Liam Payne died last month aged 31 (Image: Getty Images for ABA)
Boy George opened up about his regret over “not very nice” social media comments regarding just before the his untimely death, as he reflected on the need for young celebrities to access preventative therapy to avert such heartbreaking events.
The Culture Club icon, no stranger to the perils of addiction, having once battled heroin himself, drew parallels between drug use and playing “Russian roulette”.
He recounted how he broke down in tears upon learning of Liam’s “senseless” death.
He revealed: “I was up at five in the morning, and it came up on the American news, and I literally was like ‘What the f**k?’ I was literally like ‘No, this isn’t real’. I couldn’t take it in.”
In an exclusive discussion with hosts Jake Humphrey and Damian Hughes for the upcoming High Performance podcast episode (releasing Thursday), George expressed his wish to advise budding stars like Liam, catapulted suddenly into fame: “Get some therapy before you need it.”
The pop veteran mused that having someone to guide him through the intricacies of fame might have spared him from some of his own notorious escapades.
“I probably wouldn’t have done a lot of the things that I did had I had someone to talk to. If I’d had someone to teach me some philosophy, open my mind up about what I was capable of”, reports .
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Nevertheless, George is troubled by his previously aired observations about Payne. Reflecting on his behaviour, he remarked how he commented under one of Liam’s posts not long before his demise, saying: “In the case of Liam Payne, I’d watched him a few days before it happened. I remember watching online and I’d actually put a message under a post saying ‘he’s off his nut’, which wasn’t very nice, but I felt it. I felt like he was out of control.”
That harrowing moment reminded him sharply of Amy Winehouse’s tragic end – similarly felt by him as a wasteful loss: “And when it happened, it just hit me, the same way that Amy Winehouse hit me, because it felt so senseless.”
It’s unclear whether Liam’s former bandmates will be at his private funeral (Image: Getty Images)
George and Liam’s feud erupted on Twitter after the 2013 BRIT Awards when the Culture Club icon slammed Liam for not taking a photo with his niece, also implicating Liam’s manager in the snub.
Liam hit back, comically pointing out that George had mistakenly called him by the wrong name multiple times before confusing him for Niall Horan, his band mate from One Direction.
The row was long-forgotten, however, as George expressed his shock and sorrow upon learning of Liam’s tragic demise last month, who met an untimely end after falling from a balcony in Argentina, with drugs found in his system.
Taking to social media, George wrote: “How sad is the death of Liam Payne. Just awful news to wake up to. God bless his family. I am absolutely shocked. R.I.P.”
His expression of sympathy wasn’t met with universal support, leading a sombre George to say on a podcast: “I care about his family. I watched the dad, heartbreaking. I was quite tearful about it. I actually really felt very sad.”
George has been open about his own harrowing battles with drug dependency.
Rising to stardom with Culture Club at age 20 in 1981, scoring hits like Karma Chameleon and Do You Really Want to Hurt Me, he later faced a personal crisis as his addictions deepened.
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Boy George expressed his sorrow over Liam’s death (Image: Virgin Voyages)
His struggle with illegal substances ultimately led to a serious altercation; in 2008, George was convicted for assaulting and falsely imprisoning Audun Carlsen, a Norwegian model.
He cited his history of substance abuse as a factor during his trial.
After being jailed for 15 months and released early after just four months, he has remarkably turned his life around. He’s found success as a solo artist, taken to the decks as a DJ, mentored on The Voice, braved the jungle on , and even ventured into photography, cookery writing, and fashion design.
Yet, the tragic fates of stars like Liam and Amy Winehouse serve as stark reminders of his own darkest moments.
Reflecting on his past, he shares: “There’s that saying ‘there but for the grace of God’. You think there’s so many times when I could have come to a sticky end myself. I’m really aware of that. ” But he insists, “I don’t want to make what happened to Liam about myself, it’s very separate.”