Hey, remember George Michael? The multi award-winning pop star who came out before everybody else in 1998? He’s still around, has a brand new album out and he’s not smoking pot!
That’s the news from Event magazine this week, which has an exclusive interview with the 50-year-old former one-half of Wham!, who was apparently arrested for driving while stoned — twice — in 2010.
In the interview, Michaels says he used to smoke 25 joints per day and the habit nearly destroyed his life. He eventually decided to get clean after serving an eight-month prison sentence, and claims he hasn’t touched a joint in a year and a half.
No word on his relationship with other substances, but let’s hope he’s staying away from harder stuff as well. After all, pot’s fairly mild compared to booze and pharmaceuticals.
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Among his other recent travails: A 2011 health scare that had him nearly dying from a particularly strong case of pneumonia, and that time he fell out of a car while driving down the highway last May. Oh, George!
Kicking pot is a change of pace for the singer, who once credited the drug with keeping him sane. Newly sober, he released a new album this week called Symphonica.
Kate Moss has written a review of it for some reason, and it’s full of sparkling insights like “‘You’ve Changed’ feels fragile and honest; it almost makes me cry. For me, it’s the vulnerability, openness and richness of his voice that does it. The depth of where that comes from touches you in a place that you can’t even begin to understand and all of a sudden it’s not just a song anymore; it becomes an emotion and it takes you into another dimension. That’s George’s voice.”
Oh okay! Thanks Kate!
Check out tracks from Symphonica in the playlist below, performed by George earlier this year:
rickhfx
Reported b4 it was 8 weeks not 8 months, whats up with that?
Cam
Great, so Kate Moss, came down of Cocaine mountain to write a review of “Newly Sober” George Michael’s CD? 😉
As for him coming out before everybody else, remember, it wasn’t exactly voluntary.
Richard
Cut him some slack. He was my first man crush.
dvlaries
Never mind the new record, is he still with Isaac Mazar?
jonjct
i love this guy. i saw him in london 2 years ago, he had a pot belly and little middle-age man breasts. he was getting into his car on the high street in stokie (stoke-newington, of all places for him to be). everyone was frightened with the pneumonia scare b/c immune deficiency was on everybody’s mind. no revelations but he could be on a medication regimen and who would know? symphonica is a massive meh. but, may he live a long, healthy and productive life. BTW, George, there are still policemen in LA who have to take a leak while on duty, so your work isn’t finished just yet!