The multi-faceted pop star’s former manager takes a personal look back.
George Michael is undoubtedly one of the biggest pop stars of all time.
On top of his enduring music, which sold more than 120 million albums worldwide between his solo material and his records with Wham!, he was also known for his larger-than-life personality and fearless style. But beneath all that was also someone wrestling with his identity as a gay man — and the question of how much of himself to share with the public.
Finding the “authentic” person behind the superstar image is no easy task, but a new film seeks to do just that. Filmmaker Simon Napier-Bell, who managed Michael during the star’s early days, has directed a documentary about the legendary singer aptly titled The Real George Michael, and the story is told by those who knew him best — including his longtime partner Kenny Goss and fellow luminaries like Stevie Wonder, Rufus Wainwright, and Stephen Fry.
“We all have different personas in our lives,” Napier-Bell tells Katie Couric Media. “Artists just have bigger and more complex ones.”
We spoke to Michael’s former manager about his enduring legacy and the many phases of his identity that shaped him as an artist.
What was George Michale’s first band?
George Michael, who was born Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou, first burst onto the music scene as part of the English pop duo Wham!, formed with his high school friend Andrew Ridgeley. The two became practically an overnight success in 1984 with their first worldwide hit, “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go.”
Napier-Bell recalls being wowed by the band’s very first performance on the British series Top of the Pops. “They were just utterly brilliant,” he says. “I’d never seen a first performance on that show as good as that.”
After that show, Napier-Bell made it his mission to represent the band — and he succeeded — but he’ll never forget that first meeting with Michael, who he says couldn’t have been more different than his bandmate.
“They came across as a perfect duo on television — it seemed like they were almost twins in personality. And then when they came into my house and sat down in the room, they were absolutely the opposite,” says Napier-Bell. “Andrew was this happy-go-lucky guy, and George was more down-to-earth and practical.”
When did he become George Michael the solo artist?
As the lead vocalist and songwriter, Michael soon emerged as the star of Wham!, and it didn’t take long before he decided to break out on his own. He left after the group’s 1986 recording, Music from the Edge of Heaven. According to Napier-Bell, the decision had to do with Michael feeling like he’d outgrown the band.
“He was finding a more serious side himself,” he says. “There eventually came a time when he felt like he couldn’t stay with that carefree image. He was past being a teenager, and it was time to grow up.”
The decision to disband Wham! also meant the end of Michael’s partnership with his first managers. The budding star dropped Napier-Bell and his business partner Jazz Summers when he went solo.
Over the span of just three years, Michael became a superstar. In 1987, he earned his first Grammy Award for “I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me),” a duet with Aretha Franklin that won Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal. That same year, he made an impressive debut with his solo album, Faith. The record became so controversial in America that radio stations refused to play it because songs like “I Want Your Sex” were considered too explicit. Despite being censored, it went on to sell more than 25 million copies worldwide and won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 1988.
When did George Michael come out as gay?
Just as his star was rising, Michael faced some personal setbacks — some of which weren’t fully understood by the public at the time
First, he lost his partner, Anselmo Feleppa, who died of AIDS in 1993. Despite later being in a relationship with Kenny Goss for 15 years, some say the pop star never got over his first love. Then he endured further heartbreak three years later, when he lost his mom to terminal cancer.
Along with these tragic losses, the pressures of fame were taking a toll on Michael, and he started refusing to appear in music videos and photo shoots. The iconic video for his song “Freedom! ’90,” for instance, doesn’t include the singer at all — instead, he selected five of the biggest supermodels at the time, including Naomi Campbell, to appear in it and lip-sync to his lyrics.
Unfortunately, his absence didn’t have the desired effect. “It was a hopeless task to think that by not making videos people would suddenly forget his face and he could go out again,” Napier-Bell says. “He really couldn’t face this thing of not having any life of his own anymore.”
Michael was also struggling with whether he should come out as gay. (According to Napier-Bell, by this point the pop star had only told a few friends and fellow musicians that were close to him.) Unfortunately, he had no choice: In 1998, he was arrested by an undercover cop when he was caught cruising for sex at a public bathroom in Los Angeles. At the time, he was fined and forced to do 80 hours of community service for “engaging in a lewd act.”
Though Michael said he didn’t intentionally get caught, Napier-Bell believes it wasn’t entirely a coincidence. Following the singer’s arrest, Michael released “Outside,” a defiant, joyful ode about having sex in unusual places, and it became the lead single for his greatest hits album Ladies & Gentlemen: The Best of George Michael. “I’d service the community, but I already have, you see,” he sang.
“He knew that was a toilet where gay people went and police sometimes entrapped people,” Napier-Bell says. “He played this game until he got caught, and then he enjoyed turning it around.”
Did George Michael give to charities?
Some of Michael’s philanthropic work was quite public. He held a free concert for nurses in London as a way to give back to the staff who cared for his mother up until her death. There was also his participation in the original star-studded Band-Aid charity recording of “Do They Know It’s Christmas?”
But most of his charitable works rarely made headlines because Michael didn’t draw attention to them. “It was nearly all anonymous — his generosity was incredible,” Napier-Bell tells us. “He was a very socially conscious person.”
Over the years, he anonymously made donations — both big and small — to charities all around the world. According to the AP, he even donated the royalties from his duet with Elton John, “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me,” to the London-based HIV-awareness organization Terrence Higgins Trust, and he also shared proceeds from hit 1996 single “Jesus to a Child” with the counseling service, Childline.
How did George Michael die?
After an unforgettable life, Michael died unexpectedly on Christmas Day in 2016, when he succumbed to heart disease and a fatty liver. A coroner determined his passing was the result of natural causes.
But the world learned of even more of his good deeds in the aftermath of his death. Following the tragic news, popular radio DJ Mick Brown said Michael would call Capital Radio every Easter to donate 100,000 pounds, which adds up to more than $122,000 today.
Michael was also no stranger to random acts of kindness, and he gave away thousands to help strangers in debt. For example, executive producer of Deal or No Deal Richard Osman once said the star once privately gave 15,000 pounds to one of the show’s contestants who said she needed money for fertility treatment.
“He would be watching television and he’d see someone on a show, and he’d call the television station and tell them, ‘Don’t say it’s me, but please give them the money,’” says Napier-Bell. “I think he diminished his fortune a lot. I don’t think he died nearly as wealthy as people say, because he had given so much away.”
Though Michael battled with drugs and depression later in life, those close to him, including Napier-Bell, say he had a good heart and his complexities helped enrich his music.
“It was hugely rewarding working with George because of his own intelligence,” he says. “He was very clever at taking the benefits of success to allow him to make even more fulfilling music.”
