Capital FM Radio Interview
Capital FM Radio interview with George Michael, broadcasted on July 12th, 2002
Interview courtesy of www.capitalfm.co.uk

Check out Foxy's exclusive interview with George Michael as he sets the record straight on that song and video, plus find out what he thinks of Big Brother, Oasis, Geri and much more.

Foxy: I never thought you'd be the most controversial popstar!
George: I don't know how much more controversial I've become. I think life around me and the media has become a lot more reactionary when it comes to anything that's controversial. When you think about it the first thing I ever released was about the idea of being on the dole and ripping off the government but things have changed and it makes being outspoken about anything sound a little bit louder than it would have done twenty years ago when I started this. For some reason it does seem to give an edge to things - the fact that people know I'm gay now, but other than that I'd love people to understand that I'm not trying to be contentious, I'm just trying to write about different things. Internet porn and late night sex on TV was what I wrote 'Freeek!' about and because I've started writing in the third person about subjects and not about me it's a hard thing for people to adjust to. A lot of people thought 'Freeek!' was a representation of me as a sexual entity, which it wasn't. Because I've written so many things in the first person, when I try and branch out it's hard to make people understand.
Foxy: The song is very entertaining and the video is very funny, you really poke fun at yourself. A lot of people have probably never seen the video.
George: Exactly, they've only seen the press. Well they need to see it and have a laugh. The song had so much stick so early on, and especially from 'The Sun'. What have you done? Have you really upset them or something?
Well at a point where 'The Sun' is hugely in competition with 'The Mirror', 'The Mirror' happened to be one of the two papers where they were writing some very strong stuff about the world post-September 11th and I agreed with him. It was really interesting to me that a major newspaper could be moving against the tide so strongly and the world of TV and radio wasn't picking up on it. I just thought it would be a good idea to push something that I'd already written about and something that was now being talked about as worrying - i.e. the relationship between Bush and Blair and the possible bombing of Iraq and I thought it'd be a great thing there were other people saying the same thing as me and I just thought this was the time.
Foxy: You'd nearly had this record finished before Sept 11 hadn't you?
George: I finished it on September 11th itself. It seemed like the most scary time and it stopped me in my tracks. I couldn't finish the record at the time firstly because September 11th was just as horrific to me as everyone else. I stopped working for about six weeks. I felt like my creative life and the horror that everyone was watching at the same time were intermingled. I was freaked out by the fact that I'd been writing about the possibility of something like this and then it happened, so I didn't know how to finish it and I really didn't know how to release it and be respectful of what had gone on, and I couldn't really so I just sat on it for a while. Then this year, when people started talking about the possible bombing of Iraq and there were strong arguments against the bombing Iraq, I started to think, 'OK you should tighten this up and make it more relevant to what's happening now and put it out', which is what happened.
Foxy: Do you find it worrying that people are suggesting that you're some kind of terrorist sympathiser?
George: I don't think it was people, it was the Rupert Murdoch organisation. I'd spoken to the 'Mirror', I'd really helped the 'Mirror' at a point where Murdoch is selling his papers so cheaply that he's losing money week after week selling 'The Sun' at incredibly low prices trying to win this war with the 'Mirror' that's been going on for years and years but for some reason is much more ferocious now. I knew I was walking into the middle of that and I knew there would be a price to pay for that but didn't know it was going to be quite so heavy. 'The New York Post' printed a story the same morning that I released a statement. I tried to pre-empt what could have been interpreted in the video and I put out a statement that most people ignored because by that afternoon there'd been a 'New York Post' article that said basically I was anti-American. I had released a statement saying 'Please don't take this as anti-American'. It is anti-Bush but that's surely the same position as every democrat in America. 'The New York Post' put out this incredibly horrific piece of journalism which totally misled people and also inferred I was in some way related to Al Quaida and that means in reality that I can't go back to my house in America.
Foxy: Was this the article that you were the 'washed up pop perv'?
George: Yeah! I think it's really sad that the British press in particular chose to carry on. They don't like me because I haven't interacted with them for the best part of fourteen or fifteen years. I decided years ago that what I needed was my records on the radio so people could hear them and if they like them they can go out and buy them. A lot of the media like the opportunity to slap me down. I really thought in this particular instance they might see the issue as more important than slagging off George Michael. What really happened is that I kept making a statement that people kept ignoring and they would keep picking up bits of Murdoch anti-George Michael stuff and that's what's been printed around the world. Oddly enough when I did speak to Trevor MacDonald last week - the producer called me yesterday and said their figures doubled so people were interested in seeing it. What's really shocking is that after I actually spoke there was a deafening silence. There hasn't been one article in the papers for the last four days, but there's been two weeks of slagging me off and picking out Murdoch stuff and spreading it around like bad gossip in a playground and then I actually spoke and everybody just shut up, which in one way I should be pleased because they didn't know how to slag me after that. What they realised on Trevor Macdonald was that I was genuinely concerned about the issues, I wasn't just trying to get a hit record. Hit records to be honest with you, I could have put this out with a video of me just singing in front of a camera with special effects and no one would have noticed for weeks what I was singing about, because it's not written in that direct fashion.
The idea of the video in actual fact was to make sure people didn't take offence and that they saw humour, and that the humour would make them understand what I was trying to say in a gentle way, but in fact I put out the video and it totally destroyed people's confidence in the record.
Foxy: Lots of people have forgotten to listen to the record haven't they?
George: Yes exactly, and at the end of the day it's a pop record and a humorous record. I'm not having a go at people in a personal manner, I'm trying to do it with satire, but ultimately people will decide for themselves. I believe I've made a record that my normal audience will enjoy because there's no point bringing an issue into the mainstream and then doing it with a left of field record like 'Freeek!'. Controversy is worrying to advertisers and therefore worrying to publications and radio stations. It's not a good thing anymore - controversy. People who think I made this to get myself a little bit of PR should think again because this kind of publicity does not do an artist any good in this day and age.
Foxy: If you believed everything you saw in the press over the last week or so you would think that you were the most universally hated man, but the emails from around the world that we have, no one has said anything negative, everyone has said it's very funny. What have the reactions from the public been like?
George: People have been amazing. What's so shocking about this situation is that I know I'm speaking for a lot of people. People are very worried about another ruck with Middle East, everyone is concerned for their family, but the reaction I've had day after day is people saying 'well done' but you'd never know it reading the media. It's so shocking to me that the media doesn't want to help this situation, and I know a lot of the media agree with me, they're not all right wing and they're not all Bush supporters they're just all anti-George Michael. The American public in their efforts to say I've screwed up are really doing a disservice to Americans, because Americans aren't that reactionary about it. There's been a lot of support in America for what I've said but it seems to be more important to have a go at me.
Foxy: How much do you think it has to do with you being a gay pop star?
George: I'm not going to blame the whole thing on homophobia, because you can still get away with saying things about gay people on the radio and television that you can't, for instance, say about black people. There are stereotypes you have to avoid and there are certain comments that can not be made because they're offensive to black people. Now this just doesn't apply to gay people yet, but I hope one day it will because I don't think it's the adults that matter - it's the kids that matter. If you're a 12-year old kid and you saw someone being attacked in the public eye for their sexuality then it would really unnerve me as a child. I'd think that's what I had to look forward to and that's not fair. A lot of kids must sit there and think 'Jesus, this is what it means to be gay'. I think it's a convenient thing to attach to my name in order to turn right wing and homophobic people against me, and they will inevitably succeed with a small percentage.
Foxy: Will you be doing any kind of live gigs at all this year?
George: There is something I'll be doing that I can't talk about yet because it's not a big public thing. But there is something I'll be doing later on live but I can't talk about it. Next year on the back of the album I very much hope so.
Foxy: What do you think of Tony Blair?
George: I think he's well intentioned and basically a good person which is something to be proud of in any political system. He's a decent man, but I think he's very misguided in some of the decisions he's making and that's what I'm talking about. I believe a well intentioned megalomaniac can be every bit as dangerous as a Sadam Hussein, not in the same way but sometimes if they're misguided the results can be the same.
Foxy: Are you surprised that no one in the public eye has spoken in support of the issues that you've been trying to raise? The media give the impression that you are alone in your concerns.
George: That has occurred to me over the last week or so that I've had absolutely no support publicly from any other artist but that's because they're starting to realise how difficult it is to speak out and how easy it is to upset people these days. It's a really, really sad state of affairs, this is supposed to be rock and roll but rock and roll appears to have disappeared. There's one particular artist who is in the reverse situation from me because I'm a British person who has spent the last 6 years being an American and she is in the reverse position, and I find her silence a little bit predictable.
Foxy: Is it anything to do with the Madonna record I'm playing by the way?
George: Most of Americans support free speech and that's why most of the American reaction has been good, but the unfortunate thing with America is that it only takes one loony and unfortunately because they have absolutely useless gun laws out there it's a lot more of a frightening prospect to walk into a situation of hostility in America than it would be in most countries in the world. Until I'm convinced that someone has presented my argument properly over there I don't really see why I wouldn't be scared.
Foxy: You won't be going back then?
George: I'm not going back in the foreseeable future which is really sad because it's where Kenny comes from. I love Kenny, I love my house in LA and the fact that Mr. Murdoch has made that impossible is very irritating.
Foxy: The new album is about modern life, not George Michael?
George: In the days of the first Wham album, because the record company wanted the album out after the second single, I was so determined to have people understand a little bit more about Wham before the album came out I grabbed the tapes. I knew the record company would get their hands on themand I'd get no control so I grabbed them and I hid them in my mum's bedroom at home. That was my way of making sure there was a picture built beforethe album and I feel that way now. The album will come with the third single.
Foxy: What do you think about Noel Gallagher? He has slagged you off royally saying he hated 'Shoot The Dog' and that you should shut up.
George: I did like his writing style once. At one point he was the most exiting song writer in the country and I'm a huge fan of Liam. I think he's got the best voice of the last twenty years in British music, but in terms of making you hear a lyric - it's just a fantastic sound. I love his voice. Noel, if I respected him as a person I might be worried that he was saying what I was doing wasn't worth anything, but I don't even think the man would understand the lyric. Apart from anything else, he's just not very smart. He's got a great mouth on him, he can be funny, but to be making the same music you've been making for ten years and point at anyone for anything is strange. Secondly, to still be using the same technique to get publicity - which is just to slag off who is very popular at the moment - you know we've been listening to it for the last ten years, so at least if you're going to slag people find something original and interesting to say. He slagged me because I said I thought he'd ruined the band, which I do think, I think Oasis ten years ago was an inspirational powerhouse. I saw them live as many times as I could manage because I thought they were an inspiration but the songs are no longer inspirational and the band does not have that incredible chemistry that it had ten years ago. He doesn't give a toss if I'm saying anything positive or negative, he's just trying to have a go at George Michael which is fine but he's not very smart so it's not going to worry me really.
Foxy: Do you miss Andrew?
George: Not as a person because I still see him, but in terms of having someone to hang out with and have a laugh with - especially live. One of the reasons I stayed away from live work is because it's very lonely, but with Andrew it was a laugh because we always took the piss out of each other and kept everything in perspective.
Foxy: Do you think that Wham will ever do a one-off gig or just a few songs?
George: You could never get Andy to do it, he so doesn't want anything to do with the business anymore because the business has treated him really horribly. I'm probably going to have a big party towards the end of the year because it was twenty years ago that Andrew and I had our first hit so I'll probably have a party around the time that 'Young Guns' hit the charts in 1982, twenty years on. I was nervous even to ask him to come to that because I knew he'd have to deal with the press but he said yes and hopefully he'll be there.
Foxy: Tell us about your involvement with the Olympics.
George: I've been asked to write the theme song for the 2004 Olympics. It's in Greece - if they can build the stadium in time and drop that kebab and get working! I really hope that comes off - it'd make my dad really proud even though he's Cypriot. I'd love to write, not a big cheesy one, and the challenge would be to write a really good song and make it inspirational. I've got some lyrical ideas, it'd be exclusive to the Olympics.
Foxy: Have you been into Big Brother this year?
George: I think I saw more of it the last two years. I actually got a bit offended by the whole rich side/poor side thing. I thought that was really treating them like lab rats. But I thought it was so unbelievably rude of PJ not to pack, when he was up against Kate, I thought it was arrogant and rude, you know, she's a lady. He was gob smacked and I think she's quite cool so I was quite glad that she stayed. To be honest with you I sit there thinking there are easier ways to earn seventy grand, there really are! Believe it or not, even though seventy grand is a lot of money - the amount of money that gets poured into that show through the telephone lines - I can't believe that's all they get out of it, I really can't. But more than that I don't understand why people still want to do it. I understood the first couple of years but when you see how little these people get out of it afterwards and you see how horrible the type of fame they get out of it afterwards is. I'm a bit amazed that they get about ten thousand people applying this year. Almost all of them will be naked tapes next year I'm sure.
Foxy: Any final thoughts about the song?
George: I'm as shocked by the level of negative reaction as a lot of my fans probably. I didn't expect that much noise, but me taking that much criticism has drawn more attention to the issue that I'm making and is going to draw people to seeing the video and understanding the questions I'm trying to ask them. It was worth it, I believe in people, not the media and I think it's all been a good thing and it still allows people to make up their minds of themselves. I don't regret it - not for a moment. The video makes me laugh and people are still talking about the thing I wanted them to talk about.
Foxy: And Geri?
George: She was fine with that by the way, in case people think we're not mates, she was fine. I checked it with her and she has a sense of humour.

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English Archive 2002 ~ TV & Radio