Boy George was planning to move to America so Britain would "scream" for him to come back.
Just before he was offered a judging role on ‘The Voice’, the 54-year-old Culture Club singer was going to move to the US in order to put his past troubles behind him including a 2005 conviction for falsely reporting a burglary in Manhattan which earned him a community service order.
George – who made the burglary call to police while high on cocaine – wanted to make America his permanent home because he felt the country was willing to give him a clean slate as opposed to his home country.
He said: "I kind of felt like, I’m going to America, they are going to fall in love with me and then my country is going to scream for me to come back.
"When I went back to New York for the first time [after his community service], I fully expected every television programme to show footage of me sweeping up the city. They just didn’t do it and I thought, ‘That’s amazing.’ I was really shocked. It was like, ‘You did this. It’s over. You did your community service. We don’t want to talk about it any more.’ That’s why I love America."
George – who served four months of a 15-month jail sentence in 2009 for the assault and false imprisonment of a man – eventually got clean of drugs and made a vow to rebuild his music career and reputation, and he is proud he has achieved his goals.
He told The Times newspaper: "We’re getting there over here. I’ve always been insanely optimistic. But I do remember saying to myself, ‘You have to make this right. You have to rebuild this, brick by brick. Everything. Myself. My career. My life.’ It was, ‘OK, I’m in charge now and I need to kind of really get this together.’
"There is no margin of error. There is just no way. My mother would be, ‘Arrrrggh!’ She would disown me. Well, she probably wouldn’t because she loves me, but there is just no way … no way. I’m out of chances."
Boy George was ready to quit UK
