Boy George hangs up on 4BC’s Neil Breen after uncomfortable interview
Boy George and radio host Neil Breen clashed live on 4BC Brisbane this morning, with the ‘insulted’ singer hanging up after less than a minute. LISTEN TO THE AUDIO
Confidential
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SINGER Boy George has sensationally hung up on a Brisbane radio show after an uncomfortable interview during which he accused host Neil Breen of insulting him.
The British singer was a guest on Breen’s 4BC Breakfast Brisbane show on Friday morning promoting reality show The Voice, on which he has appeared as a coach for four years, but ended the call after less than a minute after taking offence to how he was introduced by the radio host.
During the brief interview, George took offence to Breen referencing only two songs from the 1980s and referring to him as if he’s “past context”, saying “you don’t need to reintroduce me, I’m on TV, everyone knows who I am” before hanging up, which prompted Breen to described him as a “finicky” pop star.
“I was a big fan … last thing I wanted was to insult him. I was just trying to tell him I loved him back in the day,” Breen later told The Courier-Mail.
It began when Breen introduced George, who was listening on the line, saying “if you grew up like I did as a teenager in the 1980s then Boy George well he was bigger than a big deal here in Australia – he was massive.”
“His band Culture Club dominated the Australian singles chart from late ’82 to ’83 with two songs – Karama Chameleon was obviously their most notable one that we remember but Do You Really Want to Hurt Me as well was their breakthrough song.”
He then conceded to George that he was “a bit nervous” to talk to him.
“Firstly that terrible comment about my music, that’s 10 records you missed that were huge massive hits,” George said while laughing. “Time (Clock of the Heart), Love is Love, I mean, please.”
“We know how big you were and you were big in my house,” Breen responded.
“No, no please don’t talk about me like I live in past context – it’s really insulting,” George interjected.
Breen attempted to placate the singer, saying he hadn’t meant to insult him and was simply “reintroducing you to the audience who remembered those great days”.
“Introduce them to someone who’s been on national TV in Australia for the last four years? You don’t need to reintroduce me; I’m on TV everyone knows who I am,” George said.
Breen continued speaking before soon realising George was no longer on the line.
“I didn’t want to insult Boy George, but there you go, he hung up on me and that’s the way it goes,” he told his audience.
“I thought we were all in the channel 9 tent but anyway sometimes pop stars they’re funny, they’re finicky, if you play their old song that made them famous they’ll want to disown it. So do you know what we’re going to do? we’ll play it again.”