The album, which won a Grammy for Best Album of the Year in 1988, included six top ten hits, including “Father Figure,” “One More Try,” the title track, and the controversial “I Want Your Sex.” Although the song appeared—through the video and its racy lyrics—to promote promiscuity, Michael insisted that it advocated monogamy. In the video, he went so far as to scrawl the word “monogamy” in lipstick on a woman’s naked back.

The lusty song, along with widely publicized images of Michael’s jeans-clad butt from the “Faith” video, quickly made Michael an international sex symbol—a status that he soon wanted to leave behind. In September 1990 he released his second solo album, Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1 (volume two has never materialized), exhorting his fans to take him and his music seriously. In the video for the single “Freedom,” Michael himself was entirely absent. Instead, a string of supermodels lip-synched the song, and in a memorable—and obvious—image, the leather jacket that was the icon of the Faith tour burst into flames.

Unfortunately, although the album was well-received by critics and produced two top ten hits, it was considered a commercial disappointment. At the time, Michael blamed in part his music label, Sony, for failing to adequately publicize the album and for not supporting his new musical direction. This catapulted him into nearly a decade of contentious lawsuits and bickering with his music label.

In 1993, Michael sued Sony to let him out of his contract, and in a widely publicized statement, Michael said that Sony regarded “artists as little more than software.” Unfortunately, he lost the lawsuit, and it wasn’t until a settlement was reached in 1995 that he was released from his contract. He didn’t release a new album until 1996 (Older), six years after Listen Without Prejudice.

Meanwhile, Michael had fallen in love with a Brazilian designer, Anselmo Feleppa. Although Michael had had numerous sexual partners—both male and female—he had never before been in love. “From then on,” he told The Advocate in 1999, “I believed I was gay.” But Michael did not come out publicly, even though he and Feleppa traveled together openly. In 1993, Feleppa died of AIDS, prompting Michael to finally come out to his parents, but still not to the public.

It wasn’t until 1998, when he was arrested for “lewd behavior” in a Beverly Hills park men’s room, that Michael came out as a gay man. When asked why he hadn’t come out earlier, Michael explained that he wanted to avoid the press attention. “I kept trying to see how I could be clever and retain my dignity, not denying my sexuality but not giving them the three words they wanted,” he said to The Advocate after the park incident.

“But what I realize is that I actually allowed people to think I was miserable, closeted, and that that was why I was reclusive—as opposed to being sick of the way these people write about me,” he continued. “I let people think, He feels this is something to hide. I let people think the issue was my sexuality, not my privacy. And the interesting thing is that the moment there was no privacy, I realized that that's all the issue was. Not one part of me has any problem with people knowing I'm gay.”

Since he came out, Michael has continued to make music as an openly gay artist. His music video “Outside” parodied his park arrest and the media frenzy that followed, showing a heterosexual man entrapped by an undercover female police officer who came onto him. Public reaction was relatively positive—unlike the reaction to his next politically-tinged video, 2002’s “Shoot the Dog,” which negatively portrayed George W. Bush and Tony Blair’s war on terrorism.

Accused of being anti-American, Michael responded, “I am definitely not anti-American, how could I be? I have been in love with a Texan for six years.” His partner, Kenny Goss, continues to be a major part of his life, and Michael’s latest album, Patience—which he has claimed will be his last—includes a love song dedicated to his “American Angel.”

Patience received mixed reviews, most notably from Elton John during the gay icon’s loose-lipped phase last winter (when he also criticized Madonna for lip-synching). While the bitching of two of England’s grandest pop divas made plenty of fodder for the tabloids, Michael was apparently quietly continuing to make moves toward a future away from pop music.

In February 2005 at the Berlin Film Festival shortly before the premiere of his biographical documentary, George Michael: A Different Story, Michael acknowledged that while he didn’t want to make more pop albums, he wasn’t planning on completely abandoning his musical career, either. Instead, “Perhaps it [the future] will mean writing for other people…I have an ambition to write a truly contemporary musical, not necessarily even for the stage, but for the screen ... I have got to find ways to make music and enjoy it the way I used to.”

While we’re waiting for that George Michael musical (Chicago meets Taboo?), we can tune into the latest incarnation of George Michael, pop-star-turned-politico, by following him into print, where the only butt-shaking will be rhetorical.

Page 1 / 2 - Home