George returns, again

Here comes Boy George, again, embarking on a tour of the regional press to push his new, in-reduced-circumstances tour, chatting to the Lancashire Evening Telegraph. It's a long way from New Sounds New Styles, isn't it?

George, it seems, doesn't really want local papers rummaging in his life:

And he recently announced he had secretly relapsed back into old habits but was now clean again. Asked when he turned the corner, he bridles. "I'm off them. Absolutely off. Off completely."

The tabloids said you had been clean for about six months this time? "No, I've been clean longer than that." How long then? "Mind your own business, hahaha! All you need to know is that I'm clean. The time is irrelevant."

Well, up to a point, George. If you've been clean for, say, four months or five months, it doesn't matter a great deal. If you've been clean for somewhere between 'since breakfast' and 'about half a week', the timescale does have a significance.

George is convinced that he has put his past behind him:

"I'm not a road sweeper, I'm not a drug addict, I'm a musician."

Unfortunately, George, you're perceived as being all three. And not so much musician these days, either. When even the local papers are more interested in your addictions than Karma Chameleon, you're facing a massive task to shift that perception.

[Thanks to Michael M for the tip]