Boy George on his Culture Club livestream, leaving The Voice and Harry Styles’ ‘frumpy’ dress

In a candid new interview, Boy George explains what caused his dramatic exit from our screens – and his infamous mid-interview hang-up.

Later this month, Boy George and Culture Club will become the latest in a string of big-name pop acts to livestream a COVID-safe show direct to fans worldwide.

Expect a hit-filled affair from the event, titled Rainbow in the Dark: “We don’t struggle with the live show – we’ve got an hour worth of stuff people know,” George says matter-of-factly of the band he formed in 1981.

It’ll cap off a weird year for George, who was forced to flee Australia midway through his plum local TV gig as the pandemic hit, only to find himself unceremoniously dumped as the show moved networks.

George spoke to news.com.au from his London home about the TV shake-ups, interview hang-ups and why he wasn’t impressed with Harry Styles’ “frumpy” latest look.

Are you excited for the Culture Club livestream? You must be itching to get back on stage after this year.

When I came back to London at the beginning of the pandemic, I hadn’t even thought about not working, because it’s something that I always do, but suddenly as time went past I realised, ‘Oh my god, I’m not doing anything’. I’ve used the time wisely – creating, making art. It’s been a luxurious period in that respect, but now my feet are starting to itch. I’m an entertainer, so there’s a point where I’m like, ‘Where’s my Batman outfit? I need to get out there.’ I’m interested to see if you can make something magical through the internet.

You put in four years on The Voice here in Australia before it switched networks. Would you return?

I would go back, but I also understand the way these shows work. It needs to restructure itself to stay interesting. And I watch the show religiously here in the UK … I love seeing whether the coaches believe what they’re saying or whether they’ve been told to say it. I’ve become quite an expert in picking, ‘Oh, she does not think that at all, what a load of rubbish! That came from the back room.’

Boy George: “I’m bitchy but I don’t burn bridges.”

Other coaches refused to comment about whether they’d follow the show to a new network. You, on the other hand, tweeted, “They can’t afford me, darling”.

Well it’s true! It’s true! It’s a great gig, I’m good at it, and I understand it now. You can still impart really important wisdom to people within the format. That is unbelievably helpful. And it’s such an intense show, especially for me because I do get really involved, emotionally.

Does that cheeky sense of humour ever get you in trouble? That ‘Can’t afford me’ quip certainly made headlines.

Well, the papers were saying they dumped me – but they didn’t dump me because I was a B-lister, they dumped me because I was too expensive. And look, I don’t have a press phobia. If I have a spat with, say, Piers Morgan, I don’t obsess about it for the rest of my life; I’m not a child. I can have banter with people. One thing about me that’s very important: I’m bitchy but I don’t burn bridges. That must be the most profound thing I’ve said all year!

One so-called ‘bitchy’ moment came in July when you hung up on an Australian radio host early in your interview. He seemed quite stuck on you being ‘big in the 80s’, which didn’t get him very far.

One thing you have to do when you’re in the public eye is manoeuvre around other people’s ideas of who you are. Most people have a sense of who I am. Most people.

But I did an interview the other day and someone said, ‘Tell George to be nice to me’. I thought, is that what people think of me? But sometimes it’s more interesting to them than who you really are. And when you’re in the public eye, you do encourage some aspects of your public persona – I’m guilty of that. But I’m also a multidimensional human being with other aspects to my personality.

Boy George: “I’m a multidimensional human being.” Picture: Supplied

I imagine you had to endure a lot of dumb questions early in your career – explaining your look, your identity.

I mean, back in my day, newspapers could call you a ‘poofter’, because that’s what you were, and that was that. But my generation was very unapologetic – homosexuality was legalised in the late 60s in England so we were the beneficiaries of a kind of weird new freedom. We didn’t feel that we needed to apologise for who we were, and that really continued for me.

Have we progressed all that much? Just the other week there was controversy about Harry Styles wearing a dress on the cover of Vogue.

"There’s so much joy to be had in playing with clothes. I’ve never thought too much about what it means—it just becomes this extended part of creating something.": Read our full December cover story starring @Harry_Styles here: https://t.co/yILujUQQae pic.twitter.com/qwpGKBSQey

— Vogue Magazine (@voguemagazine) November 13, 2020

What was interesting about the Harry Styles dress thing – and this is a little bit controversial of me to say – is that it was frumpy. It was not sexual at all … he looked like a district nurse! It was actually devoid of sex. If Harry had done the picture in a skin-tight Versace number with a handbag, we’d still be talking about it next year. He’s such a beautiful boy, if you put him in a hot little number, temperatures would rise. But to me, it was frumpy, and comedy and non-sexual.

But Harry’s living his best life now, and good f**king luck to him. Anyone doing that, especially a straight boy, it is a finger to convention, and I think that’s a great thing.

Culture Club’s Rainbow in the Dark global livestream takes place on Sunday December 20, AU time.