Boy George is praising fellow singer Elton John for helping him during his recovery.
John, whose drug and alcohol problems were well known, turned to pop icon George shortly after he hit the headlines in the mid-1980s for being hooked on heroin.
He invited George, now 62, to a concert at Wembley Arena, in north-west London. “It was at the very end of the cleanup,” George tells PEOPLE. “He called me and said: ‘I know, you’re clean. Do you want to go out?’ It was very sweet. He’s great like that, he gave me a lot of support.”
John thought George would like to meet Tina Turner. “I would become a Buddhist. And he said, ‘Oh, Tina is a Buddhist.’ So I said, I know.”
However, things didn’t go as planned for George (who says he’s “the biggest Tina Turner fan on the planet”). “She wasn’t nice to me, which was a shame,” he recalls, adding that he left the dressing room at the gig upset.
“I’d just quit drugs,” George now thinks..” Well, maybe she didn’t approve – that could have been it.”
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Boy George Karma.
George was speaking to promote his candid memoir karmawhich is now published in the USA. In the book, George writes about growing up as one of six in an Irish-Catholic family and describes his early days on the London music scene.
There’s his perspective on the band’s heyday, his romantic and professional relationship with drummer Jon Moss, and his interactions with other household names such as Madonna and Prince, as well as royals such as Princess Diana and Queen Elizabeth’s sister, Princess Margaret.
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The singer adds: “I love all the people I wrote about.”
“I guess when you write stuff about other artists, it’s also — note to self — to remember that maybe there were times in your life when you weren’t friendly to everyone you met.”
“It’s 1000% easier to be kind. Not only is it easier to be kind, but it’s better for you,” she tells PEOPLE.
For more on Boy George and his memoir, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands everywhere now.
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Source: HIS Education