Boy George on death threats: “I wore a bulletproof vest”

The singer says anonymous messages threatened to shoot him.

Boy George opened up about the death threats he received during the height of Culture Club‘s success in the 1980s.

Appearing on Piers Morgan’s Life Stories, the 55-year-old singer revealed he received threatening letters during his career in the 80s – to the point that he wore a bulletproof vest in fear for his life.

“It was Halloween, and people called up and said they were gonna shoot me,” he explained. “I was thinking, ‘I can’t cancel the gig so I’d better wear a bulletproof vest’.”

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He also told Piers Morgan about the numerous countries from which he was banned from entering, and how so many of his TV appearances were restricted. “People didn’t want to interview me. They didn’t want to have me on kids’ shows – people reacted not so well to us being on Top Of The Pops,” George said.

Morgan asked about the reasoning behind the negative reactions – asking whether it was his sexuality or his appearance. Boy George replied: “I think take your pick really.”

Boy George death threatsGetty

Boy George also described the “psychotic episode” which saw him arrested for chaining a male escort to a wall in his London flat.

In 2008, the star was convicted of the assault and false imprisonment of reported male escort Audun Carlsen, which occurred the previous year. He was accused of handcuffing the Norwegian man to a wall fixture and inflicting “gratuitous violence” upon him, for which George was sentenced to 15 months’ imprisonment, eventually being released after four months.

Speaking to Morgan’s George says (according to the Daily Mail) that he has “always denied beating the guy”, but added: “In hindsight I was having a psychotic episode. I was a drug addict so I can’t sit here and say my reasons for doing it were founded in any way.”

“But I told the truth. I said, ‘This is why I did it. I was having a paranoid episode’.” George also says that he has never apologised to Carlsen because it “wouldn’t make any difference”.

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