George Michael was locked up in prison with paedophiles and bullies.
The 60-year-old singer was sentenced to eight weeks in prison in 2010 after being caught driving under the influence of drugs, and although he only served half of his sentence he claims the few days he spent at London’s Pentonville prison alone would’ve been enough to scare him into sobriety.
He said: "The clearing house you go to is the one that’s closest to the magistrate’s court you’ve come from.
"So unfortunately for me, my closest was Pentonville, so I went in there, which was really quite a horrible experience, and I was put in with the paedophiles and the bullies I suppose … I didn’t leave my cell very much in those few days."
The ‘Faith’ hitmaker was then moved to the Highpoint prison in Suffolk, East England, where he served his four weeks behind bars, but he says as soon as he had recovered from the crash he had begun getting sober.
Speaking on BBC Radio 2, he said: "From the moment the last crash happened [I started to get sober] because apart from anything else, I realised it had to be something to do with me.
"It kind of shook me out of my denial in the way that the others hadn’t. Probably because there was a chance I would go to prison.
"So from the day after that crash happened I started in drug counselling, and I was two weeks in detox, none of which I made public."
George – who has just released his new album ‘Symphonica’ – also confessed that his behaviour was "out of character" and "irresponsible" and says as soon as he came out of prison he experienced a "burst of creativity" and began working on new material.
George Michael was locked up with paedophiles
