Boy George - 'I've Got a Radar for Trouble'

SURVIVING FAME, ADDICTION AND PRISON-AND LIVING TO WRITE ABOUT IT IN HIS NEW BOOK-HAS MADE THE POP ICON WISER, STRONGER AND STILL UNAPOLOGETIC

- SIMON PERRY

On a January morning after his latest performance, Boy George is reflecting. Yes, there was a big hat. And a long, flowing costume. But here, onstage in Nottingham, England, the pop icon took on a different character—Captain Hook in Peter Pan. Most parents in the audience knew who he was: frontman of Culture Club, synonymous with the second British invasion of the U.S. charts in the 1980s. But to many he was completely new—and so was their reaction. “Not only have I never played for 6-year-olds, I’ve never been booed,” the singer, 62, jokes. But that’s a good thing if you’re playing the bad guy. “The bigger the boos, a better job you’re doing.”

The man behind ’80s hits like “Do You Really Want to Hurt Me” and “Karma Chameleon” is courting an older crowd with his new memoir Karma, which covers his often-violent childhood in South East London (see excerpt), his tempestuous affair with Culture Club drummer Jon Moss, the financial and legal fallout of Moss leaving the band, drug abuse, a four-month stint in prison and his rebirth as an actor. “I’ve just stuck to things that I think were funny observations about meeting other people,” he says of Karma. “It’s just kind of more chatty—it’s not a history book.”