He is still Boy George. More than 30 years after Culture Club made him a star, and a good number of years after addictions and bad behavior threatened to ruin all that, Boy George says the maturity he’s come to embrace finds him at peace and excited to tour with his original band mates for the first time in more than a decade.
“I’m a slightly different person now – there’s no way I can be who I was 20 years ago, nor do I want to,” he says from the back of a car taking him from a handful of interviews at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles to a taping of “Conan,” where he’d soon cover the Doors’ “Hello, I Love You” with actor Jack Black and Doors guitarist Robby Krieger.
“I feel like you can only ever be who you are now,” Boy George says. “I think I’m better. You’ll let me know, I’m sure.”
Culture Club plays the Greek in Los Angeles on Thursday and Friday, part of its first tour with its founding members – singer Boy George, guitarist and keyboard player Roy Hay, bass player Mikey Craig and drummer Jon Moss – since 2002.
Why it took so long to reunite wasn’t really due to bad blood, though they’ve had their differences since the group formed in London in 1981, scoring huge hits such as “Do You Really Want To Hurt Me” and “Karma Chameleon.” Their earliest bonds of friendship might have frayed at times, but never completely snapped.
“We’ve always talked,” Boy George says. “Jon lives quite close to me. Mikey’s always wanted to do Culture Club, he was always the driving force, calling me to say, ‘Let’s do it!’ It’s one of those weird things that has to happen when it’s going to happen.
“It’s like the universe decides. I wish there was some weird conspiracy I could fill you in on, but there’s no reason why.”
Partly the tour came about through his renewed interest in recording, he says.
“I really wanted to do a record with them,” Boy George says. “I was the one that wanted to make a new record, and having done my own solo record I wanted to make another one that was even better. I kind of got the bug again to record.”
The group recorded 19 tracks with producer Youth and eventually whittled those down a bit for the forthcoming album “Tribes.” A handful are featured on the current tour, scattered among older hits such as “Time (Clock of the Heart),” “I’ll Tumble 4 Ya,” and “Church of the Poison Mind.”
The tour was original scheduled for last fall – a throat condition for Boy George caused its delay – but it’s well worth the wait, he promises.
“I have this incredible wealth of experience,” he says. “I feel like I approach with a totally different point of view now. When you’re younger, you don’t have all that experience and you tend to make life difficult for yourself: ‘OK, there’s several ways up the mountain and I’ll just chose the most difficult.’
“And when you get older, you’re smarter, and you go, ‘OK, I get paid to do this thing I love doing, so what’s the problem?’ And when you realize it’s you, you just kind of change the way you do things.
“As a kind of captain of the ship I feel like my sanity is key, so I just feel like I’m very lucky to do what I do,” Boy George says. “I love what I do. I’m embracing it. And I’m so looking forward to feeling that overwhelming love out there for what we do.”
This year Boy George and Bunim/Murray, the production company behind reality shows from “The Real World” to “Keeping Up With the Kardashians,” announced plans for a Boy George reality series, one that will follow him as he moves from London to Los Angeles.
“I’m looking forward to some adventures,” he says of the show. “I think I want some of what Los Angeles has to offer – I want a lot of it.”
The show follows a lifetime of sharing that includes two memoirs, tabloid frenzies over past legal problems, and the spotlight that came from the start as an androgynous, witty, often controversial performer.
“I think it’s easier now because I’m a little bit more sensitive and a little more in control of what I’m doing,” he says. “Back when you’re young, it’s more like a kamikaze thing, and you’re not thinking it through, and you don’t have somebody saying, ‘Ehh, is a good idea to do?’
“Whereas you get older, you hopefully have something to slow you down. It’s only when you found yourself down a big hole you go, ‘Oh, maybe I should have looked at the map.’”
He’s looking forward to the tour and the reality series as a way to surprise people with the person he is today at 54.
“I think there’s a lot of things I want people to know,” Boy George says. “I think that’s part of the fun. There are things people don’t know or understand and that’s great.
“I think having a reputation can work in your favor because people are expecting one thing, and they end up getting something else entirely.”
Contact the writer: 714-796-7787 or plarsen@ocregister.com
