760
came to look at paintings or art.

1395
01:12:37,800 --> 01:12:41,440
And so, we were very, very
philanthropic from the start.

1396
01:12:41,480 --> 01:12:44,200
So, we helped raised a lot
of money in general,

1397
01:12:44,240 --> 01:12:46,040
it's a big part of it.

1398
01:12:46,080 --> 01:12:49,800
Yeah, we had one of the most amazing
British contemporary art collections

1399
01:12:49,840 --> 01:12:52,640
in the world, and so, to make
that full, it can't just be

1400
01:12:52,680 --> 01:12:55,160
what you like, and you know,
art doesn't have to...

1401
01:12:55,200 --> 01:12:57,960
You don't have to love it, it can
move you, it can make you think,

1402
01:12:58,000 --> 01:13:00,800
it doesn't naturally always have
to evoke happy emotions.

1403
01:13:00,840 --> 01:13:05,280
If we're talking about
rock music or pop music,

1404
01:13:05,320 --> 01:13:07,920
making music also is a form of visual art.

1405
01:13:07,960 --> 01:13:10,480
Its pretty much almost a portrait.

1406
01:13:10,520 --> 01:13:11,840
A self-portrait.

1407
01:13:12,920 --> 01:13:16,120
And what you're playing with,
by definition,

1408
01:13:16,160 --> 01:13:19,600
if you're a rock star, is you're
playing with the idea of identity.

1409
01:13:19,640 --> 01:13:21,800
You're playing with the idea
of who you are.

1410
01:13:21,840 --> 01:13:25,120
He has seen a documentary
that Tracey had done,

1411
01:13:25,160 --> 01:13:28,240
and we were eating at the Ivy,
and he wanted to meet her.

1412
01:13:28,280 --> 01:13:29,480
So, I went over and said,

1413
01:13:29,520 --> 01:13:31,480
"Hey, can we come over
and chat with you?"

1414
01:13:31,520 --> 01:13:33,640
So, we went over and chatted
with her, and, er,

1415
01:13:33,680 --> 01:13:34,920
a lifelong friendship.

1416
01:13:36,440 --> 01:13:38,760
So, with the Tracey Emin works,

1417
01:13:38,800 --> 01:13:42,080
you know, they had this blur
to its confessional quality,

1418
01:13:42,120 --> 01:13:47,280
this spidery writing expressing
the feeling, floating it out there

1419
01:13:47,320 --> 01:13:49,880
and seeing what that feeling looks like.

1420
01:13:49,920 --> 01:13:55,160
Well, to me that's almost
like how George would

1421
01:13:55,200 --> 01:13:57,680
throw a line out in the studio.

1422
01:13:57,720 --> 01:14:00,800
"Does it sound right?
Is that what I really feel?"

1423
01:14:00,840 --> 01:14:03,920
George Michael is now on
a 22-date North American tour,

1424
01:14:03,960 --> 01:14:05,840
his first in 17 years.

1425
01:14:05,880 --> 01:14:08,920
Now that California's handing out
same sex-marriage licenses,

1426
01:14:08,960 --> 01:14:11,560
Michael says he and his partner
of 12 years, Kenny Goss,

1427
01:14:11,600 --> 01:14:14,680
might make a trip to
the courthouse and say "I do,"

1428
01:14:14,720 --> 01:14:16,600
though not any time soon.

1429
01:14:16,640 --> 01:14:20,360
When he toured Europe,
every city we went to,

1430
01:14:20,400 --> 01:14:24,640
I had £25,000 that I could
help an organisation.

1431
01:14:24,680 --> 01:14:27,160
For the most part, it was
organisations that related to

1432
01:14:27,200 --> 01:14:28,960
nurses or children.

1433
01:14:29,000 --> 01:14:31,520
And so, I would research,
find an organisation,

1434
01:14:31,560 --> 01:14:33,160
go and visit them while I'm there,

1435
01:14:33,200 --> 01:14:36,480
and then take as many people as
possible to the concert that night,

1436
01:14:36,520 --> 01:14:38,440
and they would get £25,000, as well.

1437
01:14:38,480 --> 01:14:41,160


1438
01:14:41,200 --> 01:14:43,880



1439
01:14:43,920 --> 01:14:47,440



1440
01:14:47,480 --> 01:14:51,680



1441
01:14:51,720 --> 01:14:53,400


1442
01:14:53,440 --> 01:14:56,000



1443
01:14:56,040 --> 01:14:58,800


1444
01:14:58,840 --> 01:15:01,080
The screens on the side
he wanted curved, and then,

1445
01:15:01,120 --> 01:15:02,880
this big one that comes over in,

1446
01:15:02,920 --> 01:15:04,400
like, a wave, which was expensive.

1447
01:15:04,440 --> 01:15:07,000
And the production costs was huge,
but he never really worried

1448
01:15:07,040 --> 01:15:08,960
about how much money was
in his bank account.

1449
01:15:09,000 --> 01:15:10,640
He thought you only needed so much money.

1450
01:15:10,680 --> 01:15:13,520
George's mother was in a National
Health Hospital when she had cancer,

1451
01:15:13,560 --> 01:15:15,040
and the nurses were incredible.

1452
01:15:15,080 --> 01:15:16,960
He was so impressed,
and he wanted to give back.

1453
01:15:17,000 --> 01:15:19,400
So, he had this wonderful concert for them.

1454
01:15:19,440 --> 01:15:22,080
It's nice that someone's done
something for nurses,

1455
01:15:22,120 --> 01:15:25,160
cos all the time we get abused
verbally, physically -

1456
01:15:25,200 --> 01:15:28,080
and somebody's actually appreciated nurses.

1457
01:15:28,120 --> 01:15:30,320
Concerts to put on are very
expensive, so I think people

1458
01:15:30,360 --> 01:15:32,200
don't realise, you just don't show up.

1459
01:15:32,240 --> 01:15:34,440
I don't think he ever worried
about being, what was it,

1460
01:15:34,480 --> 01:15:36,200
Behind the Music, or whatever that is,

1461
01:15:36,240 --> 01:15:38,800
where they tell the story
of a washed-up quarterback now,

1462
01:15:38,840 --> 01:15:40,280
and he's working at Wendy's.

1463
01:15:43,120 --> 01:15:44,920
Then we came off air.

1464
01:15:44,960 --> 01:15:47,520
And the editor was waiting
for us outside the studio,

1465
01:15:47,560 --> 01:15:49,000
and she's jumping up and down

1466
01:15:49,040 --> 01:15:52,120
with excitement because
one person's donated 50 grand.

1467
01:15:52,160 --> 01:15:55,320
And we said, "Who?" She said,
"It's anonymous, I can't tell you."

1468
01:15:55,360 --> 01:15:57,760
And of course,
all the philanthropy was secret.

1469
01:15:57,800 --> 01:16:00,560
It wasn't that we wasn't a
great philanthropist,

1470
01:16:00,600 --> 01:16:02,840
he was a fantastic philanthropist.

1471
01:16:02,880 --> 01:16:05,240
But he would give with the condition

1472
01:16:05,280 --> 01:16:07,760
that you don't let people know it's me.

1473
01:16:07,800 --> 01:16:10,720
He would see things on television,
or hear about something,

1474
01:16:10,760 --> 01:16:12,080
or read about something.

1475
01:16:12,120 --> 01:16:14,640
He would see somebody who needed
a new set of glasses,

1476
01:16:14,680 --> 01:16:16,640
or a new set of teeth or something,

1477
01:16:16,680 --> 01:16:18,400
and he'd call in and he'd do it.

1478
01:16:18,440 --> 01:16:20,160
Also about helping friends.

1479
01:16:20,200 --> 01:16:22,320
I had a terminally ill child.

1480
01:16:22,360 --> 01:16:24,840
He had, you know, his house
in the South of France -

1481
01:16:24,880 --> 01:16:26,920
Chez Nobby, that's what it was called.

1482
01:16:26,960 --> 01:16:28,960
You know, there was a helicopter
to pick us up

1483
01:16:29,000 --> 01:16:30,680
and drop us off in the garden.

1484
01:16:30,720 --> 01:16:35,640
He was a guy who was looking
for ways, like Bill Gates,

1485
01:16:35,680 --> 01:16:37,280
to give away the money he'd made.

1486
01:16:37,320 --> 01:16:39,640
We don't know, so let's go with
instinct and just go...

1487
01:16:39,680 --> 01:16:41,240
Shall we go with C? - C.

1488
01:16:41,280 --> 01:16:44,160
I'll tell you what, we'll go with C.

1489
01:16:44,200 --> 01:16:47,240
And if it's wrong, I'll match it,
so we make it to 64.

1490
01:16:49,400 --> 01:16:51,480
That way, we can't lose, we're going to 64,

1491
01:16:51,520 --> 01:16:53,480
but we might still be going home.

1492
01:16:53,520 --> 01:16:54,760
That's fantastic of you.

1493
01:16:54,800 --> 01:16:57,160
We were having a problem making pay roll.

1494
01:17:00,120 --> 01:17:05,280
All of a sudden, a letter appeared
at our doorstep that said,

1495
01:17:05,320 --> 01:17:08,960
"Dear Project Angel Food,
keep doing what you're doing.

1496
01:17:09,000 --> 01:17:10,640
"Love, George."

1497
01:17:10,680 --> 01:17:15,200
He's our single largest donor in
the history of Project Angel Food,

1498
01:17:15,240 --> 01:17:18,880
donating more than half a
million dollars to us.

1499
01:17:18,920 --> 01:17:22,880
When you know that you're making
the world a better place,

1500
01:17:22,920 --> 01:17:28,400
that is a positive feeling that
helps lift you through downers.

1501
01:17:28,440 --> 01:17:31,320
District Judge John Perkins
told George Michael that

1502
01:17:31,360 --> 01:17:34,760
he'd taken a "dangerous and
unpredictable mix of drugs."

1503
01:17:34,800 --> 01:17:39,120
He banned him from driving for
five years before sentencing him

1504
01:17:39,160 --> 01:17:41,040
to eight weeks in prison.

1505
01:17:41,080 --> 01:17:45,200
There were gasps and tears from fans
within the court's public gallery.

1506
01:17:45,240 --> 01:17:48,760
There were tears, too, from
George Michael's long-term partner,

1507
01:17:48,800 --> 01:17:51,360
Kenny Goss, as he left court alone.

1508
01:17:53,800 --> 01:17:55,480
The good life got not so good.

1509
01:18:08,440 --> 01:18:09,520
Hello, George.

1510
01:18:10,960 --> 01:18:12,560
I'm sorry to do this.

1511
01:18:12,600 --> 01:18:15,520
Thank you to everybody that
supported me in there.

1512
01:18:15,560 --> 01:18:18,000
It was quite inspirational and, er,

1513
01:18:18,040 --> 01:18:20,040
I'm coming out here on my own

1514
01:18:20,080 --> 01:18:22,520
so that you'll realise
I just want to start again.

1515
01:18:25,680 --> 01:18:28,920
Ooh! By the way, I've just thought
of a really good idea for a song.

1516
01:18:30,400 --> 01:18:33,640
And it won't be published,
it'll be nothing to do with prison!

1517
01:18:44,000 --> 01:18:46,600
The thing about George is
he hated interviews.

1518
01:18:46,640 --> 01:18:48,160
He didn't really like journalists.

1519
01:18:48,200 --> 01:18:50,160
But when he did decide to do interviews,

1520
01:18:50,200 --> 01:18:52,120
he was going to give you everything.

1521
01:18:52,160 --> 01:18:56,360
He was almost evangelical about his
need to talk about his sexuality.

1522
01:18:56,400 --> 01:18:58,280
He was a compulsive truth-teller.

1523
01:18:58,320 --> 01:19:01,600
And initially, George was there
in his sunglasses,

1524
01:19:01,640 --> 01:19:03,640
quite, sort of, reserved.

1525
01:19:03,680 --> 01:19:05,760
Spliffing his way through the interview -

1526
01:19:05,800 --> 01:19:07,840
spliffing one, spliffing two,
spliffing three.

1527
01:19:07,880 --> 01:19:10,840
And then, he got more relaxed,
the sunglasses came off,

1528
01:19:10,880 --> 01:19:12,360
the stories started flowing.

1529
01:19:12,400 --> 01:19:16,760
And what he still felt guilty
about was having taken

1530
01:19:16,800 --> 01:19:18,240
so long to come out.

1531
01:19:18,280 --> 01:19:20,400
It was almost an act of penance.

1532
01:19:21,520 --> 01:19:24,240
And he'd have to tell you everything.

1533
01:19:24,280 --> 01:19:26,440
When he talked about the family history

1534
01:19:26,480 --> 01:19:28,680
and the suicides in the family,

1535
01:19:28,720 --> 01:19:31,080
and the impact of Anselmo's death,

1536
01:19:31,120 --> 01:19:32,520
and then, his mother's death,

1537
01:19:32,560 --> 01:19:34,680
and you started to see it all as one,

1538
01:19:34,720 --> 01:19:36,880
there was this real, erm,

1539
01:19:36,920 --> 01:19:39,960
suffering that he'd been
through in his life.

1540
01:19:40,000 --> 01:19:43,800
Before that interview,
there'd been a tiny, tiny story

1541
01:19:43,840 --> 01:19:47,120
saying he'd been cautioned
for possession of crack.

1542
01:19:47,160 --> 01:19:51,000
And I found, at one point,
I was becoming like some headmaster

1543
01:19:51,040 --> 01:19:53,760
to him, and I said to him,

1544
01:19:53,800 --> 01:19:57,000
"George, there was a story
about you being caught

1545
01:19:57,040 --> 01:19:59,920
"in possession of crack?"

1546
01:19:59,960 --> 01:20:02,240
And he nodded.

1547
01:20:02,280 --> 01:20:05,040
And again, went into denial.

1548
01:20:05,080 --> 01:20:09,920
And in the end, I said to him,
"George, look me in the eye.

1549
01:20:09,960 --> 01:20:12,000
"Were you smoking crack that day?"

1550
01:20:13,360 --> 01:20:18,840
And he kind of went...
"Yeah, on that occasion, I was."

1551
01:20:18,880 --> 01:20:21,680
With all the fame and all the money,
and all the great things, as well,

1552
01:20:21,720 --> 01:20:25,240
there was also this, sort of,
spectre over him, I think,

1553
01:20:25,280 --> 01:20:28,280
from a lot of his life, of death.

1554
01:20:38,560 --> 01:20:42,240
Well, I didn't do that tour,

1555
01:20:42,280 --> 01:20:43,760
because...

1556
01:20:45,480 --> 01:20:50,280
Well, I wasn't sure that he should
be out on the road, frankly.

1557
01:20:50,320 --> 01:20:52,680
But he obviously wasn't well.

1558
01:20:52,720 --> 01:20:55,680
You've been going for almost
30 years now, three decades.

1559
01:20:55,720 --> 01:20:58,080
How have you changed as a person
from when you started?

1560
01:20:58,120 --> 01:21:00,880
Well, I suppose I've got
a little bit more fashion sense

1561
01:21:00,920 --> 01:21:02,560
than when I started.

1562
01:21:02,600 --> 01:21:04,920
Other than that, I'm pretty much
the same, I suppose.

1563
01:21:04,960 --> 01:21:07,600
It felt to me like it was something
he was doing more for himself.

1564
01:21:07,640 --> 01:21:11,800
He's positioning himself as someone
who had produced a canon,

1565
01:21:11,840 --> 01:21:16,280
and was singing these classics that,
sort of, were from the canonical

1566
01:21:16,320 --> 01:21:18,080
classics of the previous century.

1567
01:21:18,120 --> 01:21:22,400
I think one of his things was
to work with Phil Ramone

1568
01:21:22,440 --> 01:21:24,280
on an album.

1569
01:21:24,320 --> 01:21:28,000
He was very, very in awe of Phil Ramone.

1570
01:21:35,160 --> 01:21:38,080
If you go through his career,
it's almost as if the camera's

1571
01:21:38,120 --> 01:21:39,440
just slowly zooming in -

1572
01:21:39,480 --> 01:21:42,720
and at the end, all you've got is him.

1573
01:21:42,760 --> 01:21:46,680
And I think you should probably
know the truth behind this one

1574
01:21:46,720 --> 01:21:48,080
before I sing it.

1575
01:21:48,120 --> 01:21:50,200
His songs just got more and more intense.

1576
01:21:50,240 --> 01:21:54,320
And therefore, I think they become
less pleasant for him to write.

1577
01:21:54,360 --> 01:22:01,080
My battles with various substances
are very well-documented.

1578
01:22:01,120 --> 01:22:05,280
We had the tendency towards
the slower more reflective material,

1579
01:22:05,320 --> 01:22:08,560
a, kind of, musical psychiatry.

1580
01:22:08,600 --> 01:22:11,280
The truth - Kenny and I have
not been together for about

1581
01:22:11,320 --> 01:22:13,800
two-and-a-half years, and...

1582
01:22:15,440 --> 01:22:17,840
And all I'm going to say is
I love him very much,

1583
01:22:17,880 --> 01:22:21,160
but my love life's been a lot more
turbulent than I've let on.

1584
01:22:22,880 --> 01:22:25,400
Yeah, he wrote a song called
"Where I Hope You Are".

1585
01:22:25,440 --> 01:22:29,400
Probably the very first break-up
that song I've ever written.

1586
01:22:29,440 --> 01:22:34,600
I actually have listened to that
song quite a bit, and I actually...

1587
01:22:34,640 --> 01:22:36,720
I didn't know that he was going to...

1588
01:22:36,760 --> 01:22:39,280
I didn't even know he was going
to perform it, so...

1589
01:22:40,960 --> 01:22:43,320


1590
01:22:43,360 --> 01:22:49,960

I care about...

1591
01:22:52,440 --> 01:22:55,120
Living the life you've lived,

1592
01:22:55,160 --> 01:22:57,440
you know, with all the focus
on you as a person,

1593
01:22:57,480 --> 01:22:58,920
how does that effect your life?

1594
01:22:58,960 --> 01:23:01,640
It's had catastrophic effects
on my personal life.

1595
01:23:01,680 --> 01:23:05,240
What is so fantastic in your life
that you can actually, you know,

1596
01:23:05,280 --> 01:23:07,280
live the way you do with all of this?

1597
01:23:07,320 --> 01:23:09,480
Music! Music.
It's the only if it wasn't music,

1598
01:23:09,520 --> 01:23:11,720
if I wasn't absolutely driven,

1599
01:23:11,760 --> 01:23:15,640
and if I didn't find it impossible
to live without music,

1600
01:23:15,680 --> 01:23:17,760
then I wouldn't be doing this any more.

1601
01:23:17,800 --> 01:23:19,160
So, you're actually happy?

1602
01:23:19,200 --> 01:23:21,280
Erm, I'd say I've never...

1603
01:23:21,320 --> 01:23:24,680
I'd say I haven't been happy
with fame since I was 22.

1604
01:23:24,720 --> 01:23:29,040
Right? So, I've wished I was
someone else since I was 22.

1605
01:23:29,080 --> 01:23:32,320
Because I do, I hate the effect
it has on friendships,

1606
01:23:32,360 --> 01:23:33,960
on relationships,

1607
01:23:34,000 --> 01:23:37,360
on your privacy, I hate it, all of it.

1608
01:23:39,640 --> 01:23:43,360
George, I'd heard really
loved Going To A Town,

1609
01:23:43,400 --> 01:23:46,520
and I got a call from George,

1610
01:23:46,560 --> 01:23:48,640
at 3.00 in the morning when
I got to my hotel.

1611
01:23:48,680 --> 01:23:51,040
And he was talking about
how much he loved the song,

1612
01:23:51,080 --> 01:23:52,160
how important it was -

1613
01:23:52,200 --> 01:23:54,240
and it was all, you know, wonderful stuff.

1614
01:23:54,280 --> 01:23:58,320
But needless to say, he was also very high.

1615
01:23:58,360 --> 01:24:02,320
And half an hour passed,

1616
01:24:02,360 --> 01:24:04,280
an hour passed,

1617
01:24:04,320 --> 01:24:06,360
an hour-and-a-half passed,

1618
01:24:06,400 --> 01:24:11,400
and then, eventually,
he actually... fell asleep.

1619
01:24:11,440 --> 01:24:14,560
I enjoyed the experience
cos it was so unusual.

1620
01:24:14,600 --> 01:24:18,120
I mean, in retrospect, it is quite tragic,

1621
01:24:18,160 --> 01:24:21,400
you know, cos he lost that battle.

1622
01:24:21,440 --> 01:24:26,680

already been burnt down

1623
01:24:29,400 --> 01:24:34,600

already been disgraced

1624
01:24:37,480 --> 01:24:40,160


1625
01:24:40,200 --> 01:24:43,840
He's turned it so completely into
a George Michael song,

1626
01:24:43,880 --> 01:24:46,960
that you can almost see him more clearly.

1627
01:24:47,000 --> 01:24:50,960
Having George Michael sing that song

1628
01:24:51,000 --> 01:24:53,680
was one of the high points of my career,

1629
01:24:53,720 --> 01:24:56,080
and an epic moment that I could...

1630
01:24:56,120 --> 01:24:58,840
That, to the end of my days,
I will refer to -

1631
01:24:58,880 --> 01:25:02,440
especially being, you know,
a gay boy who, you know,

1632
01:25:02,480 --> 01:25:06,480
at puberty, drooled over his behind.

1633
01:25:18,200 --> 01:25:20,480
Er, I've got Streptococca-something.

1634
01:25:21,880 --> 01:25:23,480
It's a form on pneumonia.

1635
01:25:23,520 --> 01:25:26,680
And they spent three weeks
keeping me alive, basically.

1636
01:25:26,720 --> 01:25:32,040
The last ten days since I woke up,
literally, thank you people

1637
01:25:32,080 --> 01:25:33,520
for saving my life...

1638
01:25:33,560 --> 01:25:36,160
...which is something
I've never had to do before,

1639
01:25:36,200 --> 01:25:37,680
and I never want to do it again.

1640
01:26:09,400 --> 01:26:13,840
He was very ill, post that time
when I saw him...

1641
01:26:13,880 --> 01:26:16,080
..in the immediate aftermath,

1642
01:26:16,120 --> 01:26:19,160
and he was not a well man.

1643
01:26:19,200 --> 01:26:23,840
And it took him a long time
to recover from that.

1644
01:26:23,880 --> 01:26:27,880
Whether he ever recovered fully
or not is open to question.

1645
01:26:27,920 --> 01:26:34,040
There was dark demons involved
that led him down a dark spiral.

1646
01:26:34,080 --> 01:26:37,960
George's family had an uncle
who was a depressive,

1647
01:26:38,000 --> 01:26:39,600
who killed himself.

1648
01:26:39,640 --> 01:26:42,120
And that's a genetic thing.

1649
01:26:42,160 --> 01:26:46,200
I doubt you could override that,
to that extent.

1650
01:26:49,880 --> 01:26:55,520
It was a self-destruct
for reasons that George knows.

1651
01:26:55,560 --> 01:27:00,160
One could hypothesise that
perhaps it was the death of

1652
01:27:00,200 --> 01:27:03,000
George's therapist, friend,

1653
01:27:03,040 --> 01:27:06,320
father figure in the form
of Barry Nacouper,

1654
01:27:06,360 --> 01:27:08,640
that was a grief too many.

1655
01:27:08,680 --> 01:27:11,480
That's a very strong ally,

1656
01:27:11,520 --> 01:27:14,120
somebody who you really trust
who's on your side.

1657
01:27:16,360 --> 01:27:19,360
On his piano, there was
a photograph of Barry Nacouper -

1658
01:27:19,400 --> 01:27:22,680
given that a tradition of
a grand piano is that you have

1659
01:27:22,720 --> 01:27:26,000
the photograph of the person you
love most in the world,

1660
01:27:26,040 --> 01:27:27,920
or for your most loved one.

1661
01:27:27,960 --> 01:27:30,960
Barry was an incredibly important
figure in George's life,

1662
01:27:31,000 --> 01:27:33,880
and his death must've brought him

1663
01:27:33,920 --> 01:27:36,720
an overwhelming amount of grief.

1664
01:27:36,760 --> 01:27:42,280
When he dies, there's
a very slow progression down,

1665
01:27:42,320 --> 01:27:44,640
and then, it seems to go
further and further down.

1666
01:27:44,680 --> 01:27:47,080
And there's nobody else to whom he trusts.

1667
01:27:47,120 --> 01:27:50,080
He was putting on weight,
he was getting very morose,

1668
01:27:50,120 --> 01:27:51,880
taking more and more drugs.

1669
01:27:51,920 --> 01:27:55,760
Inevitably, the voice did deteriorate.

1670
01:27:55,800 --> 01:28:01,040
His voice - which is, I think,
after he got pneumonia, was why he,

1671
01:28:01,080 --> 01:28:03,840
you know, became more depressed.

1672
01:28:03,880 --> 01:28:07,920
He was just desperately miserable
within his life and who he was.

1673
01:28:07,960 --> 01:28:08,960
It's just awful.

1674
01:28:09,000 --> 01:28:11,280
It was his descent into drug use,
that was the thing,

1675
01:28:11,320 --> 01:28:13,200
cos that was what was destroying him.

1676
01:28:13,240 --> 01:28:15,440
The circle of people
around him had changed,

1677
01:28:15,480 --> 01:28:17,760
and they were all part of
that same lifestyle.

1678
01:28:17,800 --> 01:28:20,560
You know I know people who
worked very closely with him

1679
01:28:20,600 --> 01:28:23,360
who would despair of how he was being.

1680
01:28:23,400 --> 01:28:24,840
He was on a downward spiral.

1681
01:28:29,120 --> 01:28:31,920
I went and had a meeting
with him up in the house,

1682
01:28:31,960 --> 01:28:33,920
but he didn't want to be in at all.

1683
01:28:33,960 --> 01:28:36,240
So, we just went to Barcelona,

1684
01:28:36,280 --> 01:28:40,880
shot it in a really old vintage,
fairground in Barcelona.

1685
01:28:40,920 --> 01:28:43,520
He didn't come with us. And then,
it was really weird, though.

1686
01:28:43,560 --> 01:28:46,400
So, we'd be shooting, and then,

1687
01:28:46,440 --> 01:28:48,440
I'd hear George's voice behind me.

1688
01:28:48,480 --> 01:28:49,920
I'd go, "What the fuck?"

1689
01:28:49,960 --> 01:28:51,760
And then, somebody would
hold a laptop open,

1690
01:28:51,800 --> 01:28:54,680
and George was on Skype looking at
what we were doing, and it was like,

1691
01:28:54,720 --> 01:28:55,880
"Hello there, mate."

1692
01:28:55,920 --> 01:28:59,200
That's a wonderful example
of how one musician

1693
01:28:59,240 --> 01:29:02,240
can bring their history,
their story, their persona,

1694
01:29:02,280 --> 01:29:05,200
their image to someone else's song.

1695
01:29:05,240 --> 01:29:07,160
And that song becomes something else,

1696
01:29:07,200 --> 01:29:08,920
and it becomes about George Michael,

1697
01:29:08,960 --> 01:29:11,760
or it becomes about who we think
George Michael might be,

1698
01:29:11,800 --> 01:29:13,040
or might have been.

1699
01:29:13,080 --> 01:29:14,760


1700
01:29:14,800 --> 01:29:18,040


1701
01:29:20,040 --> 01:29:23,000


1702
01:29:23,040 --> 01:29:27,200


1703
01:29:29,320 --> 01:29:33,000
If you're thinking about art and music...

1704
01:29:35,200 --> 01:29:37,640
..George's music,

1705
01:29:37,680 --> 01:29:41,640
I think you can think of it all
as an astonishing sequence

1706
01:29:41,680 --> 01:29:43,440
of self-portraits...

1707
01:29:44,880 --> 01:29:50,840
..in which the artist, George,
is looking at himself in the mirror

1708
01:29:50,880 --> 01:29:53,400
each time he comes up with
a new song, and he'll say,

1709
01:29:53,440 --> 01:29:56,320
"Right, who am I? Who are you?"

1710
01:29:56,360 --> 01:29:58,760
And each time, there's a different answer.

1711
01:29:58,800 --> 01:30:00,640
And if you listen to all the songs,

1712
01:30:00,680 --> 01:30:04,040
and you watch all the videos
one after the other,

1713
01:30:04,080 --> 01:30:08,560
you emerge with this wonderful sense
of the indeterminacy of a self,

1714
01:30:08,600 --> 01:30:11,760
the fact that all the richness,
if you like, that how many selves

1715
01:30:11,800 --> 01:30:14,040
you can be - and I think
that's one of the things

1716
01:30:14,080 --> 01:30:15,520
that people love about him.

1717
01:30:15,560 --> 01:30:18,480
I think that you can see that
there's a darkness there a lot.

1718
01:30:18,520 --> 01:30:20,320
There's a lot of darkness there.

1719
01:30:20,360 --> 01:30:25,560
And you can conclude,
from the end of his story,

1720
01:30:25,600 --> 01:30:27,080
that the darkness won.

1721
01:30:29,880 --> 01:30:33,360
But I always like to think that
there are all these other sides,

1722
01:30:33,400 --> 01:30:36,480
and one of those could have won,
it just didn't.

1723
01:30:36,520 --> 01:30:39,800
You know, such and such happened
in a certain period of time,

1724
01:30:39,840 --> 01:30:42,480
and his demons got the better of him.

1725
01:30:42,520 --> 01:30:45,040
But they didn't have to -
and he left us with

1726
01:30:45,080 --> 01:30:48,120
so many angels, that maybe
that's enough anyway.

1727
01:31:06,680 --> 01:31:08,800
"My name is Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou" -

1728
01:31:08,840 --> 01:31:10,320
that's how it's said. Wonderful.

1729
01:31:10,360 --> 01:31:11,960
"Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou.

1730
01:31:12,000 --> 01:31:14,840
"To the outside world,
I am and always will be known

1731
01:31:14,880 --> 01:31:17,640
"as something else, but it's not my name.

1732
01:31:17,680 --> 01:31:18,680
"As a boy..."

1733
01:31:18,720 --> 01:31:20,520
I haven't read this for ages.
I know.

1734
01:31:20,560 --> 01:31:24,160
"As a boy, my biggest fear was that
my huge ambitions would stay

1735
01:31:24,200 --> 01:31:27,280
"just out of reach of the child
that I saw in the mirror.

1736
01:31:27,320 --> 01:31:31,680
"So, I created a man in the image
of a great friend that the world

1737
01:31:31,720 --> 01:31:33,520
"could love if they chose to.

1738
01:31:33,560 --> 01:31:36,760
"Someone who could realise my dreams
and make me a star.

1739
01:31:36,800 --> 01:31:38,640
"I called him George Michael,"

1740
01:31:38,680 --> 01:31:41,840
"and for almost a decade,
he worked his arse off for me

1741
01:31:41,880 --> 01:31:43,720
"and did as he was told.

1742
01:31:43,760 --> 01:31:47,000
"He was very good at his job -
perhaps a little too good.

1743
01:31:47,040 --> 01:31:49,800
"Anyway, shortly before I was
approached with the idea

1744
01:31:49,840 --> 01:31:53,360
"of this book, I decided that his
services were no longer required.

1745
01:31:53,400 --> 01:31:55,880
"He went quietly, he didn't make a fuss.

1746
01:31:55,920 --> 01:31:58,800
"I know many of you will think
that that was a strange thing

1747
01:31:58,840 --> 01:32:01,320
"for me to do, but believe me,
he really had to go."

1748
01:33:54,160 --> 01:33:58,520
Subtitles by Red Bee Media