WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.379 In 1987, George Michael, and I don't think this 00:00:04.379 --> 00:00:07.360 is an exaggeration, arguably the most visible 00:00:07.360 --> 00:00:09.400 human being on the planet. He was an omnipresent 00:00:09.400 --> 00:00:12.199 entity. You had the aviator sunglasses, you had 00:00:12.199 --> 00:00:14.279 the distressed denim, the leather jacket, the 00:00:14.279 --> 00:00:17.780 stubble. He wasn't just a pop star. He was a 00:00:17.780 --> 00:00:20.800 global brand that generated millions and millions 00:00:20.800 --> 00:00:24.500 of dollars and sold 25 million copies of a single 00:00:24.500 --> 00:00:27.989 album. It was a level of fame that's... It's 00:00:27.989 --> 00:00:30.109 hard to even quantify today. It wasn't just that 00:00:30.109 --> 00:00:32.270 he was popular. He was the monoculture. Right. 00:00:32.729 --> 00:00:36.270 But then, just three years later, this very same 00:00:36.270 --> 00:00:38.950 man, who had worked his entire life to get every 00:00:38.950 --> 00:00:41.469 single eye in the world looking at him, decided 00:00:41.469 --> 00:00:43.890 he refused to show his face. Not just his face. 00:00:43.950 --> 00:00:45.390 He wouldn't show up for anything. He refused 00:00:45.390 --> 00:00:47.689 to be in his own music videos. He refused to 00:00:47.689 --> 00:00:50.289 tour. He effectively tried to murder the career 00:00:50.289 --> 00:00:52.990 he had just spent a decade building. And that 00:00:52.990 --> 00:00:55.170 right there. That is the tension I want to explore 00:00:55.170 --> 00:00:57.590 today. We aren't just doing a biography of, you 00:00:57.590 --> 00:00:59.609 know, the last Christmas guy. We are looking 00:00:59.609 --> 00:01:02.750 at the specific legal, psychological, and artistic 00:01:02.750 --> 00:01:07.650 mechanisms of one of pop culture's most, I guess, 00:01:07.670 --> 00:01:10.629 aggressive acts of self -sabotage. I think self 00:01:10.629 --> 00:01:12.709 -sabotage is the phrase people used at the time, 00:01:12.750 --> 00:01:14.590 but looking back now with a bit of distance, 00:01:14.709 --> 00:01:16.810 it looks a lot more like self -preservation. 00:01:17.290 --> 00:01:19.329 That's the paradox we're dealing with. It was 00:01:19.329 --> 00:01:22.709 Georgios Kyriakos Panayotou versus George Michael, 00:01:22.930 --> 00:01:25.629 the man versus the mask he created. And it's 00:01:25.629 --> 00:01:27.829 a really messy story. I mean, we have the highest 00:01:27.829 --> 00:01:30.290 highs of 80s pop, but we also have sting operations 00:01:30.290 --> 00:01:32.810 in public restrooms. We do. We have a landmark 00:01:32.810 --> 00:01:36.189 lawsuit against Sony that literally changed the 00:01:36.189 --> 00:01:38.829 music industry. Absolutely. And we have this 00:01:38.829 --> 00:01:40.989 secret life of philanthropy that was so well 00:01:40.989 --> 00:01:42.950 hidden, it almost feels like he was running some 00:01:42.950 --> 00:01:46.329 kind of, I don't know, a covert operation. Which 00:01:46.329 --> 00:01:49.530 in a way he was. The mission of this deep dive 00:01:49.530 --> 00:01:51.930 is to really understand that architecture. How 00:01:51.930 --> 00:01:54.390 do you build a superstar persona piece by piece? 00:01:54.489 --> 00:01:57.170 And then how do you meticulously dismantle it 00:01:57.170 --> 00:01:59.650 while the entire world is watching? Let's start 00:01:59.650 --> 00:02:02.159 with the before. Because, you know, the leather 00:02:02.159 --> 00:02:04.239 jacket didn't just come out of the womb. He was 00:02:04.239 --> 00:02:07.280 Georgios. Just Georgios. Yeah. Born in East Finchley, 00:02:07.379 --> 00:02:11.419 North London. His dad, Jack Maneotou, was a Greek 00:02:11.419 --> 00:02:15.400 Cypriot restaurateur. His mom, Leslie, was an 00:02:15.400 --> 00:02:18.939 English dancer. Is this a standard immigrant 00:02:18.939 --> 00:02:22.340 hustle story? Oh, very much so. His father was 00:02:22.340 --> 00:02:24.759 the absolute archetype of the hardworking immigrant 00:02:24.759 --> 00:02:27.680 patriarch. Right. Driven, stoic, always, always 00:02:27.680 --> 00:02:32.719 working. This absence his father just never being 00:02:32.719 --> 00:02:35.639 there it really shaped him He became incredibly 00:02:35.639 --> 00:02:37.740 close to his mother because his father was simply 00:02:37.740 --> 00:02:39.740 a ghost in the house But there's a psychological 00:02:39.740 --> 00:02:41.719 layer there too isn't there I read his father 00:02:41.719 --> 00:02:44.139 was apparently quite critical of his ambitions 00:02:44.139 --> 00:02:46.039 extremely critical He didn't think George could 00:02:46.039 --> 00:02:47.740 sing he'd tell him that he didn't think he had 00:02:47.740 --> 00:02:50.539 it Whatever it is. Which is the classic fuel 00:02:50.539 --> 00:02:52.840 for a future pop star, isn't it? That whole I'll 00:02:52.840 --> 00:02:55.419 show you mentality. It really is. But I read 00:02:55.419 --> 00:02:58.080 about this one specific incident in his childhood 00:02:58.080 --> 00:03:00.219 that honestly it sounds like a comic book origin 00:03:00.219 --> 00:03:03.599 story. The head injury theory. It does sound 00:03:03.599 --> 00:03:05.759 completely made up, but George stuck to this 00:03:05.759 --> 00:03:08.680 story his entire life. It never changed. Okay, 00:03:08.719 --> 00:03:10.659 so what was it? When he was about eight years 00:03:10.659 --> 00:03:13.780 old, she had a bad accident. He was playing around 00:03:13.780 --> 00:03:16.240 a building site or maybe a garden. The details 00:03:16.240 --> 00:03:19.599 are a bit hazy. But he sustained a really significant 00:03:19.599 --> 00:03:23.639 head injury. And he claims this. What? It changed 00:03:23.639 --> 00:03:26.620 his personality. He claimed that before the accident, 00:03:26.680 --> 00:03:30.379 he was obsessed with bugs. Insects. Bugs? Yeah. 00:03:30.680 --> 00:03:32.719 He wanted to be an entomologist. He said he didn't 00:03:32.719 --> 00:03:34.979 care about music at all. Then he hits his head, 00:03:35.039 --> 00:03:37.419 wakes up, and boom. The bugs are gone. The bugs 00:03:37.419 --> 00:03:39.800 are gone. And suddenly he is completely obsessed 00:03:39.800 --> 00:03:43.180 with music. He literally described it as a rewiring 00:03:43.180 --> 00:03:46.530 of his brain. That is just... It's wild. I mean, 00:03:46.550 --> 00:03:48.949 scientifically, traumatic brain injuries can 00:03:48.949 --> 00:03:52.129 alter personality. Sure. But going from I like 00:03:52.129 --> 00:03:54.710 Beatles to I need to write Careless Whisper. 00:03:54.789 --> 00:03:56.870 Yeah, that's a stretch. It is a huge stretch. 00:03:56.930 --> 00:03:59.610 But whether it was neurological or just a coincidence 00:03:59.610 --> 00:04:02.789 of timing, maybe he just hit puberty and discovered 00:04:02.789 --> 00:04:05.050 the radio at the same time. It's important because 00:04:05.050 --> 00:04:06.830 he believed it. Right. It was his narrative. 00:04:07.370 --> 00:04:10.129 It was his truth. He viewed his musical talent 00:04:10.129 --> 00:04:12.189 as something that was almost switched on, like 00:04:12.189 --> 00:04:15.069 an external force. And I think that adds to this 00:04:15.069 --> 00:04:18.209 feeling he had later that the talent was a separate 00:04:18.209 --> 00:04:20.490 entity from himself. So the talent is switched 00:04:20.490 --> 00:04:23.509 on. He moves to Radlet, goes to Bushy Mead School, 00:04:23.730 --> 00:04:26.850 and then the universe intervenes. He meets Andrew 00:04:26.850 --> 00:04:29.180 Ridgely. The other half of the equation. And 00:04:29.180 --> 00:04:31.579 it's so important to give Andrew his credit here. 00:04:31.899 --> 00:04:34.220 History sometimes writes him off as just the 00:04:34.220 --> 00:04:37.939 lucky friend, you know. But George was shy. He 00:04:37.939 --> 00:04:40.160 was a bit pudgy. He wore these thick glasses. 00:04:40.279 --> 00:04:42.620 He was deeply insecure. Andrew wasn't. Andrew 00:04:42.620 --> 00:04:44.980 was the cool kid. Andrew had the swagger. He 00:04:44.980 --> 00:04:47.439 was confident. George basically just absorbed 00:04:47.439 --> 00:04:49.540 Andrew's confidence until he could manufacture 00:04:49.540 --> 00:04:51.300 his own. There weren't an overnight success, 00:04:51.399 --> 00:04:53.579 though, were there? I think people assume wham. 00:04:54.009 --> 00:04:56.110 disappeared fully formed on top of the pops not 00:04:56.110 --> 00:04:58.629 at all they were hustling and i mean really really 00:04:58.629 --> 00:05:01.089 grinding like they were busking on the london 00:05:01.089 --> 00:05:03.930 underground just try to imagine that walking 00:05:03.930 --> 00:05:06.750 through the tube in 1980 and seeing george michael 00:05:06.750 --> 00:05:09.490 and andrew ridgely trying to sing over the sound 00:05:09.490 --> 00:05:11.509 of the screeching trains do we know what they 00:05:11.509 --> 00:05:15.660 were playing A lot of Queen, apparently. Of course. 00:05:16.259 --> 00:05:19.279 Specifically a song called 39, which is this 00:05:19.279 --> 00:05:22.420 deep -cut folk sci -fi song written by Brian 00:05:22.420 --> 00:05:25.040 May. It's not even a hit. It shows they actually 00:05:25.040 --> 00:05:26.839 had taste, you know? They weren't just playing 00:05:26.839 --> 00:05:29.339 the obvious stuff. They were also DJing at places 00:05:29.339 --> 00:05:31.019 like the Bel Air restaurant, playing to people 00:05:31.019 --> 00:05:33.480 eating steak dinners. That sounds soul -crushing. 00:05:33.680 --> 00:05:35.899 They even tried a ska band called The Executive. 00:05:35.980 --> 00:05:37.899 They were just throwing everything at the wall 00:05:37.899 --> 00:05:41.000 to see what would stick. But when Wham! finally 00:05:41.000 --> 00:05:45.069 stuck, It was nuclear. Absolutely nuclear. They 00:05:45.069 --> 00:05:48.730 formed the duo in 81. By 1983, their first album, 00:05:48.870 --> 00:05:51.649 Fantastic, is number one. But I want to spend 00:05:51.649 --> 00:05:55.370 some real time on the China tour in 1985. Because 00:05:55.370 --> 00:05:57.569 looking at the research for this, it feels like 00:05:57.569 --> 00:06:00.149 this was a truly pivotal moment in global pop 00:06:00.149 --> 00:06:02.589 culture, not just for the band. Oh, it's massive. 00:06:02.790 --> 00:06:07.430 April 1985 becomes the first major Western pop 00:06:07.430 --> 00:06:09.689 act to perform in the People's Republic of China. 00:06:09.829 --> 00:06:12.120 You have to set the context here. This is pre 00:06:12.120 --> 00:06:14.660 -internet. Pre -everything. The cultural revolution 00:06:14.660 --> 00:06:17.439 wasn't that far in the rearview mirror. Western 00:06:17.439 --> 00:06:19.699 music was effectively contraband. It was seen 00:06:19.699 --> 00:06:22.220 as spiritual pollution. So how on earth did they 00:06:22.220 --> 00:06:25.240 pull this off? Why wham? Why not, you know, the 00:06:25.240 --> 00:06:28.120 Rolling Stones or Queen or somebody bigger? That 00:06:28.120 --> 00:06:30.379 is all down to their manager, Simon Napierbell. 00:06:30.540 --> 00:06:33.470 Okay. He was a Machiavellian genius. He spent 00:06:33.470 --> 00:06:36.629 18 months negotiating with the Chinese bureaucrats. 00:06:36.750 --> 00:06:39.449 And here is the real deep dive detail. Yeah. 00:06:39.529 --> 00:06:41.930 He knew that Queen was also trying to get in. 00:06:41.970 --> 00:06:44.430 They were the competition. So Napier Bell made 00:06:44.430 --> 00:06:46.910 two brochures. Two brochures. Yep. One brochure 00:06:46.910 --> 00:06:49.050 was for Wham! And it showed George and Andrew 00:06:49.050 --> 00:06:51.730 looking wholesome, smiling, you know, healthy 00:06:51.730 --> 00:06:54.509 boys next door. Okay. And then he made another 00:06:54.509 --> 00:06:57.149 brochure for Queen where he specifically selected 00:06:57.149 --> 00:06:59.990 photos of Freddie Mercury looking his most flamboyant, 00:07:00.029 --> 00:07:03.259 his most theatrical, and to the eye. of 1985 00:07:03.259 --> 00:07:06.980 Chinese officials his most decadent. He presented 00:07:06.980 --> 00:07:09.040 these two options to the officials and basically 00:07:09.040 --> 00:07:11.860 said, look, this is the wholesome option and 00:07:11.860 --> 00:07:15.060 this is the dangerous option. Your choice. That 00:07:15.060 --> 00:07:18.139 is incredibly shady and also absolutely brilliant. 00:07:18.500 --> 00:07:22.139 He sabotaged Queen to get the gig. And it worked 00:07:22.139 --> 00:07:24.839 like a charm. The Chinese government saw Wham 00:07:24.839 --> 00:07:28.689 as this safe. non -threatening introduction to 00:07:28.689 --> 00:07:30.689 Western youth culture. Right. They thought it 00:07:30.689 --> 00:07:33.189 was just happy, bouncy music. They didn't realize 00:07:33.189 --> 00:07:37.029 the subtext of individual freedom and, frankly, 00:07:37.189 --> 00:07:40.430 hedonism in songs like Club Tropicana. So they 00:07:40.430 --> 00:07:42.629 get there. The concert happens at the Workers' 00:07:42.750 --> 00:07:46.750 Gymnasium in Beijing. What was the vibe? Was 00:07:46.750 --> 00:07:49.930 it Beatlemania? It was confused. Utterly confused. 00:07:50.029 --> 00:07:51.769 You have to picture the audience. It wasn't just 00:07:51.769 --> 00:07:54.069 teenagers who'd bought tickets. It was party 00:07:54.069 --> 00:07:56.470 officials, police officers, people who had been 00:07:56.470 --> 00:07:58.050 given tickets by their work units. They were 00:07:58.050 --> 00:07:59.930 all just sitting there in absolute silence because 00:07:59.930 --> 00:08:01.610 they didn't know how to behave at a rock concert. 00:08:01.709 --> 00:08:03.769 They'd never seen one. There's the famous clapping 00:08:03.769 --> 00:08:06.439 incident, right? This perfectly encapsulates 00:08:06.439 --> 00:08:09.000 the culture clash. George is on stage. He's giving 00:08:09.000 --> 00:08:13.259 it the full 1980s showman energy. He starts clapping 00:08:13.259 --> 00:08:15.680 his hands over his head, trying to get the crowd 00:08:15.680 --> 00:08:17.980 to clap along to the beat of Club Tropicana. 00:08:18.160 --> 00:08:20.160 The universal signal. The universal signal in 00:08:20.160 --> 00:08:22.300 the West. Yeah, we know that means join in on 00:08:22.300 --> 00:08:25.000 the rhythm. But in China at that time, applause 00:08:25.000 --> 00:08:27.860 was a sign of polite respect, like after a political 00:08:27.860 --> 00:08:30.459 speech. Oh, no. So the audience sees him clapping, 00:08:30.660 --> 00:08:32.399 thinks he wants applause, and they just start 00:08:32.399 --> 00:08:35.070 politely clapping. No rhythm. No beat, just this 00:08:35.070 --> 00:08:37.149 sort of wash of polite, out -of -time applause 00:08:37.149 --> 00:08:39.889 while the bass drum is pounding. That must have 00:08:39.889 --> 00:08:41.950 been excruciating for a performer. Yeah. Just 00:08:41.950 --> 00:08:44.649 soul -destroying. George was sweating. He later 00:08:44.649 --> 00:08:46.730 said it was the hardest gig of his entire life. 00:08:47.149 --> 00:08:49.029 He felt like he was failing, like he couldn't 00:08:49.029 --> 00:08:51.370 connect. And on top of that, there was this heavy 00:08:51.370 --> 00:08:53.690 police presence. Why? What were they worried 00:08:53.690 --> 00:08:56.370 about? A riot. They were terrified of a riot. 00:08:56.409 --> 00:08:58.649 So if anyone in the crowd stood up or even started 00:08:58.649 --> 00:09:00.870 dancing in their seat, the police would physically 00:09:00.870 --> 00:09:03.350 push them back down. So it wasn't just a concert. 00:09:03.470 --> 00:09:06.610 It was this weird diplomatic stress test. Exactly. 00:09:06.809 --> 00:09:09.129 But despite all the awkwardness, the impact was 00:09:09.129 --> 00:09:11.669 seismic. The Chicago Tribune ran the headline, 00:09:11.929 --> 00:09:14.629 East Meets Wham and Another Great Wall Comes 00:09:14.629 --> 00:09:17.289 Down. Wow. It was the moment the door cracked 00:09:17.289 --> 00:09:21.049 open. After Wham!, the floodgates slowly began 00:09:21.049 --> 00:09:23.330 to open for Western culture in China. It was 00:09:23.330 --> 00:09:27.309 a huge deal. And yet, in the middle of this massive 00:09:27.309 --> 00:09:29.789 historical moment, George is already checking 00:09:29.789 --> 00:09:32.090 out. Mentally, yeah. He's looking at Andrew. 00:09:32.230 --> 00:09:33.809 He's looking at the short shorts and the goofy 00:09:33.809 --> 00:09:37.320 smiles. And he's thinking. I'm done with this. 00:09:37.419 --> 00:09:39.779 He was growing up. Wham was a teen product. And 00:09:39.779 --> 00:09:42.179 he knew it. George was developing into a really 00:09:42.179 --> 00:09:45.179 serious songwriter. He had already released Careless 00:09:45.179 --> 00:09:48.080 Whisper as a solo single in 1984. Which is a 00:09:48.080 --> 00:09:50.340 masterpiece of pop songwriting. An absolute masterpiece. 00:09:50.580 --> 00:09:52.940 He knew that to be the artist he wanted to become, 00:09:53.059 --> 00:09:55.879 he had to kill Wham. But they did it so cleanly. 00:09:56.220 --> 00:09:58.299 There were no creative differences, stories in 00:09:58.299 --> 00:10:00.860 the press, no public feuding. No, not at all. 00:10:00.960 --> 00:10:03.019 They had the final concert at Wembley Stadium 00:10:03.019 --> 00:10:06.460 in 1986. They hugged, they cried, they ended 00:10:06.460 --> 00:10:09.240 it. It was remarkably mature and amicable. Which 00:10:09.240 --> 00:10:11.259 cleared the deck for the creation of the monster, 00:10:11.440 --> 00:10:16.299 the faith era. Let's deconstruct 1987. Because 00:10:16.299 --> 00:10:18.419 George Michael doesn't just release a solo album. 00:10:18.580 --> 00:10:21.980 He releases a new human being. The look changes 00:10:21.980 --> 00:10:24.519 like overnight. It was a completely calculated 00:10:24.519 --> 00:10:27.879 visual overhaul. He loses the feathery highlighted 00:10:27.879 --> 00:10:31.019 hair. He loses all the colorful wake me up before 00:10:31.019 --> 00:10:33.539 you go go outfits. And what does he put on? He 00:10:33.539 --> 00:10:36.259 puts on the uniform, the leather jacket, the 00:10:36.259 --> 00:10:38.820 cowboy boots. The mirrored aviator sunglasses, 00:10:39.179 --> 00:10:41.580 the tight Levi's with the rips. It's hyper -masculine. 00:10:41.600 --> 00:10:44.440 It's very American. It's Americana seen through 00:10:44.440 --> 00:10:48.240 a British lens. But here is the fascinating semiotic 00:10:48.240 --> 00:10:50.539 layer that most mainstream audiences completely 00:10:50.539 --> 00:10:53.679 missed at the time. Go on. That look. The leather 00:10:53.679 --> 00:10:56.460 jacket, the specific cut of the jeans, the mustache, 00:10:56.639 --> 00:10:59.000 the stubble. That was lifted directly from the 00:10:59.000 --> 00:11:01.259 gay clone culture of the 1970s. Wait, really? 00:11:01.320 --> 00:11:03.639 So he's dressing like a gay subculture icon and 00:11:03.639 --> 00:11:05.759 selling it to millions of teenage girls in the 00:11:05.759 --> 00:11:08.610 suburbs? Precisely. Whether it was a conscious 00:11:08.610 --> 00:11:12.389 signaling to those in the know or just him gravitating 00:11:12.389 --> 00:11:15.149 toward an aesthetic he found attractive, he took 00:11:15.149 --> 00:11:18.009 something that was coded gay in places like the 00:11:18.009 --> 00:11:21.129 West Village or the Castro and he repackaged 00:11:21.129 --> 00:11:24.269 it as the ultimate heteronormative rebel look. 00:11:24.370 --> 00:11:27.129 And the world bought it. Hook, line, and sinker. 00:11:27.149 --> 00:11:29.690 Oh, completely. The girls loved him and the guys 00:11:29.690 --> 00:11:32.330 wanted to be him. It was a total triumph of branding. 00:11:32.610 --> 00:11:35.220 And the numbers just backed it up. Faith sold 00:11:35.220 --> 00:11:39.419 over 25 million copies. The single Faith was 00:11:39.419 --> 00:11:41.860 the number one song of the entire year in the 00:11:41.860 --> 00:11:44.700 U .S., but there was friction immediately. I 00:11:44.700 --> 00:11:47.379 want your sex. The song that caused a moral panic. 00:11:47.539 --> 00:11:49.659 Yeah, and by today's standards, the lyrics are 00:11:49.659 --> 00:11:52.320 pretty tame. Sex is natural, sex is good. It's 00:11:52.320 --> 00:11:56.029 not exactly shocking stuff. But in 1987... Just 00:11:56.029 --> 00:11:58.570 putting the word sex in the title of a pop song 00:11:58.570 --> 00:11:59.990 that's going to be played at three in the afternoon 00:11:59.990 --> 00:12:02.490 on the radio. It was scandalous. Casey Kasem 00:12:02.490 --> 00:12:04.409 wouldn't even say the name. I know. On American 00:12:04.409 --> 00:12:07.090 Top 40, he would just introduce it as the new 00:12:07.090 --> 00:12:09.769 single by George Michael. The BBC restricted 00:12:09.769 --> 00:12:12.950 daytime airplay. George actually had to film 00:12:12.950 --> 00:12:15.049 this little prologue for the music video where 00:12:15.049 --> 00:12:18.049 he stands there and explains, this song is not 00:12:18.049 --> 00:12:21.299 about promiscuity. it is about monogamy right 00:12:21.299 --> 00:12:24.179 he writes explore monogamy on the woman's back 00:12:24.179 --> 00:12:27.100 in lipstick in the video he was so desperate 00:12:27.100 --> 00:12:30.559 to not be seen as just a smut peddler he wanted 00:12:30.559 --> 00:12:33.039 to be taken seriously as an artist and frankly 00:12:33.039 --> 00:12:35.340 the controversy only helped of course it made 00:12:35.340 --> 00:12:37.950 the album feel dangerous it gave it an edge So 00:12:37.950 --> 00:12:40.629 he climbs the mountain. It's 1989. He wins the 00:12:40.629 --> 00:12:43.190 Grammy for Album of the Year. He has the money, 00:12:43.309 --> 00:12:45.629 the fame, the critical acclaim. He has everything 00:12:45.629 --> 00:12:48.490 he ever wanted. And this is where the deep dive 00:12:48.490 --> 00:12:50.769 paradox really kicks in. He should be on top 00:12:50.769 --> 00:12:53.809 of the world. By his own account, he describes 00:12:53.809 --> 00:12:56.370 this period as an absolute nightmare. This is 00:12:56.370 --> 00:12:58.590 the idol trap. We see it with so many stars, 00:12:58.669 --> 00:13:01.950 but George felt it so acutely. He realized that 00:13:01.950 --> 00:13:03.990 the George Michael in the letter jacket was a 00:13:03.990 --> 00:13:07.570 character. A total construct. And the public 00:13:07.570 --> 00:13:09.590 was in love with the construct, not with him, 00:13:09.669 --> 00:13:12.830 Georgios. So he felt like a fraud. He described 00:13:12.830 --> 00:13:15.289 wearing those sunglasses as a shield because 00:13:15.289 --> 00:13:17.409 he couldn't make eye contact with people anymore. 00:13:17.549 --> 00:13:19.409 And on top of all that, he was still in the closet. 00:13:19.929 --> 00:13:21.690 Deeply, deeply in the closet. So you have this 00:13:21.690 --> 00:13:24.570 man being worshipped around the globe as a heterosexual 00:13:24.570 --> 00:13:28.830 sex symbol, which creates this massive, painful 00:13:28.830 --> 00:13:31.149 dissonance in his soul. He must have felt like 00:13:31.149 --> 00:13:33.389 he was lying to 25 million people. He did. He 00:13:33.389 --> 00:13:35.549 said he felt incredibly guilty about it. So. 00:13:36.120 --> 00:13:37.980 Most people in that situation would probably 00:13:37.980 --> 00:13:40.379 just, you know, buy a private island and take 00:13:40.379 --> 00:13:42.899 a long break. Right. George decides to go to 00:13:42.899 --> 00:13:47.500 war with his own employer. This leads us to Listen 00:13:47.500 --> 00:13:51.720 Without Prejudice Vol. 1 in 1990. And just look 00:13:51.720 --> 00:13:53.899 at that title. It's aggressive, isn't it? Listen 00:13:53.899 --> 00:13:56.000 Without Prejudice. It's a command. It's a plea. 00:13:56.409 --> 00:13:59.429 It's a plea, yeah. He is demanding that you strip 00:13:59.429 --> 00:14:01.870 away your preconceptions about the guy in the 00:14:01.870 --> 00:14:04.070 leather jacket. And to force you to do that, 00:14:04.149 --> 00:14:06.529 he goes to Sony Music and says, I am going on 00:14:06.529 --> 00:14:08.570 strike. What does that even mean for a musician? 00:14:08.950 --> 00:14:11.610 It means I will deliver the album because I'm 00:14:11.610 --> 00:14:14.210 contractually obligated to, but I will not do 00:14:14.210 --> 00:14:17.370 any press, I will not tour, and I will not be 00:14:17.370 --> 00:14:19.450 on the album cover. From a business perspective, 00:14:19.629 --> 00:14:22.139 that is just... It's insanity. You have the biggest 00:14:22.139 --> 00:14:24.179 star in the world telling his record company, 00:14:24.320 --> 00:14:27.259 I refuse to help you sell the product. Sony went 00:14:27.259 --> 00:14:29.940 ballistic. They accused him of arrogance, of 00:14:29.940 --> 00:14:32.120 being ungrateful. They basically said, we made 00:14:32.120 --> 00:14:35.509 you, you owe us. But George was adamant. He truly 00:14:35.509 --> 00:14:37.830 believed the music was good enough to sell itself. 00:14:38.149 --> 00:14:40.649 And this refusal to appear in his own videos 00:14:40.649 --> 00:14:44.450 is what gave us the Freedom 90 video. Which is 00:14:44.450 --> 00:14:46.970 so ironic because it's probably his most famous 00:14:46.970 --> 00:14:49.450 and iconic video and he isn't in a single frame 00:14:49.450 --> 00:14:52.350 of it. Instead, he hires, who was it? He hired 00:14:52.350 --> 00:14:55.389 the big five supermodels of the era. Naomi Campbell, 00:14:55.669 --> 00:14:58.289 Cindy Crawford, Linda Evangelista, Tijana Petits, 00:14:58.370 --> 00:15:00.970 Christy Turlington, the most famous faces on 00:15:00.970 --> 00:15:02.690 the planet. And he just has them lip sync the 00:15:02.690 --> 00:15:04.820 song. He has them lip sync, but look at what 00:15:04.820 --> 00:15:07.100 they are doing in the video. It's so symbolic. 00:15:07.120 --> 00:15:10.340 They're destroying his stuff. Yes. The iconic 00:15:10.340 --> 00:15:12.379 leather jacket from the Faith tour. They set 00:15:12.379 --> 00:15:14.940 it on fire. The jukebox from the Faith video. 00:15:15.080 --> 00:15:18.860 It explodes. The guitar. It's just left abandoned 00:15:18.860 --> 00:15:20.679 in the corner. It was a public burning of the 00:15:20.679 --> 00:15:24.620 effigy. Exactly. He was visually, symbolically 00:15:24.620 --> 00:15:27.100 telling the entire world that guy is dead. And 00:15:27.100 --> 00:15:30.019 the lyrics are so brutal, too. I was every little 00:15:30.019 --> 00:15:32.799 hungry schoolgirl's pride and joy, and I guess 00:15:32.799 --> 00:15:35.220 it was enough for me. But today, the way I play 00:15:35.220 --> 00:15:38.460 the game is not the same. No way. He is explicitly 00:15:38.460 --> 00:15:41.559 resigning from the job of pop star. This tension 00:15:41.559 --> 00:15:44.279 with the label Sony, it boils over into a full 00:15:44.279 --> 00:15:46.679 -blown lawsuit. And I want to get into the mechanics 00:15:46.679 --> 00:15:48.960 of this, because it wasn't just a temper tantrum. 00:15:49.379 --> 00:15:53.370 He sued Sony in 1992. What was the legal argument? 00:15:53.590 --> 00:15:55.590 He sued on the grounds of restraint of trade. 00:15:55.929 --> 00:15:57.950 Which means? Basically, he argued that the standard 00:15:57.950 --> 00:15:59.970 recording contract of the time, which bound him 00:15:59.970 --> 00:16:02.590 to Sony for nearly 15 years and gave them total 00:16:02.590 --> 00:16:05.009 control over how his music was marketed, was 00:16:05.009 --> 00:16:08.009 akin to professional slavery. Slavery is a very 00:16:08.009 --> 00:16:10.350 loaded word to use for a guy making millions 00:16:10.350 --> 00:16:13.450 and millions of dollars. And that was the problem 00:16:13.450 --> 00:16:15.809 in court. The judge did not have much sympathy 00:16:15.809 --> 00:16:18.570 for that line of argument. I can imagine. But 00:16:18.570 --> 00:16:20.690 George's point was about artistic freedom and 00:16:20.690 --> 00:16:23.950 equity. He argued that in no other industry could 00:16:23.950 --> 00:16:26.309 a company hold an individual's creative output 00:16:26.309 --> 00:16:29.490 hostage for that long, especially if the professional 00:16:29.490 --> 00:16:32.690 relationship had completely broken down. He wanted 00:16:32.690 --> 00:16:35.889 to be a free agent. But he lost the case. He 00:16:35.889 --> 00:16:39.389 lost badly. The judge essentially ruled that 00:16:39.389 --> 00:16:41.870 the contract was fair because George had received 00:16:41.870 --> 00:16:44.429 very good legal advice when he signed it, and 00:16:44.429 --> 00:16:47.070 he had happily cashed all the checks. Sony won. 00:16:47.419 --> 00:16:52.700 But it did change things in the long run, didn't 00:16:52.700 --> 00:17:17.460 it? Ah. Now, while this massive professional 00:17:17.460 --> 00:17:21.039 war is raging, his personal life is just. It's 00:17:21.039 --> 00:17:24.359 imploding. And this is the context that really 00:17:24.359 --> 00:17:28.359 explains the silence of the mid -90s. We have 00:17:28.359 --> 00:17:30.980 to talk about Anselmo Filippo. This is the real 00:17:30.980 --> 00:17:33.619 heart of the tragedy. In 1991, at the Rock in 00:17:33.619 --> 00:17:36.000 Rio Festival in Brazil, George meets Anselmo. 00:17:36.160 --> 00:17:39.180 He was a Brazilian dress designer. George said 00:17:39.180 --> 00:17:40.920 it was love at first sight. It was the first 00:17:40.920 --> 00:17:43.460 time he had truly, deeply allowed himself to 00:17:43.460 --> 00:17:45.779 love another man. He said it was the moment he 00:17:45.779 --> 00:17:47.720 stopped struggling with his sexuality internally. 00:17:48.440 --> 00:17:51.160 He found peace. But the timing. I mean, you look 00:17:51.160 --> 00:17:52.960 at the dates and it's just. It's devastating. 00:17:53.160 --> 00:17:55.559 They had six months, six months of real happiness. 00:17:55.980 --> 00:17:58.079 Then Anselmo gets a fever that won't go away. 00:17:58.180 --> 00:18:00.099 He goes to the doctor. It's HIV. And this is 00:18:00.099 --> 00:18:03.740 1991. That diagnosis is a death sentence. It 00:18:03.740 --> 00:18:05.759 was a death sentence. There were no protease 00:18:05.759 --> 00:18:08.140 inhibitors yet, no heart therapy. It was a waiting 00:18:08.140 --> 00:18:10.619 game and everyone knew how it would end. So George 00:18:10.619 --> 00:18:13.079 Michael, who is fighting Sony in court trying 00:18:13.079 --> 00:18:15.720 to dismantle his public image, is also secretly 00:18:15.720 --> 00:18:17.740 nursing his dying partner. And he can't tell 00:18:17.740 --> 00:18:19.700 anyone. Why couldn't he tell anyone? His family. 00:18:19.819 --> 00:18:22.180 His friends. Because he wasn't out. He was terrified 00:18:22.180 --> 00:18:24.460 of the British tabloids destroying Anselmo's 00:18:24.460 --> 00:18:26.900 privacy, of hounding his family. He was terrified 00:18:26.900 --> 00:18:29.119 of his mother finding out and the shock it would 00:18:29.119 --> 00:18:31.839 cause her. So he lived this horrific double life 00:18:31.839 --> 00:18:36.240 of global fame and private agonizing grief. And 00:18:36.240 --> 00:18:39.319 Anselmo died in March of 1993. Of a brain hemorrhage 00:18:39.319 --> 00:18:43.539 related to AIDS. Yeah. And George, he just went 00:18:43.539 --> 00:18:46.000 dark after that. Professionally silent. He went 00:18:46.000 --> 00:18:49.259 dark and he wrote the song Jesus to a Child was 00:18:49.259 --> 00:18:51.569 a result. He said he wrote it in about an hour. 00:18:51.630 --> 00:18:54.569 It's a direct address to Anselmo. Kindness in 00:18:54.569 --> 00:18:56.670 your eyes, I guess you heard me cry. When he 00:18:56.670 --> 00:18:59.130 finally released it in 1996 on the album Older, 00:18:59.150 --> 00:19:01.269 the press didn't know who it was about. They 00:19:01.269 --> 00:19:04.089 thought it was literally about Jesus or a child. 00:19:04.289 --> 00:19:06.970 And Older as an album is so different. It's much 00:19:06.970 --> 00:19:10.009 jazzier. It's darker. It sounds like a man in 00:19:10.009 --> 00:19:12.410 mourning. It is a grief album from start to finish. 00:19:12.529 --> 00:19:14.730 Yeah. But just as he's releasing this tribute 00:19:14.730 --> 00:19:17.410 to his lost love, his mother, Leslie, dies of 00:19:17.410 --> 00:19:21.140 cancer in 1997. So within four years, he loses 00:19:21.140 --> 00:19:23.660 his partner and his mother, the two people he 00:19:23.660 --> 00:19:25.299 loved the most in the world. He was absolutely 00:19:25.299 --> 00:19:28.480 hollowed out. Which brings us to 1998, the year 00:19:28.480 --> 00:19:31.079 the dam finally broke, the restroom incident. 00:19:31.359 --> 00:19:35.240 April 7th, 1998, Will Rogers Memorial Park in 00:19:35.240 --> 00:19:38.319 Beverly Hills, a very nice upscale public park. 00:19:38.799 --> 00:19:42.019 George walks into the public restroom. An undercover 00:19:42.019 --> 00:19:44.980 police officer, Marcelo Rodriguez, follows him 00:19:44.980 --> 00:19:47.369 in. And this was a sting operation, right? They 00:19:47.369 --> 00:19:49.730 were specifically targeting gay cruising in that 00:19:49.730 --> 00:19:52.390 park. It was, yes. The officer engaged George 00:19:52.390 --> 00:19:55.029 in conversation. George allegedly responded and 00:19:55.029 --> 00:19:57.609 the handcuffs came out. He was arrested for engaging 00:19:57.609 --> 00:20:00.829 in a lewd act. The press had an absolute field 00:20:00.829 --> 00:20:03.789 day. The puns were just, they were brutal. Zip 00:20:03.789 --> 00:20:06.690 me up before you go -go. Awful. In 1998, this 00:20:06.690 --> 00:20:08.349 was usually a career ender. You were supposed 00:20:08.349 --> 00:20:11.009 to go on Oprah, cry, say you have a problem, 00:20:11.089 --> 00:20:13.529 and check into rehab. Right. The script was written. 00:20:13.589 --> 00:20:16.759 It was shame and redemption. But... George looked 00:20:16.759 --> 00:20:18.619 at that script and he just threw it in the trash. 00:20:18.859 --> 00:20:21.519 He went on CNN, sat down with Jim Ray and just 00:20:21.519 --> 00:20:24.380 ummed it. He did. He said, I'm not good at playing 00:20:24.380 --> 00:20:26.680 the game. He didn't apologize for being gay. 00:20:26.819 --> 00:20:29.240 He apologized to his fans for the mess in the 00:20:29.240 --> 00:20:31.539 headlines, but he pointedly did not apologize 00:20:31.539 --> 00:20:34.700 for his sexuality. And then he released Outside. 00:20:35.240 --> 00:20:38.039 The ultimate power move. He writes a disco funk 00:20:38.039 --> 00:20:41.039 song about getting arrested for cruising. The 00:20:41.039 --> 00:20:43.039 lyrics are hilarious. I'd service the community, 00:20:43.119 --> 00:20:45.380 but I already have, you see. And the video. The 00:20:45.380 --> 00:20:47.680 video is incredible. He turns the public restroom 00:20:47.680 --> 00:20:50.140 into a disco, complete with a disco ball over 00:20:50.140 --> 00:20:53.319 the urinals. He dresses up as a cop. He has two 00:20:53.319 --> 00:20:55.680 male police officers making out passionately. 00:20:55.859 --> 00:20:58.519 It was pure satire. He took the weapon the media 00:20:58.519 --> 00:21:01.400 was using to beat him. The shame of cruising. 00:21:02.170 --> 00:21:04.490 And he turned it into a celebration. It felt 00:21:04.490 --> 00:21:06.990 like a real cultural turning point. Before that, 00:21:07.130 --> 00:21:10.130 being outed was always a tragedy. George made 00:21:10.130 --> 00:21:13.130 it, I don't know, boring. Or at least he refused 00:21:13.130 --> 00:21:15.589 to be the victim in the story. He humanized the 00:21:15.589 --> 00:21:18.369 messy gay celebrity. He showed you could be arrested 00:21:18.369 --> 00:21:20.650 in the public toilet and still be cool and still 00:21:20.650 --> 00:21:23.150 be talented and still be completely defiant about 00:21:23.150 --> 00:21:25.470 it. Which was incredibly empowering for a lot 00:21:25.470 --> 00:21:27.549 of people who were used to seeing gay public 00:21:27.549 --> 00:21:31.029 figures only as either tragic victims or as punchlines. 00:21:31.549 --> 00:21:33.829 But here's the thing that really gets me, and 00:21:33.829 --> 00:21:35.930 it's the other side of this coin. While he's 00:21:35.930 --> 00:21:38.990 being this loud, defiant, I do what I want figure 00:21:38.990 --> 00:21:42.849 in public, there is this whole other frequency 00:21:42.849 --> 00:21:45.549 he's operating on. The silent philanthropist. 00:21:45.650 --> 00:21:48.130 Yes. This is the part of the story that still 00:21:48.130 --> 00:21:50.650 gives me chills. I mean, we knew he did Band 00:21:50.650 --> 00:21:52.950 -Aid. We knew he sang on Do They Know It's Christmas. 00:21:53.150 --> 00:21:56.440 Sure, big public stuff. But we had no idea. about 00:21:56.440 --> 00:21:58.920 the day -to -day scale of his giving until after 00:21:58.920 --> 00:22:01.140 he died. Because he made people keep it secret. 00:22:01.299 --> 00:22:03.359 He didn't want the credit. There are stories 00:22:03.359 --> 00:22:05.619 of him making charities sign non -disclosure 00:22:05.619 --> 00:22:08.180 agreements. He was obsessive about the anonymity. 00:22:08.220 --> 00:22:10.880 He didn't want it to look like a PR stunt. Exactly. 00:22:11.180 --> 00:22:13.460 Let's look at the deal or no deal story. This 00:22:13.460 --> 00:22:15.880 one went viral right after he passed. It's a 00:22:15.880 --> 00:22:18.279 perfect example of how he operated. George is 00:22:18.279 --> 00:22:20.559 sitting at home, probably high, just watching 00:22:20.559 --> 00:22:23.619 Channel 4 in the afternoon. He sees a woman on 00:22:23.619 --> 00:22:27.440 the game show Deal or No. deal. And she explains 00:22:27.440 --> 00:22:31.119 that she needs 15 ,000 pounds to pay for IVF 00:22:31.119 --> 00:22:32.960 treatment because she and her partner are desperate 00:22:32.960 --> 00:22:35.019 for a baby and can't afford it. He doesn't know 00:22:35.019 --> 00:22:37.299 her from Adam. Total stranger. He just picks 00:22:37.299 --> 00:22:39.460 up the phone and calls the TV station. And says 00:22:39.460 --> 00:22:41.859 what? Hi, I'm George Michael. Here's a check. 00:22:42.059 --> 00:22:45.119 He contacted the producers and said, I want to 00:22:45.119 --> 00:22:47.599 pay for her treatment, the full amount, but you 00:22:47.599 --> 00:22:49.819 cannot tell her it's from me. He transferred 00:22:49.819 --> 00:22:51.579 the money the next day. She got the treatment. 00:22:51.740 --> 00:22:54.539 And she had a baby. She had a baby. And she had 00:22:54.539 --> 00:22:56.900 no idea it was George Michael who paid for it 00:22:56.900 --> 00:22:59.440 until a journalist told her after he died. That 00:22:59.440 --> 00:23:02.259 is about control, isn't it? In his own life, 00:23:02.359 --> 00:23:05.619 he felt so out of control. The press, the cops, 00:23:05.779 --> 00:23:08.700 the grief, the fame. But here, he could secretly 00:23:08.700 --> 00:23:11.700 play God in this benevolent way. He could fix 00:23:11.700 --> 00:23:14.299 a life with a single phone call. I think that's 00:23:14.299 --> 00:23:16.920 a great analysis. It was about agency. There's 00:23:16.920 --> 00:23:18.859 another story about a barmaid. He was sitting 00:23:18.859 --> 00:23:21.339 in a cafe, overheard a woman crying to her friend 00:23:21.339 --> 00:23:23.460 about her crippling student debt. She was a student 00:23:23.460 --> 00:23:26.140 nurse. When he left, he asked the manager to 00:23:26.140 --> 00:23:28.819 give her a check for 5 ,000 pounds. Just, here, 00:23:28.940 --> 00:23:31.380 fix it, and walked away. And he was volunteering, 00:23:31.539 --> 00:23:34.119 actually physically showing up to places. For 00:23:34.119 --> 00:23:36.859 years, yeah. He volunteered at a homeless shelter. 00:23:36.960 --> 00:23:39.240 He would just show up, put on an apron, and start 00:23:39.240 --> 00:23:41.880 cleaning or serving food. And he asked the other 00:23:41.880 --> 00:23:44.039 volunteers, please, please don't tell the press 00:23:44.039 --> 00:23:46.920 I'm here. And they didn't. It's amazing that 00:23:46.920 --> 00:23:49.299 in London, with the tabloids being what they 00:23:49.299 --> 00:23:52.119 are, that secret actually held for years. It 00:23:52.119 --> 00:23:54.529 is. And then there are the royalties. This is 00:23:54.529 --> 00:23:56.950 the big money. The really big money. He gave 00:23:56.950 --> 00:23:59.529 all the royalties from Jesus to a Child to the 00:23:59.529 --> 00:24:02.690 charity Childline. The founder, Dame Esther Ranson, 00:24:02.910 --> 00:24:05.029 later said he gave them millions over the years 00:24:05.029 --> 00:24:07.950 and insisted it stay anonymous. Wow. The proceeds 00:24:07.950 --> 00:24:10.130 from his duet with Elton John, Don't Let the 00:24:10.130 --> 00:24:12.829 Sun Go Down on Me, were split among a number 00:24:12.829 --> 00:24:15.309 of charities, including the London Lighthouse, 00:24:15.569 --> 00:24:18.049 which was an AIDS hospice, and the Rainbow Trust 00:24:18.049 --> 00:24:20.990 for Terminally Ill Children. He was basically 00:24:20.990 --> 00:24:23.410 a one -man welfare state for certain causes. 00:24:23.559 --> 00:24:26.599 he cared about. It really complicates that hedonist 00:24:26.599 --> 00:24:29.700 narrative. The papers painted him as this selfish, 00:24:29.819 --> 00:24:31.980 drug -addled guy crashing his car into shops. 00:24:32.319 --> 00:24:35.960 But quietly, he was funding IVF treatments and 00:24:35.960 --> 00:24:38.440 keeping children's charities afloat. It poses 00:24:38.440 --> 00:24:42.180 the question, who was the real George? The guy 00:24:42.180 --> 00:24:44.380 passed out in the Range Rover or the guy secretly 00:24:44.380 --> 00:24:47.359 paying a stranger's medical bills? The answer, 00:24:47.420 --> 00:24:50.019 obviously, is that he was both. We have to address 00:24:50.019 --> 00:24:53.420 the decline, though. Because the 2000s and 2010s 00:24:53.420 --> 00:24:55.799 were not kind to him. The music really slowed 00:24:55.799 --> 00:24:58.420 down and the mug shots started to pile up. It 00:24:58.420 --> 00:25:01.240 was a pretty clear spiral. He was very open about 00:25:01.240 --> 00:25:03.339 his cannabis use. He admitted at one point to 00:25:03.339 --> 00:25:06.359 smoking up to 25 spliffs a day. But it was clearly 00:25:06.359 --> 00:25:09.119 a form of self -medication. For what? For the 00:25:09.119 --> 00:25:11.559 grief, for the pressure, for chronic insomnia. 00:25:11.559 --> 00:25:13.980 He was mixing sleeping pills with weed and other 00:25:13.980 --> 00:25:16.359 substances, which is just a recipe for disaster. 00:25:16.680 --> 00:25:19.039 And that led directly to the Snappy Snaps incident. 00:25:19.319 --> 00:25:21.740 July 2010, he's driving home from the London 00:25:21.740 --> 00:25:24.579 Gay Pride Parade. He's high. And he crashes his 00:25:24.579 --> 00:25:26.839 Range Rover directly into the front of a Snappy 00:25:26.839 --> 00:25:29.779 Snaps photo. developing shop in Hampstead. There's 00:25:29.779 --> 00:25:32.759 a dark, dark irony there. A man who was hounded 00:25:32.759 --> 00:25:35.700 by photographers his entire life crashes his 00:25:35.700 --> 00:25:37.960 car into a photo developing shop. And to make 00:25:37.960 --> 00:25:39.960 it even more surreal, someone later spray painted 00:25:39.960 --> 00:25:42.539 wham on the wall where he hit it. British humor 00:25:42.539 --> 00:25:45.039 is ruthless. It is. But he went to prison for 00:25:45.039 --> 00:25:47.359 that. He served four weeks at High Point Prison. 00:25:47.559 --> 00:25:49.839 He later said it was horrific, but he also said 00:25:49.839 --> 00:25:52.180 he deserved it. He knew he was a danger on the 00:25:52.180 --> 00:25:55.220 road. And then the health scares start. The pneumonia 00:25:55.220 --> 00:25:59.200 in 2011 was terrifying. He nearly died. He was 00:25:59.200 --> 00:26:03.000 on tour in Vienna and he just collapsed. He fell 00:26:03.000 --> 00:26:06.799 into a coma. His lungs completely stopped functioning. 00:26:06.960 --> 00:26:09.240 They had to perform a tracheotomy just to keep 00:26:09.240 --> 00:26:11.680 him breathing. And he was unconscious for weeks. 00:26:11.799 --> 00:26:15.900 For weeks. When he finally woke up. He had foreign 00:26:15.900 --> 00:26:18.480 accent syndrome. Wait, what? It's a real thing. 00:26:18.539 --> 00:26:21.039 It's a very rare neurological condition that 00:26:21.039 --> 00:26:23.259 can be triggered by brain injury or severe trauma. 00:26:23.740 --> 00:26:25.980 For a few days after he woke up, he spoke with 00:26:25.980 --> 00:26:28.220 a West Country accent. Like a farmer from Bristol. 00:26:28.480 --> 00:26:30.960 Exactly. He said he was terrified it was permanent. 00:26:31.200 --> 00:26:33.299 Thankfully, it faded, but it just shows you how 00:26:33.299 --> 00:26:35.240 much trauma his body and brain had been through. 00:26:35.380 --> 00:26:38.440 And then, as if that wasn't enough, there was 00:26:38.440 --> 00:26:41.039 the car crash on the M1 motorway where he fell 00:26:41.039 --> 00:26:44.059 out of the vehicle. That was in 2013. He was 00:26:44.059 --> 00:26:46.619 a passenger in a car going about 70 miles per 00:26:46.619 --> 00:26:49.000 hour. He apparently tried to close the door because 00:26:49.000 --> 00:26:51.240 it wasn't shut properly and he just fell out. 00:26:51.339 --> 00:26:53.579 Onto the motorway. Onto the motorway. He suffered 00:26:53.579 --> 00:26:55.799 another significant head injury. It was just 00:26:55.799 --> 00:26:58.319 one calamity after another. It really felt like 00:26:58.319 --> 00:27:00.700 he was fading away in those last few years. And 00:27:00.700 --> 00:27:05.059 then Christmas Day 2016. The final poetic tragic 00:27:05.059 --> 00:27:08.000 irony. The man who wrote the most famous Christmas 00:27:08.000 --> 00:27:10.700 song of the modern era dies on Christmas Day. 00:27:11.240 --> 00:27:14.079 His partner at the time, Fadi Fawaz, found him 00:27:14.079 --> 00:27:17.680 in bed. The cause of death was dilated cardiomyopathy 00:27:17.680 --> 00:27:20.240 with myocarditis and a fatty liver. Basically 00:27:20.240 --> 00:27:22.640 heart failure. He was 53 years old. It was a 00:27:22.640 --> 00:27:24.920 shock to the world, but looking at the medical 00:27:24.920 --> 00:27:27.359 history we just discussed, maybe it wasn't a 00:27:27.359 --> 00:27:29.660 complete surprise. His body just gave out the 00:27:29.660 --> 00:27:31.960 grief, the constant stress, the substance abuse, 00:27:32.160 --> 00:27:33.980 the pneumonia, the multiple head injuries. It 00:27:33.980 --> 00:27:36.440 was all just too much. But even in death, he 00:27:36.440 --> 00:27:40.000 managed one last incredible chart feat. Last 00:27:40.000 --> 00:27:42.839 Christmas. The song that was famously stuck at 00:27:42.839 --> 00:27:45.480 number two in the UK in 1984 because it was blocked 00:27:45.480 --> 00:27:47.740 by his own song, Band -Aid's Do They Know It's 00:27:47.740 --> 00:27:50.740 Christmas. Right. It finally hit number one in 00:27:50.740 --> 00:27:55.200 the UK in January of 2021. 36 years after it 00:27:55.200 --> 00:27:58.160 was released, the fans campaigned for it. It 00:27:58.160 --> 00:28:00.619 felt like a final thank you from the country. 00:28:00.859 --> 00:28:02.900 So we've covered the tragedy, the comedy, the 00:28:02.900 --> 00:28:05.619 lawsuits, the secrets. We step all the way back. 00:28:05.900 --> 00:28:09.000 What is the legacy here? Is it the music or is 00:28:09.000 --> 00:28:11.099 it the complicated life? I think you have to 00:28:11.099 --> 00:28:14.039 start with the voice. We get so caught up in 00:28:14.039 --> 00:28:16.619 all the drama that we sometimes forget. George 00:28:16.619 --> 00:28:20.019 Michael was a technician. He was a vocal virtuoso. 00:28:20.180 --> 00:28:22.259 The Freddie Mercury tribute concert is the ultimate 00:28:22.259 --> 00:28:25.619 proof of that. Oh, absolutely. It's 1992, Wembley 00:28:25.619 --> 00:28:28.519 Stadium. Everyone is there. Bowie, Elton John, 00:28:28.799 --> 00:28:31.099 Axl Rose. And they're all struggling to sing 00:28:31.099 --> 00:28:33.200 Freddie songs because Freddie's range and power 00:28:33.200 --> 00:28:37.019 were just... freakish. Then George walks out 00:28:37.019 --> 00:28:39.160 to sing Somebody to Love. And he doesn't just 00:28:39.160 --> 00:28:41.920 sing it. He absolutely devours it. He inhabits 00:28:41.920 --> 00:28:43.740 it. There's that moment where he hits the big 00:28:43.740 --> 00:28:46.359 high note and the entire stadium just erupts. 00:28:46.500 --> 00:28:48.140 You can see David Bowie backstage. He's having 00:28:48.140 --> 00:28:49.440 a cigarette and he's looking at a monitor and 00:28:49.440 --> 00:28:51.819 he just smiles like, yep, he's got it. Brian 00:28:51.819 --> 00:28:54.200 May from Queen said George was the only one who 00:28:54.200 --> 00:28:56.559 could truly handle the vocal load that day. That 00:28:56.559 --> 00:28:59.720 performance is his musical epitaph. It proved 00:28:59.720 --> 00:29:02.079 to everyone, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that 00:29:02.079 --> 00:29:05.289 he wasn't just a pop star. He was a world -class 00:29:05.289 --> 00:29:08.609 soul singer. And what about socially? His cultural 00:29:08.609 --> 00:29:11.309 impact? He shifted the window of what was possible. 00:29:11.549 --> 00:29:13.650 He proved you could fight the industry and survive 00:29:13.650 --> 00:29:16.170 even if you lose the battle. He proved you could 00:29:16.170 --> 00:29:18.730 be an unapologetic gay sex symbol on a global 00:29:18.730 --> 00:29:21.089 scale. And he proved you could be incredibly 00:29:21.089 --> 00:29:23.960 generous without needing praise for it. He left 00:29:23.960 --> 00:29:26.599 a blueprint for the modern pop star how to be 00:29:26.599 --> 00:29:29.819 messy and honest and complicated and brilliant 00:29:29.819 --> 00:29:32.759 all at the same time. It's the full journey from 00:29:32.759 --> 00:29:34.960 the busker singing Queen deep cuts in the tube 00:29:34.960 --> 00:29:38.400 to the legend replacing Queen on stage at Wembley. 00:29:38.400 --> 00:29:41.099 And doing it all on his own terms, even if those 00:29:41.099 --> 00:29:43.880 terms were at times incredibly self -destructive. 00:29:44.039 --> 00:29:46.660 I think that's where we have to leave it. George 00:29:46.660 --> 00:29:48.519 Michael spent the first half of his life building 00:29:48.519 --> 00:29:50.940 a mask and the second half tearing it off piece 00:29:50.940 --> 00:29:53.660 by piece in front of all of us. And in a world 00:29:53.660 --> 00:29:55.920 where every celebrity Instagram feed is perfectly 00:29:55.920 --> 00:29:59.119 curated, filtered, and PR approved, George's 00:29:59.119 --> 00:30:02.339 messy, honest, unsanitized life feels incredibly 00:30:02.339 --> 00:30:05.460 refreshing. He showed us that you can be a hero 00:30:05.460 --> 00:30:07.799 in a disaster, sometimes in the same afternoon. 00:30:08.579 --> 00:30:11.059 And maybe the true measure of a legacy isn't 00:30:11.059 --> 00:30:13.700 the records you sold or the stadiums you filled, 00:30:13.759 --> 00:30:16.599 but the secrets you kept. the quiet anonymous 00:30:16.599 --> 00:30:19.500 acts of kindness that no one knew about until 00:30:19.500 --> 00:30:21.420 you were gone. Couldn't have said it better myself.