Boy George has a "different type of confidence" now that he's older.
Boy George for Gay Times
The 56-year-old singer has been in the music business for over three decades, and has said that taking better care of his body and gaining more "self-control" in recent years has helped him lead a "better" and more confident life than ever before.
Speaking to the relaunch issue of Gay Times magazine - which the Culture Club star first appeared on the cover of 30 years ago - he said: "[My life has] got better! It's taken a while, but it's definitely got better. I feel that life is about growing into who you are. You know Quentin Crisp used to say 'You have to push your neurosis around in your body until it can sit somewhere that you can live with it' and I think that's so true. I don't feel like I have a lot of neurosis.
"I've got a different type of confidence now that I didn't have when I was 20, or 25, or 30 or even 40, where I just used to be so controlled by outside forces ... inside forces. I also work harder, I eat well, I exercise, I'm very conscious of what I do to myself, I don't drink, I don't take drugs, so my life in that respect has improved. I think in our business, having self-control is such a revelation. It's like 'I didn't do that, isn't that amazing!' so I kind of enjoy that feeling of self-control, being in charge and just getting shit done!"
The 'Karma Chameleon' hitmaker has had a prolific career as a musician as well as working as a DJ, fashion designer, and photographer, but admits his most treasured work has been developing 'Taboo: The Musical', which focuses on his life prior to and after he achieved fame.
Asked what he would consider his greatest work, he said: "'Taboo: The Musical' is my most complete moment. Ironically, when I was selling records I was never really having good reviews. I come from an era where critics used to really slag you off and it was kind of a sport, so I never really expected to anyone to say anything nice about what I did musically, but when I did 'Taboo', I got a [positive] review that made me cry. It was like about something that meant something to me. I was writing about characters that I knew very well [and] that I wanted to kind of play tribute to; people that had influenced me, that were part of my teenage experience and it was just so nice to go 'right, I'm going to write a song about this person.'"
Tagged in Boy George