Talented but troubled, Boy George battled his demons and triumphed with a body of work which confirms his role as a national treasure. Tim Hughes finds out more...

FEW artists are as charasmatic, colourful or controversial as Boy George.

The one-time frontman of Culture Club has skipped from the heights of chart-topping success at the forefront of the ’80s new-romantic scene to the heady world of the superstar DJ and, back again, to recording artist.

But the road has not been smooth, and is littered with tales of debauchery, drink and drug abuse, scraps and scrapes with the law, which make the hair curl.

Now, however, the musician, turntablist, artist, photographer, gay rights campaigner and designer George O’Dowd is back with a new album, called, tellingly This Is What I Do. The name, he says, is not so much a title as statement of intent; a call for us to look beyond the lurid headlines and fall in love, all over again, with this national treasure.

“The title is telling people to forget the car crashes of the past and focus on me as an entertainer,” he says.

Those incidents include convictions for heroin possession, libel, the assault and false imprisonment of a rent boy, and community service (and public humiliation) in the States for falsely reporting a burglary. But all that, he insists is all in the past and should not obscure his rediscovered creativity.

“This album is about re-establishing myself musically to say ‘this is what I do’.

“I was at the Brits a couple of years ago and some unexpected people were giving me name checks, like Cee Lo Green and Arcade Fire. “It made me think, ‘a lot of people know who I am and have this affection for me but they don't really know why they like me’. I had to ask myself, ‘well who and what are you?’ “I went back to the soul, the essence of what I do. That’s been important for me. There have been a few periods over the years where I didn’t listen to music. It was almost like the birds stopped singing. I can measure my own wellness by how much I listen to music.”
The album is a total expression of George’s background and inspiration, touching on dub, rap, glam-rock, country and, of course, pop.
Featuring guests DJ Yoda, Ally McErlaine, Kitty Durham and MC Spee, and a cover of a Yoko Ono song, it was, he says as fun to make as it is to play.
For an artist who, in his androgynous younger days, made no secret of his loathing for the recording studio, it is a turnaround. “Making albums has always been a drama for me,” he confesses. “But this was beautiful. If I do another Culture Club record it has to be fun. It doesn’t have to be a headache.”
The 52 year-old star, still best known for ‘80s anthems Karma Chameleon, Do You Really Want to Hurt Me and Church of the Poisoned Mind, says it changed shape as recording progressed.
“The album started off with reggae as the template but it branched out.
“We went back to the ’70s which shaped me as a musician and a person. It was such a bonkers decade with everything from the Sex Pistols to The Goombay Dance Band. Even though Culture Club were associated with the ’80s our roots were in the ’70s – reggae, glam rock, punk rock, disco, electro. This record is very ’70s.”
It finds him confident, two defining moments being his decision to quit drinking five years ago, and the fresh focus which followed his 50th birthday.
“It was a huge turning point,” he says. “I thought: ‘I’ve got to get myself together. I’ve got to focus’. I felt I had wasted a lot of time. I looked at myself and thought, ‘God, I’ve done nothing’. But I know I’ve done a lot. I’ve grafted and always made money, but a lot was pointless as no one knew what I was doing.”
His response was to throw himself back into music.
He adds: “Songs are a way of making sense of life and relationships. The album is joyful. Growing up has been a good thing for me. I’m happy to be a grown up now.”

LIVE
Boy George plays the O2 Academy Oxford on Saturday. Tickets are £25 from ticketweb.co.uk