Boy George has been having acting lessons to combat his stage fright.
The 60-year-old singer found his early nerves about getting up to perform returned on Culture Club’s 2018 comeback tour ‘Life’ but he’s found having sessions with acting coach Charlie Walker-Wise have been really helpful.
He told Classic Pop magazine: “I started feeling out of sorts when we played CarFest two years ago.
“It made me want to work on self-empowerment and strengthening my stage presence.
“Acting lessons have really suited me.
“When I first worked with Charlie, I told him how much I like being in control.
“Charlie told me that was a disaster, the worst place I could be was on stage. He’s right.
“I’ve learned that what’s terrible is having a tension where I’m just… clenched.”
Although George marked his 60th birthday earlier this month with 60 new songs, he was initially “reluctant” to do any work when the coronavirus lockdowns first started.
He admitted: “I was reluctant to do anything. I was distracted and unable to concentrate.”
And the ‘Karma Chamelon’ hitmaker hopes his productivity will sent out a message to record label bosses writing him off because of his age.
He said: “Being 60 isn’t an achievement, it’s just what happens if you manage not to die. It’s random. “How I choose to celebrate 60 is up to me, so I thought, ‘I’ll drop a bunch of music.’…
“People keep insisting I should make a covers album, which is just desperate.
“There’s nothing wrong with covers, I do the all the time and Ken Boothe’s ‘Everything I Own’ got me to number one. But I’m a writer. That’s what I do.
“If I was a carpenter, people wouldn’t tell me not to make a table.
“So if the best offer I get is a covers album, I say, ‘No thank you, darling. I’m quite capable of writing songs.”