On Christmas Day, 2016,
we heard with shock
and disbelief...
...that our dear friend,
George Michael,
had passed away.
Only days before,
he was putting
the finishing touches
to the film you're about to see.
This is George's film, Freedom,
and it's his final work.
Looking for some education
Make my way into the night
All that bullshit
Conversation
Baby, can't you read
The signs
I won't bore you
With the details, baby
I don't even wanna waste
Your time
Let's just say that maybe
You could help me
Ease my mind
I ain't Mr. Right
But if you're looking for
Fast love
If that's love
In your eyes
It's more than enough
Had some bad love
So, fast love is all that
I've got
On my mind
[POP MUSIC PLAYING]
I can give you
All the loving
That your heart
I can give you
All the loving
That your heart
I can give you
All the loving
That your heart
Desires
NARRATOR:
In 1988, George Michael became
the biggest selling artist
in the world.
This is the story
of just how fame and tragedy
intervened to change
his life forever.
GEORGE MICHAEL:
I was massively unhappy
and lonely.
I remember standing there
with a tear
in my eye, thinking,
"I really don't know
if I'll ever do this again."
And it changed everything
from that day to this.
I was single,
I hadn't come out.
If I could have
the self-awareness
and the strength to walk away,
I could change my life.
I felt that stepping back
would save me
from somehow screwing up
my career.
MICHAEL: Uh...
Yeah, waiting please.
MAN: We got them.
WOMAN 1: I first became aware
of George Michael's music
when I was hardly like...
I was definitely a little girl.
WOMAN 2:
I think his music was really...
It's just there in your psyche.
I just think it's not even
taken for granted.
It's just there in the ether.
There ain't no point
In moving on
'Till you've got somewhere
To go
And the road that I have
Walked upon
Well, it filled my pockets
And emptied out my soul
WOMAN 2:
He's got a voice like an angel.
There are certain songs
that you could ask George
just to sing,
and it would make people cry,
just the resonance
of his voice.
And some of them
Are about you
MAN 1: It comes from someone
who has felt pain,
and it comes from someone
who has a deep talent.
Now I know there's no way
I can right those wrongs
Believe me I would not lie
MAN 2: George is
in the category
of many of us
who had been blessed
with the gift of music.
But you once said
There's a way back
For every man
So, here I am
WOMAN: There's no voice
like his on the radio.
Oh, don't people change?
Here I am
Is it too late
To try again?
Here I am
I've genuinely believed that
there's something very odd
about people in my position.
But the central belief that
my musical journey
would be of my own making
has been the thing
that's informed
almost every decision
I've ever made in terms
of my career.
I have a musical ability
which was...
powered as a young,
as a teenager, it was powered by
this desperate ambition
to be famous and to be loved
and respected, whatever.
And all I wanted at that time
was success.
I'm sorry
If I smoked your plan
MICHAEL: I had no master plan,
I didn't know if I was gonna be
a singer or anything.
But, at school, I met Andrew,
and we formed this Ska band
called The Executive,
and we were terrible basically.
But Andrew and I had
already developed a knack
for writing these catchy
little songs,
and we got together
a couple of tracks.
One was called
"Careless Whisper"
and one was called "Wham Rap!"
You got soul on the dole?
You're gonna have a good time
Down on the line
The '80s was probably one of the
most depressing,
sort of, demoralizing times
that we've ever had
for young people
in British history,
because the recession,
because of everything,
because of mass unemployment.
So, I think music, then,
was probably really,
really important.
In terrible depression,
you have the people that
come out and say,
"This is terrible.
This is terrible depression."
This town
Town
Is comin' like a ghost town
And then you have
the escapists...
things that go, "Let's party."
Young g*ns having some fun
Crazy ladies keep 'em
On the run
Wise guys realize
There's danger
In emotional ties
See me, single and free
No tears, no fears,
What I want to be
One, two,
Take a look at you
Death by matrimony
The day
after First of the Pops,
I was just convinced that
everyone would recognize me.
You know, I was walking
down the street like...
"Watch TV last night?"
And I think it took about
three days
before someone came up
and asked me for my autograph,
and I was absolutely shattered
that it took that long.
A married man
You're out of your head
Sleepless nights
On an H.P. bed
A daddy by the time
You're 21
If you're happy with a nappy
Then you're in for fun
RICKY GERVAIS:
It wasn't all sugary.
He was singing about
being on the dole
and having kids.
And, you know,
there was a bit
of social commentary there,
and he was embracing this
newfangled thing called rap,
you know, dressed like someone
from West Side Story.
We should have known then.
Then, "Club Tropicana"
taught us,
"Don't worry, you can sun tan."
He predicted global warming
way before its time.
Club Tropicana
Drinks are free
I mean, I can't get the little
white shorts out of my head.
Call me good
Call me bad
Call me anything
You want...
I'll be very honest.
I was a Culture Club fan.
And we used to throw eggs
at the Wham! fans.
They were massive, weren't they?
George Michael,
and it was like...
They were just
f*cking everywhere,
weren't they?
Baby, I'm your man
Anyone of my generation,
you really can't remember
the first time
you heard about George Michael
if you grew up in the UK
because he's just
part of the fabric of it.
So, there is a time of one
which was like a lot of fun.
I was going to club
like ... etcetera.
And we'd have a lot of fun
and we loved it.
It was truly representing
the time, you know?
Oh yeah
I'm sure I could,
me older brother...
I'm sure he had a bit
of a Wham! moment,
you know what I mean?
Somebody told me
Boy, everything she wants
Is everything she sees
GERVAIS: And I already felt
I was too old to like them.
I felt a bit ashamed that
I was liking this teen band,
but they were great.
They had something else.
They had a lot more.
And now you tell me that
You're having my baby
I'll tell you that I'm happy
If you want me to
But one step further...
MICHAEL: Wham! itself
was an absolute joy.
It was as joyous as it sounded.
They say youth is wasted
on the young.
My God,
what a wonderful joyride
for two 18-year-olds.
Wake me up before you go-go
MICHAEL: There was a humor
about Wham! that no one ever
gave us credit for.
We were so taking the piss
out of ourselves half the time.
How can the country be in love
with these two idiots?
I knew how to make these
records and how to make them
jump out of the radio.
And the idea that just
because I was wearing
ridiculous shorts
and curtain rings in my ears
would actually stop people
from noticing that.
When I look back,
I still think it's kind
of stunning.
I mean, everything happened
kind of incrementally for us.
But there was
never a point where I thought,
"My God, I'm more famous than
I expected to be,"
because I was so busy
thinking about trying
to get to the next level.
But, I always believed,
deep down,
that once I had my foot
in the door, no one
was gonna get me out.
Yeah, yeah
I'm like a maniac
At the end of the day
I'm like a doggie
Barking at your door...
It's so hard to remember
the day of the final,
because it went so perfectly.
It was like a dream, really.
I know that there was this
overwhelming feeling
of pride,
and also a horrible awareness
that meant
a kind of end for Andrew and I.
But on that final day,
I remember us
hugging each other
and knowing that there
was something incredibly sad
going on
at the same time that
we were celebrating, you know.
By the end of it,
I had no doubt that I could
become an international
solo success.
And as though there's always
been this red line,
I see it like a red line
which goes through everything.
Like a staircase
to whatever you're
about to do next.
And I could feel that
at the final concert.
I already had one foot
in my solo career.
Okay.
CROWD: [CHANTING]
We want more! We want more!
That's enough of that.
I'm not ever going to be
a fan of a boy band, right?
It's not going to happen.
When he went solo,
the whole thing went up
ten notches.
Time can never mend
The careless whispers
Of a good friend
I think he was the first one
that was definitely
an obvious teen band
to then go on to be
a serious singer, songwriter
and take over the world.
There's things that you guess
And things that you know
GERVAIS: It's still very rare
for an act like that to go
to America.
The '80s just spawned
this handful
of massive celebrities
that were
constantly battling the charts.
That's all I wanted
Something special,
Something sacred
In your eyes
For just one moment...
MICHAEL: There was really,
Prince, Madonna, Jackson,
and myself.
And I just didn't feel
who I was,
was bright enough,
or kind of vivid enough
to compete, because they
were different people.
They seemed to be
much more larger than life.
If I was looking for happiness,
this was the wrong road.
But I don't think there's
any way I could have
controlled my ego enough
to have stopped me
exploring the possibility
of being
the biggest selling artist
in the world.
So, I went with full gusto
into creating a new character.
You know, one that I thought
would be
resilient enough
to stand up there next
to Madonna and Jackson
and Prince.
Ladies and gentlemen,
George Michael.
MICHAEL: And I guess I did that
pretty effectively,
alongside what was
a very, very commercial record.
Well, I guess
It would be nice
If I could touch your body
I know not everybody
Has got a body like you
The attitude, he was creating,
like, a personage
as we call it, you know.
He was very charismatic.
Every video
was a very strong impact.
Oh, but I need some time off
From that...
GAULTIER: He is, like,
coming in jeans, you know,
and like tight and sexy.
And like a rock image and moving
with the hips like that.
You know, a little
like Wham! before, you know.
A little like that,
but more, like, sexy.
Check this out then,
modern day Elvis.
Faith, I gotta have...
I liked the spirit of "Faith",
because you do have to have it.
I remember his "Baby, ow!"
Baby
Yeah, I remember that.
MICHAEL: I didn't realize
that people would look
at the "Faith" image
and go, "f*ck, that's cool."
I'm givin' you the blues
I was really, really
overwhelmed by the size
of things, I suppose.
I lived in f*cking sunglasses.
I couldn't make eye contact
with people. It was bizarre.
And another who tied me
Down to loverboy rules
I still suffered terribly
with insecurity about my looks.
It goes back
to a family background
where conceit of any kind
was considered an absolute sin.
So, no one
was ever praised about
the way they looked.
Well, I need someone
To hold me
But I'll wait
For somethin' more
Yes, I gotta have faith
"Faith" was number one
in Britain for one week.
But in America,
number one for 12 weeks.
And then on top of that,
he had four number one singles,
a number two single
and a number five single.
In 1988, he was the biggest
pop star in the world.
Because I gotta have faith
Faith, faith
I gotta have faith,
Faith, faith
All I remember is "Faith"
being played 50 times a day
on MTV.
You had to be in heavy
rotation on whatever
pop station you were on.
Duran Duran, David Bowie,
Eurythmics was played
on MTV, like, constantly,
played on all
the video stations.
You really didn't hear
any of those artists,
but you heard George Michael,
on some of the urban stations,
right after Luther Vandross.
His music broke through
to everybody.
MICHAEL: In America,
radio play for me
was substantial
on a lot of R&B stations.
He uniquely achieved recognition
on the R&B soul charts
that very few white performers
ever got.
He obviously had studied
American soul music,
and felt a connection
and a kindred spirit.
We were introduced
to each other,
so, we're going back now
to about '86 maybe.
And it was his thought
that he wanted to
do a duet
with one of my artists.
Like a warrior that fights
And wins the battle
MICHAEL:
When I was about six or seven,
I had a wind-up gramophone
that my mum gave me.
I had two Supreme singles,
one wasStop! In the Name
of Love and one
wasBaby Love.
And I hadDelilah by Tom Jones,
which is funny,
because I kind of ended up
somewhere between
the Supremes and Tom Jones
when you think about it.
I know you did
Kept my faith
When the river was deep
I didn't falter
When the mountain was high
I still believed
When the valley was low
It didn't stop me
It didn't stop me
No
I knew you were waiting
Some placeSomewhere
SomehowFor me
MICHAEL:
It was great that I had my
own voice
and I had worked
with Aretha Franklin,
and everything
had gone so well.
From an artistic point of view,
it just got better and better.
George Michael's voice, to me,
was always very soulful,
and it was very warm,
and sultry and urgent.
He has soul. Period.
Soul is an expression
of the soul, of the heart.
MICHAEL:
It was good to be number one
in the black charts.
It was an amazing
thing to see, obviously.
England has a great love
affair with
American black music and R&B
and a great tradition of
our own interpretation
of soul music and that thing,
but he's...
He's kind of up there,
at the pinnacle of it.
But remember this
Every other kiss
That you ever give
Long as we both live
When you need the hand
Of another man
One you really can
Surrender with
I will wait for you
Like I always do
There's something there
That can't compare
With any other
MICHAEL: Making that album,
I'm sure I was incredibly
proud of it,
but I don't think I ever
imagined it would be
bigger than Wham!.
RODGERS:
I imagine that the pressure
on someone like George
must have been insane,
because he was doing stuff
that was just
so phenomenal.
After you have
that kind of success,
like, what do you
go home at night and go,
"Now, what do I do?"
MICHAEL:
I do remember it being
shocking to me
that I could become more
successful than I had
been with Wham!
I suppose the whole
exercise was an effort to
raise my profile
to kind of define what
my solo image
was going to be.
But I really had no idea
how effective
it was going to be,
especially in America.
And I had no idea what
it was like to be that big
in America.
WOMAN: George is really,
really private
and I think, when he was young,
with all that fame,
I just think it came too fast,
and it wasn't actually
what he was expecting.
I was probably
most out of control,
in any kind of sense of that,
during the whole "Faith" thing.
Being caught in the eye
of this storm
is catastrophic.
It's just 24/7 full time
in your face.
I mean, the wind burn
is terrible.
MICHAEL: I can't really explain
how overwhelming
that kind of hysteria can be
if there's only one person
to absorb it.
When I was with Andrew,
it was so easy to keep
one foot in my old life,
the life that I had known
with him before
we'd been famous.
It was so easy
to keep each other grounded,
to take the piss out
of each other,
and be able to look
at each other
and talk about the madness
that was going on around us.
But when you can't do that,
suddenly, it is scary.
I don't know many 24-year-olds
who would not have,
at least subconsciously,
found that frightening enough
to self-destruct.
PAUL RUSSELL:
Now the problem is,
the record came out
everywhere in the world,
pretty much at the same time.
So, everybody wanted
a piece of George
to help promote the album.
Enormous pressure.
Huge, huge pressure.
MICHAEL:
Ten months of that was enough
to really push me to the edge.
And I was terribly lonely,
you know?
Me and my red line
were very lonely.
And the only good part
of my day was playing live.
When I sang
"Careless Whisper"...
I can't remember which
was the last gig
on the American tour,
which would have been
the end of the whole tour.
I think it was Pensacola.
But when I sang
"Careless Whisper" that night,
I remember standing there,
with a tear
in my eye, thinking,
"I really don't know
if I'll ever do this again."
Time can never mend
The careless whispers
Of a good friend
To the heart and mind
Ignorance is kind
There's no comfort
In the truth
Pain is all
I was intelligent enough
to know I should not be trying
to catch up with
Michael Jackson or Madonna
or whatever,
which was absolutely what
I was intent on doing.
I felt that tired and exhausted
at being the center
of that much attention.
I suppose the way my lack
of mental balance showed itself
was that I actually
really began
to hide away when I got home.
And I did almost nothing
for a year,
but try and reestablish
some idea of the real life.
Music was
my very controlling lover.
I had millions of lovers
that I never saw
other than
in the sense of live work.
But I still deserved one.
Just one of them for me.
And I knew that
the only way I was gonna find
that one person,
that lover,
was to jump off
of the merry-go-round
just for long enough
to catch my breath,
and letting my heart rule
my head, rather than,
you know, the red line.
The red line that goes
up, up, up, up, up, up.
Sometimes you feel like he's...
He's got, like, a layer or two
of skin missing.
Like he just,
like he bruises easier,
and because of that,
he can write
these amazing songs.
I never wanted
to be someone else.
I wanted to be a star,
and I wanted people to love me
and recognize me in the street.
As a child,
that's what I wanted,
but I never really wanted
to be someone else.
I believe I am a writer
much more than I am
anything else.
And I want to leave songs.
I believe I can leave songs
that will be, will mean
something to other generations.
This award is for
favorite soul and R&B album.
And the winner is,
George Michael.
George Michael.
I've been a lover of soul music
since I was a kid.
And I'd just like to thank
everybody who has helped me
this year.
I'd like to thank Black Radio,
I'd like to thank everyone
at CBS Records,
in the R&B department.
And I'd like to thank everyone
who voted for me.
I can't believe it.
Thank you very much.
I won these two awards
that were traditionally
received by black artists.
And I think there
was a perception
that it had gone too far.
The black male artist
works very hard to get his due,
and Bobby Brown
had across the board play.
And he could compete
in the same category
as George Michael competes in.
That would be
a whole another thing.
I didn't ask to be given
those awards,
I'm not going to pretend
I wasn't happy to get them.
But I do understand
what the argument that says,
"This guy is just
an acceptable version
of black music
for White America."
Suddenly, crossover
was not hip.
And I see that point.
I totally saw the point
at the time.
I just felt it was sad,
you know,
that white and black people
recording together,
suddenly was, kind of,
dancing with the enemy.
You mean George is white?
Are you serious?
Oh, my God!
And he is blind, right?
I think it had
a huge effect on George,
because he'd won
in this category,
he'd achieved something
that was beyond
his wildest dreams,
only to have the carpet pulled
from under his feet.
I don't think there's
any attempt to, kind of,
steal black heritage
in what I'm doing.
All I think that's happening is
I'm trying to make good music.
Music is not based on
the color of one's skin,
or, you know, this is soul music
or this is pop.
To me, those things are like,
it's kind of old.
You know what I mean?
MICHAEL: I suddenly couldn't
get anywhere near radio,
Black Radio.
And that
was the reason, really,
Listen Without Prejudice
was called
Listen Without Prejudice.
It was me saying,
"Here's an album that has bits
of gospel, you know,
bits of R&B,
some very white stuff,"
and it was just trying to say,
"Let me be
both of these things
"without having to be
one or the other."
LIAM GALLAGHER:
I don't know if I
bought it, stole it,
or it just, sort of like,
just got delivered.
You know, I mean, sometimes you
get albums like that, don't you?
You know what I mean?
They're that great,
they just end up in your house.
ELTON JOHN:
What can I say about
the sound of it?
It's very ethereal.
It has a mystery about it.
George, on this album,
got everything that he had
inside his gut,
onto vinyl or CD or cassette.
And thank God he did.
Well, let's have
a party pop song.
[MUSIC PLAYS ON RECORD PLAYER]
It f*cking won.
This song, now, it's just got
such a big opening,
a message, actually, I think.
JOHN: That opening,
it reminds me of John Lennon.
Sliced out
of one of John's solo albums.
These are the days
Of the open hand
They will not be the last
Look around now
These are the days
Of the beggars
And the choosers
When I listen
to George Michael's songs,
I think, not only he's tapped
into his dark side
of whatever's going on
in his life,
but he's tapped into the truth
about who he is and what he is,
and what life is.
And he wasn't afraid to share
that with us.
The rich declare
Themselves poor
And most of us
Are not sure
If we have too much
But we'll take our chances
'Cause God's stopped
Keeping score
When I hear that,
it is right up there,
you know what I mean?
And then you get
into the lyrics.
The ones from the side
is "The rich declare
themselves poor."
I like it, 'cause it's
got a bit of a dig.
You know what I mean?
I mean, that's the way
I take it anyway.
It's like, "You bunch
of f*cking c**ts," you know,
"always f*cking playing
the poverty card."
I like that, 'cause it's got
a bit of Lennon vibe.
He likes to dig people out.
There's no one before
The Beatles that has done
this kind of song.
When there is no hope
To speak of
And the wounded
Skies above
Not only, really,
it's just his writing,
but it's
the vocal performance,
you know?
And it's always just like...
It just always feels so honest.
You just believe, kind of,
every word that he sings
and even ad-libs.
Even him throwing out a line
is better
than most people's verses.
There comes a point where
you have to write something
which you
haven't written before,
and which your interest
in any particular topic
or subject will inspire you,
and that's why, I suppose,
eventually, most lyricists,
do approach wider topics
than sex and love, you know?
These are the days
Of the empty hand
Oh, you hold on
To what you can
And charity is a coat
You wear twice a year
"Charity's a coat you wear
twice a year."
Like, just like...
There's things that
stick out to you
when you're listening to,
kind of,
pop music and whatever else
at that age.
So, maybe we should all be
Praying for time
To-do-do
But even if I'm making whatever,
you know, I mean,
I'd work on his case, you know,
but I am gonna assist you
'cause it's a classic.
It's up there.
I'd say it could have been cut
from the same cloth as Imagine.
It's got, you know,
it's heartfelt,
and the words are amazing
and the tune's great.
That was a bit much, isn't it?
I didn't expect to be
as moved as I am.
Let me tell you a secret
Put it in your heart
And keep it
Something that I want to...
MICHAEL:
It was my time to discover
The Beatles.
And at the time, I was big
into Abbey Road and Revolver,
and you know...
And it's the people that
you're trying to emulate,
sometimes, that can
bring you up.
I made one record to show
how much I loved Lennon,
I made another record
to show how much
I love McCartney.
I didn't even dream
that McCartney would
ever sing it.
And actually, when he sings it,
it sounds like
a Paul McCartney record.
Next week, we're gonna do
some vocals, yeah?
'Cause you're ready for that.Thanks.
Please let me try to
I can heal the pain
That you're feeling inside
It's most surreal moment
of my career, I think,
to have Paul McCartney singing
something that I wrote
as a tribute
to Paul McCartney.
I don't think I would have
had the nerve to ask him
when I wrote it.
Sounds so f*cking cool.
It's cool.
Won't you show me
Your heart now?
I'll be good to you
I can make this thing true
And get
To your heart somehow
Yeah. Go on, love.
Yeah...
Okay.
MICHAEL: You know,
the man forgot to introduce me.
I heard the beginning of
"Baby, You Can Drive
My Car" start.
There's this bit of film of
me going...
So, that's what I did.
I just ran on
just before I was supposed
to sing the chorus.
But you can do something
In between
Baby, you can drive my car
I haven't done this
in a long time.
[MUSIC PLAYING ON RECORD PLAYER]
See how piano-based
the album is?
No more lying friends
Wanting tragic ends
Though they do pretend
They won't go when I go
I mean, he sounds like Stevie.
Love this song.
All those bleeding hearts
I hear so much,
like, exhaustion.
Not exhaustion in him
as an artist,
but exhaustion in him, you know,
as a human in this world
we live in.
I hear a fight.[CHUCKLES]
Sometimes, you know,
like, you'd definitely
hit a pure talent.
Pure talent.
You hear hope.
Brilliant.
"They Won't Go When I Go",
for sure, like, that was...
That was probably
my introduction even
to Stevie Wonder.
The version
"They Won't Go When I Go",
it brings back a lot
of the memories
because it's the thought
that at the end of the day,
we come alone in this world,
and we will,
and we will die alone.
And it's what we do in between
that's going to determine
how and what we'll be remembered
as and what we can think
about in spirit.
So, it was great to hear him
sing the song.
Unclean minds
Mislead the pure
The innocent
Will leave for sure
For them
There is a resting place
People sinning just for fun
They will never see the sun
For they can never show
Their faces
There ain't no room
For the hopeless sinner
Who will take more than he
Will give
He will give
He will give
He ain't hardly gonna give
I'm actually crying.
So, you know,
it takes a massive amount
of bravery
for George to do a song
like that.
When you go into an area,
that, you know is sort of,
like, sacred ground,
you're going to a place
because your heart tells you
to go there.
You have a love of something
and you want to live
in that world.
His father works some days
For 14 hours
And you can bet
He barely makes a dollar
His mother goes
To scrub the floors for many
And you'd best believe
She hardly gets a penny
Living just enough
Just enough for the city
Reason for me doing
so many Stevie Wonder
'cause I've done
in over various sets.
I've done like four or five
Stevie Wonder covers.
And apart from the fact, like,
I consider him to be
an incredible writer.
His voice, the key
that he was writing for
at that time was perfectly
suited to my voice.
His patience's long
But soon he won't have any
To find a job
Is like a haystack needle
'Cause where he lives
They don't use colored people
Living just enough
Just enough
For the city, yeah
One more time
WONDER: Well, George reminds
me of me as a little kid,
you know?
My passion for music.
He and I doing
the "Living For The City",
I remember that that
was a lot of fun.
Oh, no
Chemistry is something
that you can't fake.
It's about how you relate
to each other
and how it connects.
MICHAEL: I'm aware
of the need for persona,
and my actual persona,
I'm not really prepared
to give.
I'm a real homebody.
I'd much rather be
taking my dog for a walk.
Or, you know, be with friends.
I feel like I don't belong
out there.
Being this
professional person,
going around
selling his wares.
He had a much harder
journey than me in a way,
because if you get
fame and accolades and wealth
beyond your wildest dreams
as a teenager,
it usually goes wrong.
But he obviously had
a wiser head on his shoulders
than most.
I think
a lot of young musicians now are
kind of, you know,
sort of, manufactured.
And I think, for him,
he didn't ever want
to be like that.
And part of his
reactionary way was to
break away from all of that.
MICHAEL: I was still
struggling with the idea of
having that much attention.
And I think, like,
recoiled from that
and I felt that stepping back
would save me
from somehow screwing up
my career.
I see, kind of,
hard sell promotion
as prostituting myself.
I can't help it,
even if it's
a complete fallacy.
That's how I see it.
I am of that generation.
He felt he needed to withdraw
from the merry-go-round
that is promoting and albums
and explained
in a very articulate way.
That he just felt
he had to withdraw from that
for the moment,
for his own sanity,
that we would probably get
more albums out of him
if we just allowed him
to back off.
That was quite a b*mb shell,
I suppose,
for us to have to deal with.
The fact that he didn't do
any promotion of it,
it's begs, you know,
it's quite astonishing.
[MUSIC PLAYING ON RECORD]
JOHN: What's coming up now
is one of the great intros.
[b*at-BOXING]
And I was,
not me on piano either,
which is...
I always hated him for that.
I won't let you down
I will not give you up
Gotta have some faith
In the sound
It's the one good thing
That I've got
I won't let you down
So, please
Don't give me up
Because I would really,
Really love to stick around
Oh, yeah
"Freedom! '90"
is, kind of, like this
funk groove masterpiece
that just comes in a like,
track two.
You're striving
to make something
every time you go
in the studio,
half as good
as a record like that.
It's the Mona Lisa.
Heaven knows
I was just a young boy
Didn't know what
I wanted to be
Big change made, he's not there.
He doesn't appear.
Beautiful girls are there.
The top, top, top,
top, top model.
And I guess
It was enough...
MICHAEL: If you're gonna say
to your record company,
"Look, I'm not gonna be
in this video."
I think that's fairly good
consolation prize. Really.
Five absolutely
gorgeous supermodels
that people
still want to look at today.
Rock and roll TV
Rock and roll TV
It changed the whole face
of how videos were done.
The video said everything.
It was genius, and it
was a revolutionary thing.
George had raised the bar
to a whole new level.
ALT:
It felt like a big statement.
It was really well done.
It could have been a disaster.
CRAWFORD: It was
a specific group of women
that George wanted,
that had just been
on the cover of BritishVogue
that was sh*t
by Peter Lindbergh.
It was, like,
"He wants you five.
"And it has to be
all of you five."
Sometimes the clothes
Do not make the man
Now in fashion,
there is no supermodels
like this.
This is gone.
It was like the magic moment
of modeling.
I suppose
that's the lasting memory
of that whole video sh**t
was the cost of the girls
and the fees they were charging
on a daily basis.
That was pretty groundbreaking.
George pitched it to me in L.A.
and his exact words were...
"You're the leader of the g*ng,
and unless you say yes,
the rest of the girls won't."
His people talked to my people.
Yeah, you know
how it went back then.
I was like,
"Well, is Christy doing it?"
Freedom
You've got to give
What you take
CHRISTY TURLINGTON:
My scene where I'm sort of
crawling on the ground
and you just see my eyes.
People think I know, that slow,
so, like, sexy and mysterious
is just really,
I didn't know the words.
LINDA EVANGELISTA:
I prepared
in the trailer with George.
He showed me how to hit
the notes
and it's hard to lip sync.
CRAWFORD: David Fincher
was directing it.
And even though the sh*t
ended up looking
like the steamy bath scene,
there was no water in the tub.
I was freezing cold.
I was covered in glycerin
to make my skin shiny.
And I, kind of, thought,
"I hope Fincher knows
what he's doing."
TURLINGTON:
I remember David and George
working closely together.
He was, you know, right there,
looking through the lens
at time.
Everything suited each girl.
So, I think it was just strong
and we were all so different.
It's such a fun song.
When you listen to the words
and kind of a statement,
it has much more meaning,
and I feel, like,
that whole time
George Michael
was about him saying,
"Enough, like, you guys
tried to prepackage me
and sell me
"in a way
that wasn't authentic."
...true somehow
All we have to see
Is that I don't belong
To you
And you don't belong
To me, yeah, yeah
Freedom
I won't let you down
Freedom
I will not give you up
You can see the biker jacket,
which is burning like the fire,
so, it's like symbolic.
RONSON: I got the impression
he's saying, like,
that chapter's closed
and I'm done being
public figure pop star.
MICHAEL:
The burning of the jacket,
the exploding guitar,
the exploding jukebox
was me just saying
I'm sick of this.
I really can't cope with it.
Freedom
You got to give
What you take
Not only were we not going
to get him appearing
in promotional videos,
but we weren't going to get
his image on the album sleeve.
We won't get to get his name
on the album sleeve.
Would I have chosen
the album sleeve that
wasn't the beach sh*t
taken from 1940 or whenever
it was? Yeah.
Would I have liked his name
on that?
Yeah, of course I would.
A lot of people are just pimping
themselves out 24/7.
You know what I mean?
There's a mystique
about George Michael.
But today the way
I play the game
Has got to change,
Oh, yeah
Now I'm gonna get
Myself happy
JOHN: Making records, it's fun.
And then you have to talk
about it,
which is not fun.
Yeah, I thought it was bonkers.
But then it all makes sense,
doesn't it?
MICHAEL: When I spoke
to theLos Angeles Times
about stepping back
from promotion,
Frank Sinatra wrote me
an open letter
that just said, you know,
"Get over it.
"Be glad that God gave you
a gift and get out there
and use it."
I don't think he wrote
the letter.
I actually believed
that was the work
of a publicist,
not the work of a genius.
What a wonderful letter.
Here, probably,
the greatest male singer
of all time is saying,
"Embrace your talent,
enjoy the success.
Don't be threatened by it."
MICHAEL: Now, even though
he's the greatest singer
that ever walked the planet,
as far as I'm concerned,
I wasn't taking any advice
from Frank Sinatra.
You can't put a g*n to any
creative person's head and say,
"Create, write, promote,
market, whatever."
You just have to go with it.
That's what we had to do.
I had spent
six or seven years of my life,
working, working, working,
writing, music, music, music.
And then I had this desire
to escape.
The basis for me
going to do the shows in Rio
was I wanted to see Brazil.
And I think I made it
conditional that 30
of my friends
would be flown out to Brazil.
We had our own private island.
Absolutely beautiful.
[INDISTINCT CONVERSATION]
I'm actually wearing today...
Some sweat pants. They're very
tight at the bottoms.
This is because I don't want
to drop raw sewage over the city
of Rio.
So, you want to be free
To live your life
The way you wanna be
Will you give if we cry?
Will we live
Or will we die?
Tainted hearts
Heal with time
sh**t bad love so we can
MICHAEL: In the front
of this 160,000 people,
there was this guy over
on the right hand side
of the stage
that has fixed me
with this look
and he was so cute.
I was so distracted by him.
But I stayed away from that
end of the stage for a while.
Because otherwise, I
thought I was gonna get
really distracted
and forget the words
or something. You know?
Is there still a part of you
That wants to live?
Solitary sister
Is there still a part of you
That wants to give?
The moment I looked at him,
I got the feeling
that told me I was going
to know him very well
and that he was going to be
a part of my life.
Is there still a part of you
That wants to give?
Anselmo was the first time
I think I really loved
someone selflessly.
It was, kind of, immediate.
Everybody, with the exception
of my family,
was introduced to him
very, very quickly
because I felt immediately
that everything had changed.
DAVID AUSTIN:
All our friends knew,
of course.
I remember seeing him
and just thinking
how I just was feeling
so happy for him.
The two of them met
and changed George's life.
It's very hard to be proud
of your own sexuality
when it hasn't brought you
any joy.
Once it is associated
with joy and love,
it's easy to be proud
of who you are.
The first time you
actually believe somebody
loves you,
that's a wonderful moment
in your life,
and it was a wonderful
six months.
What a poser.
He was just
very full of energy,
very loving.
I was happier
than I'd ever been
in my entire life.
AUSTIN:
He didn't care who saw him
with Anselmo.
He'd found something.
He'd found what he was looking
for, you know?
MICHAEL:
By the time I met Anselmo,
I had made the decision
to jump
off the merry-go-round,
and I was already
in the early stages of my
confrontation with Sony.
Recording an album,
and then saying,
"I'm not going to promote it
or I'm not going to market it.
I'm not going to participate,"
that's a serious detriment
to an album.
I think we had
some personality issues
between people in the UK and
people in the American company.
Why wasn't this
"Faith Part Two"?
We wanted
all those nice pop songs.
What do you mean he's not
going to promote?
We're not going to have
his image on it?
It's like saying,
"I'll do a movie but I...
I won't do one premiere.
I won't do any interviews
for the movie."
You know, you say, "Oh, my God."
TRACEY EMIN:
The moment someone says
to a musician or to an artist,
make more of them
or do more of that,
it kills you.
And I think probably for someone
like George, especially,
at certain times in his career,
he must've felt quite trapped.
In England, they made an effort,
and Listen Without Prejudice
outsold Faith.
And lots of places
it outsold Faith,
because I think it
was actually a better album.
But it wasn't about that.
It was about the total and utter
lack of respect
that the minute somebody doesn't
see themselves as a commodity,
that they have the audacity
to think,
"My God, I am actually
creating something
and I must keep myself sane
in order to do that."
The minute somebody does that,
they're over.
We tried very, very hard
to get the American executives
to come over
and listen to why George felt
the way that he did
from George, 'cause there
was no-one better
to put that forward
than George Michael
telling them,
as he had told us.
The reasons how he really
felt deep down.
But they wouldn't come.
MICHAEL:
There were executives that came
to London in 1989
and we played them the record.
I explained to them that
Faith had taken me
to the edge of madness,
that I wanted to be
a long-term player
in this business.
Now, any logical CEO, I think,
would have thought,
"Okay, he's gonna do this.
He'll get it out of his system
and he'll get back on board."
George is very stubborn.
He's incredibly one of the most
stubborn people I've ever met.
But he was right to be stubborn
on this occasion,
and I'm sure the record company
recoiled in horror.
MICHAEL:
It was very much a clash
of cultures, really.
In America,
there was definitely
a door that shut.
But losing everything
Is like the sun going down
On me
Mr. Elton John!
I managed to have a couple
of really big hit records
in the meantime.
There was the track
with Elton,
and, of course,
theRed Hot + Dance album
came out.
Hey, you're just
Too funky for me
I gotta get inside of you
And I'll show you heaven,
If you let me
EVANGELISTA:
It was very difficult
to make that video.
It all fell apart,
not for any
of George's reasons.
It just fell apart,
and he saved it.
Linda, bless her heart,
came back again.
We got a bit drunk.
I won't say any more
about that.
It's your stupid, stupid song.
This would look great on me.
I think George definitely
should wear this.
If that's all right, yeah
So, I realized at that
point that if a number
one around the world
was not going to reinstate
any kind of
relationship with Sony,
then nothing was.
I don't want to pick a fight.
I just wanted to work
with people who wanted
to work with me
and who would have
some respect for the fact
that I was growing up.
It was deeply,
deeply troubling times,
because you could see this,
it's like trying to watch
a train wreck in slow motion.
There is nothing you could
do to stop it.
MICHAEL:
Anselmo and I were in LA when
he was advised
to go for his test.
He hadn't been tested
for a while
and he was absolutely
healthy looking,
more than healthy looking,
when I first met him.
Within a month or two
of meeting him,
he had a flu
that he couldn't get rid of,
and some red marks
that came up on his chest.
And I remember the kind
of terror of...
me understanding
that this was possibly
the beginning of, you know,
an illness.
I remember him
leaving the house and...
To this day, I remember
looking at the sky and saying,
"Don't you dare do this to me."
I mean, I was 20...
27 going on 28.
But at that point in time,
you think,
like, that's a lifetime
to have waited to be loved.
Anselmo had the test
in Brazil.
I went home
to my family for Christmas
and sat at the Christmas table
not knowing whether my partner,
whom the people
sitting around the table
did not know about,
not knowing whether
this man I was in love with
was terminally ill.
And, therefore, not knowing
whether I potentially
was terminally ill.
That Christmas was probably
the darkest,
darkest, most frightening
time in my life.
I remember my publicist
calling me to tell me
that Freddie Mercury had d*ed.
And he d*ed of HIV obviously.
And I remember I was...
I was crying and
I actually just thought...
I mean, bless him,
I was really sad
that Freddie had passed away.
But, of course, I was crying
about something else entirely,
which was the fact that both
my partner and possibly myself
were HIV.
GERVAIS:
It was an incredibly difficult
period for George,
because it was something that
he had to hold close
to his chest.
MICHAEL: I was just
absolutely devastated
to find out that he had
a terminal illness.
I was just devastated.
Even by the time
Freddie's tribute
had been put together,
I was still sworn to secrecy.
I just wanted perfection.
Which is what I always wanted.
So, I went for five days
to rehearse.
Everyone else went
for an afternoon.
I went for five days.
Because it had to be perfect.
[SINGING]
Because I had to take
all those years
of standing in a bedroom,
with I don't think
I had a hairbrush,
but I would stand
and sing to the mirror.
And that child
was going to take
all that knowledge
all that subconscious
easing in
of music from that group
and sing one
of Freddie Mercury's songs
to the world
after his passing
in front of my lover.
In my subconscious view,
this was, very probably
the most important performance
of my life.
Somebody to love
He works hard
EverydayEveryday
I try and I try and I try
But everybody wants
To put me down
They say I'm goin' crazy
They say I got a lot
Of water in my brain
I got no common sense
He's got
Nobody left to believe
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
I was so overwhelmed
by the sadness of singing
the songs of this man
that I absolutely worshipped
as a child,
who had passed away
in the same manner
that my first live-in partner
was going to experience.
It was just overwhelming
to me.
Ooh, somebody
Anybody, find me somebody
To love
Can anybody find me
Someone to love?
I got no feel,
I got no rhythm
I just keep losing
My b*at
You just keeping losing
The b*at
I'm okay, I'm all right
He's all right,
He's all right
I ain't gonna face
No defeat
I just gotta get out
Of this prison cell
Someday I'm gonna be free,
Lord
I'm very proud
of that performance,
but Anselmo was in the crowd
and I went out there knowing
I had to honor Freddie Mercury
and I had to pray for Anselmo.
Wanna hear every single person.
See every single hand.
And this
was the loudest prayer
of my life.
Somebody to love
Somebody to love
Somebody to love
Somebody to love
Somebody to love
Somebody to love
Somebody to love
Somebody to love
I mean, it was the most
incredible crowd
I've ever seen.
Everybody knew
every single word.
And there's a real, kind of,
spine-tingling moment for me
where I handed over the mike
to the audience, and they,
not only sang the note,
but they did the kind of
descending scale
that Freddy had done.
Somebody to
Come on!
Love
Yeah!
Find me somebody
To-ooh love
Ooh
Find me somebody
To-ooh love
Somebody, somebody, somebody
To love
Find me, find me
Find me, find me, find me
Ooh, somebody to love
Find me somebody to love
Find me somebody to love
Anybody, anywhere, anybody
Find me somebody to love,
Love
Ooh
It's not an accident
that the performance
probably most well-known
in my career was sung
to my lover who was dying,
who was the reason I had
the strength to go
to battle with Sony.
I saw it as,
if I'm going to do
nothing but love this man
and care for this man,
if I could do nothing
beneficial as a musician
because I cannot even think
of a note,
maybe I have a chance to do
something truly special
and change the standard
record contract forever.
I didn't think that it would end
up in court, at the time
because I really thought
that sanity will prevail.
Well, I was wrong.
It didn't.
Our relationship broke down
because they said,
"No, you are this kind
of artist.
This is the kind of artist
that we sell.
This is the kind of artist
we know how to sell.
And if you don't want to sell
yourself that way,
and you want to go off
on this journey
and find this other audience,
we're not gonna support you."
The relationship
had completely disintegrated.
George flew out to New York
with his publisher
and basically,
it was at that meeting
that George told
the head people at Sony
that he'd wanted out
of the deal,
wanted a divorce.
What he was basically saying is,
"How can I stay
with a company...
who won't support me in any
way when I feel so strongly?"
We issued a writ
three days later.
MICHAEL: I will never know
if Sony and I
would have ended up in court
had Anselmo not become ill.
I was absolutely terrified
of losing him
and the prospect of watching
him die of AIDS.
I was in LA
and the phone rang,
and I was told that Anselmo's
best friend in Brazil
was on the phone.
And...
...then it all goes blurry
for a long time.
He still, 23 years later,
brings a tear to my eye.
He was... He was my savior.
It's still very hard
for me to explain how
finding a companion
at that stage in my life
changed me.
And such
a beautiful companion,
such an amazing person.
I think, to some degree,
the Sony court case
was a perfectly good place
to put my anger.
I used to go and run
on the treadmill everyday
and play squash
and do everything I could
to get rid of all of this
anger and fear.
But the best place for it
was court number one, really.
PRESSPERSON:
George, come on, George.
MICHAEL: There was the part
of my personality
that could say,
"Okay, f*ck this!
This can't all be bad.
I've got to do something good
with this time in my life
and change the path
of artists' lives."
One of Britain's most successful
pop singers, George Michael,
is today asking a High Court
judge to declare
his recording contract null
and void.
He says the contract
with Sony Music
is too restrictive
and that the company takes
too much of the profits.
MICHAEL: The deal that I
was working from
was based
upon the original deal
which I had signed
with Andrew,
under duress.
And it recorded a demo
of "Careless Whisper",
"Club Tropicana", "Wham Rap".
The head of the record company
of Innervison
turns up with these contracts
and we went to this
greasy spoon cafe.
And he said "Look,
if you don't sign this now,
the deal is going away.
"You won't have finished demos
to take away,
you won't own them."
And we were on our own,
we had nobody with us,
and we signed them.
When you start a career
with a ridiculous contract
where someone is paying you
nothing on 12" records,
one and a half per cent
on the records
that you do sell,
when you start
from that point,
you know from that day on
not to trust the industry.
This was a worldwide,
major artist saying
to a record company
that the basic contract
which record companies used
was invalid.
RUSSELL:
If you really fall out
with the people
who control
your professional life,
you have a right to walk away.
I think that is the right
of every individual.
And the music industry
takes away that right
from every artist it signs.
George is very, very brave.
He's not afraid of anybody.
And he thought
he was being wronged
and he went out
and fought his own corner.
What we couldn't do was stand up
and say, "Yeah, you're right.
"These contracts are sl*very
and they shouldn't be allowed,
Your Honor."
We weren't going to do that!
You would have artist
after artist queuing up
to take their record company
into court.
MICHAEL:
I can't think of one artist
that supported me.
Not one.
I know of a lot of artists
who sat back
and waited for the result.
But that's a different thing.
ANDY STEPHENS:
Artists like George Michael
come along, if you're lucky,
once-in-a-lifetime.
My feelings as the court case
went on were
that we'd lost him.
How could you ever patch
that up?
I'd never let on to George
of the problems
until after
he'd been in the witness box.
And I said,
"It's not going well."
And, you know, you shouldn't
raise your hopes at this stage.
The pop star George Michael
loses his High Court battle
to break away from
his record company, Sony.
In dismissing the claim,
the judge, Mr. Justice Parker,
ruled that the contract
was both reasonable and fair.
The 30-year-old singer
had argued
that the agreement
was stifling
his artistic development
and he threatened never
to record for Sony again
if he lost.
George Michael says
he'll appeal
against the judgment,
which he said condemned him
to "professional sl*very."
Having received this judgment,
I would like to reiterate
the reasons why
I embarked
upon these proceedings.
I have no right to resign.
In fact, there is no such thing
as resignation for an artist
in the music industry.
Effectively, you sign a piece
of paper
at the beginning of your career
and you are expected
to live with that decision,
good or bad, for the rest
of your professional life.
I shall obviously take full
advice from my lawyers.
But the initial view is that
we have very strong grounds
for appeal
and we hope to have the appeal
heard as quickly as possible.
Thank you very much for your
time and for all the support
that I've received since this
action began. Thank you.
JOURNALIST: George,
will you sing for Sony again?
After the court case
was finished and I'd lost
and not just lost,
I lost completely.
I mean, I lost on everything.
Every count.
They then called up and,
you know, kind of said,
"Well, isn't...
Can't we patch things up?"
kind of thing.
But I knew in reality
that was like a formality.
They had to do that.
But ultimately, the whole thing
was a complete waste of time.
And I regret it to this day.
Looking back 25 years on,
my first thought is that
I just think it's sad.
When you win a court case,
you're normally out there
high-fiving
and putting the drinks in.
But I don't think anyone felt,
not on my team anyway,
a sense of euphoria.
Certainly, there
were no winners.
I mean, we won the court case,
but we didn't win anything.
You've actually lost
because you've lost the support
of that artist.
TONY: George said in passing,
"David Frost wants to do
an interview with me."
And I said,
"You've got to do it.
They know you're a man
of principle.
Now, you've got to be a man
of principle
who's totally obsessed."
Well...
What happens now
is that we go to appeal.
I can't see
any other way around it.
I mean, of course,
there is the ultimate option
that an appeal at the House
of Lords,
which would take forever.
It was all bluff.
I mean, they intended to take it
to the Court of Appeal
in the UK.
Never to the House of Lords,
never to the European Court
of Justice.
They can only lose
by going to appeal.
Everybody was watching,
including David Geffen.
No-one was going to let a talent
like that flounder out there
for very long.
So, David Geffen
contacts Sony
and said to them,
"Listen, guys,
he's never, ever going to make
another piece of music
for you ever."
"You might as well let him go."
I flew to New York,
had a very quick
meeting there,
where basically, you know,
we agreed that the contract
would be sold.
I was like in seventh heaven.
TONY: Sony said,
"We want
this transfer fee" and
it would've bought you
a top class footballer.
In fact, it most probably
even bought you Lionel Messi
in those days.
RUSSELL: In the end, he did
whatever he did
with David Geffen and Virgin
and basically
he bought himself
out of the contract.
Was it a good decision
in hindsight of history?
I'm not sure.
George unquestionably
lost the battle but won the w*r.
Because he got the freedom
that he craved for.
'Cause he felt he had
to get away.
Peace to George Michael.
Peace.
MICHAEL:
I think the whole experience
of losing Anselmo,
the period of grief,
roughly two years,
that I didn't write a note
of music...
And then,
the absolute knowledge
that the next album
I was going to write
would be about grief
and recovery.
Older is my greatest moment.
Kindness
In your eyes I guess
You heard me cry
You smiled at me
Like Jesus to a child
I sat at a keyboard,
played a very simple
string part,
added a very,
very gentle guitar part.
And my way of making music
is very strange.
It's very strange.
Generally, I put
my backing tracks together
very simply on keyboards.
In this case, I think,
I've added a little guitar.
But the moment I think
there is something coming,
there is something
important coming,
I shove everybody
out of the room, I go in.
And then I just sing
on repeat, repeat,
repeat, repeat.
I sing, and I sing,
and I sing.
This whole total stream
of consciousness rubbish
that people would laugh
their heads off if they heard
what I was singing.
And then, I sang
"Like Jesus to a Child".
Simple as that.
And I thought, "Oh, my God.
That's him.
That's him and me.
Like Jesus to a child."
Then I was so excited
that I'd finally
been able to put my feelings
about Anselmo into words.
And within a week
of writing it,
I was singing it in front
of the Brandenburg Gate,
playing my first kind
of public tribute
to him there.
Well, I've been loved
So, I know just
What love is
And the lover
That I kissed
Was always by my side...
I guess, "Jesus to a Child"
is just the story of me being
rescued from myself
by someone
with an incredibly good heart.
Oh the lover I still miss
Was Jesus to a child
I just celebrate people
who are able to use their joys
and their pains
to really help people to heal.
MICHAEL:
I think I wrote the best,
most healing piece of music.
It was all systems go
from that point on.
In the absence of security
I made my way
Into the night
Stupid Cupid keeps on
Calling me
And I see lovin'
In his eyes
I miss my baby
For anyone who had a clue
about any kind of symbolism,
I was coming out.
And you know,
"Fast Love" makes me laugh,
because it's all
about cruising
and covering my pain.
Blunting out that pain
with fast love.
Simple as that.
I do believe that we are
Practicing the same religion
There's not one track
on that album
that is not about Anselmo,
about the risk of AIDS,
which was
"Spinning The Wheel".
Watch you spinning
That wheel for me
You've got a thing
About danger
Ain't you getting
What you want from me?
You've got a thing
About strangers
Baby that's what
We used to be
That's what we used to be
You've got a thing
About danger baby
I guess the hungry
Just can't see
One of these days
You're going
To bring some home to me
I believe I
was destined to feel
that particular pain
so that I could do
the ultimate with my music
in terms of healing.
And the number of people
who come up to me and say,
"Oh, you don't know how much
you helped me withOlder
when I lost this person
or when I lost that person."
Give me time
And I'll lead you
Back to...
I remember theUnplugged
really, really vividly.
Apart from the fact
that I felt
something magical happened,
I knew that everything
that came out of my mouth,
was going to be in tune,
I don't know why.
I suppose I wasn't used
to playing in small venues
and just the fact that I
could hear everything I
was doing
because there wasn't
a lot of amplification,
I just lost myself
in singing that night.
She takes the back road
And the lane
Past the school that has
Not changed
In all this time
She thinks of when the boy
Was young
All the battles
She had won
Just to give him life
That man
She loved that man
For all his life
And now we meet
To take him flowers
And only God knows why
I came out to my parents
the day after Anselmo d*ed.
My mother,
bless her, wasn't...
Wasn't...
She wasn't slightly fazed
by the gay thing,
which she probably
worked out years before.
She was just devastated
that I had gone through
a year and a half of terror,
you know, without her knowing.
Therefore, she couldn't
help me in any way.
And I think that was really
really painful for her.
The issue of me being gay
was nothing.
I wrote a letter that flowed
almost as though my hand
was moving itself, you know.
This letter telling them
how much I loved him
and how much joy
there was for me
in my sexuality
and not to worry for me
and not to feel like
I had suffered anything.
Trying to, really trying to
save my mum from any pain
that she thought
she could have saved me from.
"Take care, my love,"
He said
You have been loved
And I'm so glad,
I'm so glad my mom was there.
And I'm so glad, you know,
for the first time ever,
and definitely the only time
ever on film,
I actually said hello
to my mom in the audience.
Hello, Mum.
And it was the last time
she ever saw me play.
I had about six month's period
where things were okay,
and I was recording Older.
Then I found out
that my mother had cancer.
I was so spiritually crushed
after Mum d*ed,
so crushed, and so...
Felt so bloody picked on
by the gods, you know.
For all of my adult life,
she was phenomenal,
absolutely phenomenal.
A terrible, horrible loss.
From the day that I found out
about my partner
to the day that I could say,
I actually felt that I was well
on the mend from my mother,
it was just constant fear.
It was either fear of death
or fear of the next bereavement,
you know?
And I just took it
very, very badly.
Very badly indeed.
I've never felt
that kind of depression.
I felt it was something
different to grief.
It was on top of grief
because I was grieving
for my mother still.
But it was something else.
It was...
I felt like a sportsman
that had had a terrible injury
in the middle
of an incredibly
successful career.
I'm so, so much more aware
of how intrinsic to my entire
being it is, to be able
to create music.
Having lost it for three
or four years of my life,
I really did, I lost the music
at the center of me,
which was like losing God
for me.
It really was.
It was the darkest,
darkest time.
But even when
I've lost control,
even when I've really hit
rock bottom,
I believe that the red line
is still there.
I'd just like to say
very genuinely,
I am really touched by this.
The first half of the '90s
was pretty crap for me,
and 1996 has, kind of,
made it all worthwhile.
Thank you very much.
MAN: I think people genuinely
adore George,
not just the music,
but they feel for him
and his struggles.
I hadn't actually planned
on being internationally
humiliated that day.
NEWSREADER:
Popstar George Michael
is arrested in a Los Angeles
public toilet.
Ladies and gentleman,
welcome, please, George Michael.
[AUDIENCE CHEERING]
MICHAEL:
I have to thank...
this is a great honor for me,
because my mum would
allow me to stay up
only to watch
theParkinson show.
So, I'm very, very privileged
to be here.
And she probably wouldn't have
been quite as thrilled
that I had to take my willy out
to get on here.
[AUDIENCE LAUGHING]
"What were you thinking?
That's what everyone
wants to know.
What were you thinking?"
I responded to something,
and I responded to, you know,
very handsome American cop.
You know, they don't send
Colombo in there to just...
Everyone had this go at him
because he didn't come out
when he was 18.
Loads of people didn't come out
when they were 18.
Especially when they've got
signed at some f*cking giant
record label.
But boy, did he come out later
in a big way.
And yes, I've been bad
Doctor won't you do with me
What you can?
When he came out,
I wanted to go,
"George, you don't need.
We know!
Don't make a song
and dance about it."
And he did. He did a song
about it, didn't he?
Did a whole song and dance
about it.
I never really
Said it before
There is one recurring theme
to my actions,
as a celebrity
or as a person, as an adult.
And that is if I am
pressured into anything,
I react against it.
My reaction to this
was I'm not gonna be like
another one of these people
that's peeking out
from behind the net curtains
a month later, you know?
I think I'm done
With the sofa
I think I'm done
With the hall
I think I'm done
With the kitchen table, baby
Let's go outside
One of my closest friend said
that his mother said
"He's not the first,
he won't be the last
"he's just the biggest."
And I thought I like that.
GERVAIS: He disarms the press,
'cause they think
they've got him.
They say, "Oh, you did this."
And he goes, "Yep."
"And?"
And yes, I've been bad
Doctor, won't you do with me
What you can
And then when they went,
"Ah, you're gay!"
He went, "Yeah.
Sorry, I didn't call you."
You know what I mean?
He didn't call everyone.
MICHAEL:
I think the truth is,
I'm just not afraid
of being laughed at.
GERVAIS: InExtras, George
played George Michael
on Hampstead Heath looking
for fun.
MICHAEL: Ricky came to me
with it written,
and I think I
made a few changes.
I only got 20 minutes, actually,
I'm on my lunch break.
He just nailed it.
He gave us
that sort of decadent,
almost bored rock star...
Lunch break?
Yeah, I'm doing
community service.
Are you still doing that?
Not that one.
No, I'm doing another one now.
I'm picking up litter now.
All right.
What did you do wrong this time?
Fly tipping.
Believe it or not.
All right.
Yeah, I was helping Annie Lennox
out with an old fridge freezer
and she said,
"Shall I call the council?"
I said, "No, don't bother
with that.
"There's a skip
at the end of my street."
So, 2:30 in the morning,
we're tipping it in there
and f*cking police show up.
How did they get called in?
Well, it
was Stewart Copeland's Skip,
and he called Sting and Sting
called the f*cking council
because he's
a f*cking do-gooder.
Now me and Annie
are picking up litter.
It was great.
It was really, really great.
I was really, really knocked out
on how good of an actor he was.
And such a sport.
I think people have
a wrong impression of him
because they only see
what they get in the press
or in the newspapers
or whatever.
But he's hilariously funny.
Why can't I come
to Comic Relief?
Because you're a joke, George.
It's embarrassing.
I can't walk into Comic Relief
with you.
Comic Relief's about helping
people like you.
And I did laugh
at the headlines.
I did laugh at some
of the things that
were said, you know.
When it came to the car thing,
I did something wrong.
When it came
to the Hampstead Heath thing,
f*ck off...
[MUSIC PLAYING ON STEREO]
Yeah?
Love this one, don't you?
Call me good
Call me bad
Call me
If you want to, baby
George and I know
That you say
Come on.
And I know
I made you happy
With wild day that
You'd ever had
Baby
I'm your baby
I love it.
MICHAEL:
James' little excursion
with me in the Volvo
has turned to something
world conquering, you know.
CORDEN: Without that sketch,
I don't think I'd have
a successful show in America
because there was something
so joyful about it.
There was something so brilliant
about being with him
that made us go,
"I wonder if we could do that
with other artists."
MICHAEL: Again, he came to me
with the basis of it,
and I made a few changes,
and I'm sure they would
have made them funnier,
but they weren't sure
how far I was going to go.
Whereas I was prepared
to go as far as it took.
Well, I better get going
because, you know,
I'm gonna have to get back
to work soon.
Come on, then, you.
I'll give you a quickie.
Boy, I'm not that desperate,
matey.
Cheeky bastard.
I'll be
Your sexual freak...
GERVAIS: I think he's
challenged the stereotype
of the gay man as well,
and what was acceptable.
Because, you know,
even when people were out in,
like the 60s, the 70s,
they were a safe, sexless,
gay man.
Whereas George went,
I've got a cock.
And that frightened
some people.
Yeah, literally, I imagine.
You know something about George,
he's really sexy.
You know? Really sexy.
And living with that,
good-looking,
sexy, talented...
You know,
it's tough out there.
He's very hairy, isn't he?
Doing it to me, to me
I know that you're horny
But there's something about
That Bush ain't right...
Right, right, right...
JOHN:
There's so many different
facets to George.
And you can see him growing
as an artist
and moving away
from the original stuff
into a more
beautiful kind of Edith Piaf,
Frank Sinatra territory.
But it's George.
I was the kid
With the drum
Say, don't you remember?
They called me Al
It was Al all the time
Say, don't you remember?
I'm your pal!
Brother, can you spare
A dime?
Buddy, can you spare
A dime?
AUSTIN: George can sing
with Stevie, Aretha or Elton.
And, as Tony Bennett said,
"You know,
everyone took two weeks.
George came in and did it
in a day."
How do you keep
The music playing?
When I feel for her
BENNETT: I just loved him.
He was very friendly.
We got along great.
He just walked in
very prepared
and he was so spontaneous.
We did it in one take.
I couldn't believe
how equipped he was.
May not see...
And I remember saying,
"Boy, this guy is going to be
around a long time."
Forever
I really am not
in the business
of selling myself anymore.
When I do it,
I want to do it properly.
Mostly I just said I respect
making music,
kind of like, I know, like,
How much are we gonna shout
at the end of the day?
It's the art form
that you love,
that you woke up that morning
and had to go to the studio
and record it
because it was like
bursting inside of you.
It's like a conversation
Where no-one stops
To breathe
Is it my imagination?
Or did God already leave
The table?
Such destruction
WONDER:
Music is a funny thing.
You have to remember
the language
that's forever spoken.
And yet, it is that language
that we all understand.
And the satellite says
"Take a look
At all we have"
But the old man says
"You want my family,
For your liberty
I can't do that"
BLIGE:
You're writing songs kind
of to set yourself free.
You're speaking
from your truth.
You're speaking from your life
and four million, five million,
ten million people are like,
"Me too."
That's the payoff.
Whether they be amber,
Green or blue
There's a piece of God
Staring back at you
MICHAEL: Funnily enough,
in the last five,
six years of my life,
I've finally come to terms
with the fact
that I'm not like other
people at all.
And maybe that is why
I'm a star.
Maybe that is the bit
that I've never actually been
able to accept.
And since I was outed,
I feel like I've genuinely
learned to respect myself.
I just believed I wasn't
a big enough a character
to support that kind of fame.
And actually, I understand
that I never
was like other people,
and I shouldn't have been
disappointed in myself
for not being
like other people.
Children in his arms
He turns his back
Okay. It's fine.
The moment I finished
the track "Patience",
I remember driving home,
you know,
listening to this album
that I never thought
would get finished
or made actually,
at some points,
and remember thinking
well, that is...
That's enough.
I finally thought,
you know what?
If a bus hit me tomorrow,
I would be happy
with the music I left
in the world.
Duh-du-du-duh
Duh-du-du-duh
As around the sun
The Earth knows
She's revolving
BLIGE: I absolutely,
definitely know
that George Michael
fits into the category
of a great artist,
a great performer.
Just as hate knows
Love's the cure
You can rest
Your mind assured
That I'll be loving...
BLIGE: You could hear pain,
you could hear joy,
I mean,
you can hear everything.
As now can't reveal
The mystery
Of tomorrow
WONDER: Mary J Blige
and George Michael
doing "As", it was amazing!
The marriage
of the two of them
was just a magical experience
of that song.
And I was in awe
when I heard it.
Until the rainbow
Burns the stars
Out of the sky
Until the ocean covers
Every mountain high
Until the dolphins fly
And parrots live at sea
Until we dream of life
And life becomes a dream
Now ain't that loving you?
I know him
as an extremely gifted artist,
and I embrace the records
that he made
with Aretha and Whitney,
probably my two
greatest vocalists.
If we take this chanceIf we take this chance
And extend
To each other romance
And I hope
Baby, I hope
DAVIS:
You want to watch him,
you're interested in him,
you want to listen to him,
you want to know
what he's got to say.
The impact that he's had,
you have to see
when you go to his concerts.
You have to really see it.
It is phenomenal.
So, would you like
one more song?
The word I think I'm hearing
the most is...
Freedom!
Freedom!
Freedom!
You've gotta give
For what you take
Freedom
Freedom
When you play somebody
a record likeFreedom,
that music is going to continue
to mean something to people,
like, as long as it's heard.
Freedom!
And that's why you get
to have a three-decade career.
All we have to do now
Is take these lies
And make them true somehow
All we have to see
Is that I don't belong
To you
And you don't belong to me
Yeah! Yeah!
Freedom
Freedom
Freedom
You've gotta give
For what you take
Freedom
Hold on to my freedom!
Freedom
You've gotta give
For what you take
What you take
Yeah
Yeah!
You've gotta give
For what you
Give what you
May not be what
You want from me
Just the way
It's got to be!
INTERVIEWER:
What would you be hopeful
for as a way to be remembered?
You mean what would I like
written on my...
INTERVIEWER:
Well, let's not go that far.
Okay.
INTERVIEWER: But I mean,
what would you hope the legacy
that's attached to your name is?
Great songwriter.
You know, and...
I think two things. One...
You know,
great singer-songwriter
from a period of time
which I don't think
will be seen again, you know?
I don't think youth culture
will produce people like
myself and Madonna and Prince.
I don't think it's going
to do that anymore.
I think it's too fragmented now.
So, I'd like to be remembered
as one of those last,
kind of big stars
in the sense that there
was a certain glamour to it.
But really,
it's just the songs.
And I hope that people think
of me
as someone who had
some kind of integrity.
And I hope I'm remembered
for that in a way.
Very unlikely. I think it's all
been a waste of time.
Waste of effort.
I'd say love
Was a magical thing
I'd say love would keep us
From pain
Had I been there
Had I been there
I would promise you
All of my life
But to lose you would cut
Like a Kn*fe
So, I don't dare
No, I don't dare!
'Cause I never came close
In all of these years
You are the only one
To stop my tears
And I'm so scared
I'm so scared
Take me back in time
Maybe I can forget
Turn a different corner
And we never
Would have met
Would you care?
I don't understand it
For you, it's a breeze
Little by little
You've brought me
To my knees
Don't you care?
No, I've never come close
In all of these years
You are the only one
To stop my tears
I'm so scared
Of this love
And if all that there is
Is this fear of being used
I should go back
To being lonely
And confused
If I could, I would
I swear
Oh
Yes, I swear
If I could
I would
I swear
George Michael: Freedom Uncut (2022)
Moderator: Maskath3