Original subtitles

This programme contains very strong language

On Christmas Day 2016,

we heard with shock and disbelief

that our dear friend George Michael had passed away.

Only days before,

he was putting the finishing touches to the film you're about to see.

This is George's film Freedom and it's his final work.

ADELE: # Looking for some

# Education

# Made my way into the night

# All that bullshit

# Conversation

# Baby, can't you read the signs?

# I won't bore you with the details, baby

# I don't even wanna waste your time

# Let's just say that maybe

# You could help me ease my mind

# I ain't Mr Right

# But if you're looking for

# Fast love

# If that's love in your eyes

# It's more than enough

# Had some bad love

# So fast love is all that I've got

# On my mind

# Oooh-ho

# Oooh-ho... #

MUSIC PLAYING QUIETLY

# ..all the lovin' that your heart

# Oh, yeah

# I can give you all the lovin' that your heart

# Desires

# Give you all the lovin'

# Baby, can't you see...? #

GEORGE: In 1988, George Michael

became the biggest-selling artist in the world.

This is the story of just how fame and tragedy intervened

to change his life for ever.

I was massively unhappy and lonely.

I remember standing there with a tear in my eye, thinking,

"I really don't know if I'll ever do this again..."

MUSIC: Freedom! '90 by George Michael

..and it changed everything,

from that day to this.

I was single, but I hadn't come out.

If I could have the self-awareness and the strength to walk away,

I could change my life.

I felt that stepping back

would save me from somehow screwing up my career.

MUSIC: Freedom! '90 by George Michael

Erm... Yeah, Waiting, please.

Here we go!

I first became aware of George Michael's music

when I was probably like...I was definitely a little girl.

I think his music was really...

It's just there in your psyche,

I just think it's not even taken for granted,

it's just there in the ether.

# There ain't no point in moving on

# Till you've got somewhere to go

# And the road that I have walked upon

# Well, it filled my pockets and emptied out my soul... #

He's got a voice like an angel.

There's certain songs that you could ask George just to sing

and it would make people cry, just the resonance of his voice.

# ..and some of them are about you... #

It comes from someone who has felt pain

and it comes from someone who has a deep talent.

# Now I know there's no way I can right those wrongs

# Believe me

# I would not lie... # George is...

..in the category of many of us

who have been blessed with the gift of music.

# But you once said there's a way back for every man

# So here I am... #

There's no voice like his on the radio.

# Oh, don't people change?

# Here I am

# Is it too late to try again?

# Here I am. #

I genuinely believe that there's something very odd

about people in my position.

But the central belief that my musical journey

would be of my own making

has been the thing that's informed

almost every decision I've ever made,

in terms of my career.

I have a musical ability which was,

uh...

..powered as a young...

As a teenager, it was powered by this desperate ambition to be famous

and to be loved and respected, whatever. Um...

And all I wanted at that time was success.

# Sorry if I spoilt your plan... #

I had no master plan,

I didn't know if I was going to be a singer or anything,

but at school I met Andrew

and we formed this ska band called The Executive,

and we were terrible, basically.

But Andrew and I had already developed a knack

for writing these catchy little songs,

and we'd got together a couple of tracks -

one was called Careless Whisper and one was called Wham Rap.

# You got soul on the dole

# You're gonna have a good time down on the line... #

The '80s was probably one of the most depressing,

sort of, demoralising times

that we've ever had for young people in British history

because the recession, because of everything,

because of mass unemployment,

so I think music then was probably really, really important.

In terrible depression, you have the people that come out and say,

"This is terrible. This is terrible depression."

# This town is coming like a ghost town... #

And then you have the escapists, those who go, "Let's party!"

# Young guns having some fun

# Crazy ladies keep 'em on the run

# Wise guys realise

# There's danger in emotional ties

# See me, single and free

# No fears, no tears, what I want to be

# One, two, take a look at you

# Death by matrimony... #

It wasn't all sugary. He was singing about being on the dole

and having kids and, you know.

There was a bit of social commentary there and he was embracing this

new-fangled thing called rap, you know...

dressed like someone from West Side Story. We should have known then.

Then Club Tropicana taught us,

"Don't worry, you can suntan."

He predicted global warming...way before its time!

HE LAUGHS

# Club Tropicana, drinks are free... #

I mean, I can't get the little white shorts out of my head.

# Call me good

# Call me bad

# Call me anything you want... #

I'll be very honest,

I was a Culture Club fan

and we used to throw eggs at the Wham! fans.

They were massive, weren't they? Wham! and George Michael and that?

It was like... They were just fucking everywhere, weren't they?

# Baby, I'm your man... #

Anyone of my generation,

you really can't remember the first time you heard about George Michael

if you grew up in the UK because he's just part of the fabric...

..of it.

It was a time of Wham!, which was like a lot of fun.

I was going to clubs like Heaven, etc,

and we were having a lot of fun and we loved it.

It was truly representing the time, you know.

I'm sure, our kid, my older brother, I'm sure he was...

I'm sure he had a bit of a Wham! moment, you know what I mean?

# Somebody told me

# Boy, everything she wants is everything she sees... #

I already felt I was too old to like them.

I felt a bit ashamed that I was liking this teen band,

but they were great. They had something else. They had a lot more.

# And now you tell me that you're having my baby

# I'll tell you that I'm happy if you want me to

# But one step further... #

Wham! itself was an absolute joy.

It was as joyous as it sounded.

They say youth is wasted on the young.

My God, what a wonderful joyride for two 18-year-olds.

# Yeah, yeah, yeah

# Na-na-na-na na

# Yeah, yeah, yeah Yeah-yeah

# Yeah, yeah, yeah...

There was a humour about Wham! that no-one ever gave us credit for.

We were so taking the piss out of ourselves half the time.

How can the country be in love with these two idiots?

I knew how to make these records

and how to make them jump out of the radio,

and the idea that just because I was wearing ridiculous shorts

and curtain rings in my ears

would actually stop people from noticing that,

when I look back, I still think it's kind of stunning.

By the end of it,

I had no doubt that I could become an international solo success

and it's as though there's always been a red, this red line,

I see it like a red line, which goes through everything,

like a staircase to whatever you're about to do next.

And I could feel that at the final concert.

I already had one foot in my solo career.

OK... CROWD CHANT

That's enough of that.

I'm not ever going to be a fan of a boy band, right?

It's not going to happen.

When he went solo, the whole thing went up ten notches.

# Time can never mend

# The careless whispers

# Of a good friend... #

I think he was the first one that was definitely an obvious teen band

to then go on to be a serious singer-songwriter

and take over the world.

# There's things that you guess

# And things that you know... #

It's still very rare for an act like that to go to America.

The '80s just spawned this handful of massive celebrities that were

constantly battling in the charts.

# That's all I wanted

# Something special, something sacred

# In your eyes... #

If I was looking for happiness, this was the wrong road,

but I don't think there's any way I could have controlled my ego enough

to have stopped me exploring the possibility

of being the biggest selling artist in the world,

so I went with full gusto into creating a new character,

you know, one that I thought would be resonant enough to stand up there

next to Madonna and Jackson and Prince.

And I guess I did that pretty effectively,

alongside what was a very, very commercial record.

# Well, I guess it would be nice

# If I could touch your body

# I know not everybody

# Has got a body like you... #

The attitude, he was creating, like a personality, as we call it.

He was very charismatic and every video had a very strong impact.

# Oh, but I need some time off

# From that... #

He's, like, in jeans, you know,

tight and sexy, like a rock image, moving with the hips like that.

A little like Wham! before, you know?

A little like that, but more, like, sexy.

Check this out then, modern-day Elvis.

# I gotta have faith... #

I liked the spirit of Faith because you do have to have it.

I remember his "baby"...

# Baby! #

Yeah, I remember that.

I didn't realise that people would look at the Faith image

and go, "Fuck, that's cool".

# ..giving you the blues

I was really, really overwhelmed by the size of things, I suppose.

I lived in fucking sunglasses.

I couldn't make eye contact with people, it was bizarre.

# And another who tied me down to loverboy rules... #

I still suffered terribly with insecurity about my looks.

It goes back to a family background,

where conceit of any kind was considered an absolute sin,

so no-one was ever praised about the way they looked.

# Well, I need someone to hold me

# But I'll wait for something more

# Yes, I gotta have faith... #

Faith was number one in Britain for one week,

but, in America, number one for 12 weeks.

And then on top of that, he had four number one singles,

a number two single and a number five single.

In 1988, he was the biggest pop star in the world.

All I remember is Faith being played 50 times a day on MTV.

You had to be in heavy rotation on whatever pop station you were on.

Duran Duran, David Bowie, Eurythmics was played on MTV like constantly,

played on all the video stations.

You really didn't hear any of those artists,

but you heard George Michael on some of the urban stations,

right after Luther Vandross.

His music broke the rule to everybody.

In America, radio play, for me,

was substantial on a lot of R&B stations.

He uniquely achieved recognition on the R&B soul charts that very few

white performers ever got.

He obviously had studied American soul music

and felt a connection and a kindred spirit.

We were introduced to each other, so we're going back now to about '86,

maybe, and it was his thought

that he wanted to do a duet with one of my artists.

# When the river was deep

# I didn't falter

# When the mountain was high

# I still believed

# When the valley was low

# It didn't stop me

# Didn't stop me No!

# I knew you were waiting

# Someday Somewhere

# Some way Somehow

# For me... #

It was great that I had my own voice

and that I'd worked with Aretha Franklin

and everything had gone so well.

From an artistic point of view, it just got better and better.

George Michael's voice, to me,

was always very soulful and was very warm and sultry and urgent.

He had soul, period.

Soul is an expression of the soul, of the heart.

It was good to be number one in the black charts,

it was an amazing thing to see, obviously.

England has a great love affair with American black music and R&B,

and a great tradition of our own interpretation of soul music.

I think that he's...he's kind of up there at the pinnacle of it.

# But remember this Every other kiss

# That you ever give Long as we both live

# When you need the hand of another man

# One you really can surrender with

# I will wait for you Like I always do

# There's something there

# That can't compare

# With any other... #

Making that album, I'm sure I was incredibly proud of it,

but I don't think I ever imagined it would be bigger than Wham!.

NILE RODGERS: I imagine that the pressure on someone like George

must have been insane

because he was doing stuff that was just so...phenomenal.

After you have that kind of success, like, what do you?

What do you go home at night and go...

"Now what do I do?"

I do remember it being shocking to me

that I could become more successful than I had been with Wham!.

I suppose the whole exercise was an effort to raise my profile,

to kind of define what my solo image was going to be,

but I really had no idea how effective it was going to be,

especially in America.

And I had no idea what it was like to be that big in America.

George is really, really private and I think, when he was young,

with all that fame, I think it came too fast

and it wasn't actually what he was expecting.

I was probably most out of control, in any kind of sense like that,

during the whole Faith thing.

Being caught in the eye of this storm is catastrophic,

it's just 24/7,

full-time, in your face.

I mean, the wind burn is terrible.

I can't really explain how overwhelming

that kind of hysteria can be

if there's only one person to absorb it.

When I was with Andrew,

it was so easy to keep one foot in my old life,

the life that I'd known with him before we'd been famous.

It was so easy to keep each other grounded and to take the piss out of

each other, and be able to look at each other

and talk about the madness that was going on around us.

But when you can't do that, suddenly it is scary.

I don't know many 24-year-olds who would not have...

..at least subconsciously,

found that frightening enough to self-destruct.

Now the problem is, the record came out everywhere in the world

pretty much at the same time,

so everybody wanted a piece of George to help promote the album.

Enormous pressure. Huge, huge pressure.

Ten months of that was enough to really push me to the edge.

I was terribly lonely.

Me and my red line were very lonely...

..and the only good part of my day was playing live.

When I sang Careless Whisper,

I can't remember which was the last gig on the American tour,

which would have been the end of the whole tour,

I think it was Pensacola.

But when I sang Careless Whisper that night,

I remember standing there with a tear in my eye, thinking,

I really don't know if I'll ever do this again.

# Time can never mend... #

WILD CHEERING

# The careless whispers

# Of a good friend

# To the heart and mind

# Ignorance is kind

# There's no comfort in the truth

# Pain is all... #

CHEERING

I was intelligent enough to know I should not be

trying to catch up with Michael Jackson, or Madonna,

or whatev... Which was absolutely what I was intent on doing.

I felt that tired and exhausted

at being the centre of that much attention.

I suppose the way my lack of mental balance showed itself was

that I actually really began to hide away when I got home.

And I did almost nothing for a year,

but try and re-establish some idea of a real life.

Music was my very controlling lover.

I had millions of lovers that I never saw,

other than in the sense of live work.

But I still deserved one, just one of them, for me.

And I knew that the only way I was going to find that one person,

that lover, was to jump off of the merry-go-round,

just for long enough to catch my breath.

And letting my heart rule my head, rather than, you know, the red line.

The red line that goes up, up, up, up, up.

Sometimes you feel like...

..he's got like a layer or two of skin missing.

Like he just...

Like he bruises easier,

and because of that, he can write these amazing songs.

I never wanted to be someone else,

I wanted to be a star and I wanted people to love me

and recognise me in the street.

As a child, that's what I wanted.

But I never really wanted to be someone else.

I believe I am a writer much more than I am anything else.

And I want to leave songs.

I believe that I can leave songs that will mean something

to other generations.

This award is for Favourite Soul and R&B Album.

And the winner is...

George Michael!

AUDIENCE SCREAMS

George Michael!

I've been a lover of soul music since I was a kid.

And I'd just like to thank everybody who's helped me this year.

I'd like to thank to thank black radio,

I'd like to thank everyone in CBS Records,

in the R&B department,

and I would like to thank everyone who voted for me,

I can't believe it. Thank you very much.

I won these two awards that were traditionally received

by black artists.

And I think there was a perception that it had gone too far.

The black male artist works very hard to get his due.

If Bobby Brown had across-the-board play,

and he could compete in the same categories

George Michael competes in,

that would be a whole other thing.

That was the same point in time that Public Enemy arrived,

Spike Lee arrived.

Playback!

Spike Lee, what's up? What's up, Flava Flav?

PE's in the house. Mad power, G.

Flav, I saw you on the American Music Awards.

What's George Michael doing there?

How'd he win all the awards?

How'd he win the R&B category...?

Suddenly, crossover was not hip.

I see their point, I totally saw their point at the time.

I just felt it was sad, you know,

that white and black people recording together,

suddenly was kind of dancing with the enemy.

You mean George is white?

Are you serious? Oh, my God.

And he is blind, right?

I think it had a huge effect on George because he'd

won in this category,

he'd achieved something that was beyond his wildest dreams,

only to have the carpet pulled from under his feet.

I don't think there's any attempt to kind of...

..steal black heritage in what I'm doing,

all I think that's happening is I'm trying to make good music.

Music is not based on the colour of one's skin,

or, you know, they say, "Well, this is soul music or this is pop."

To me, these things are like, it's kind of old, you know what I mean?

I suddenly couldn't get anywhere near a radio, black radio.

That was the reason, really, Listen Without Prejudice was called

Listen Without Prejudice.

It was me saying here is an album that has bits

of gospel, you know, bits of R&B,

some very white stuff,

and it was just me trying to say,

let me be both of these things

without having to be one or the other.

I don't know if I bought it, stole it or it just sort of like,

just got delivered.

You know what I mean? Sometimes you get albums like that,

you know what I mean,

they're that great, they just end up in your house.

What can I say about the sound of it? It's very ethereal,

it has a mystery about it.

George, on this album, got everything he had inside his gut

on to vinyl or CD or cassette.

Thank God he did.

Let's have a party, pop pickers.

MUSIC STARTS

A-fucking-1.

This song now, it's just got such a big opening,

and message, actually, I think.

That opening, it reminds me of John Lennon.

Like, of one of John's solo albums.

# These are the days of the open hand

# They will not be the last

# Look around now

# These are the days of the beggars and the choosers. #

When I listen to George Michael songs,

I think not only has he tapped into his dark side of whatever's going on

in his life,

but he's tapped into the truth about who he is and what he is

and what life is and he wasn't afraid to share that with us.

# The rich declare themselves poor

# And most of us are not sure

# If we have too much

# But we'll take our chances

# Cos God's stopped keeping score

# I guess somewhere along the way

# He must have let us all out to play

# Turned his back

# And all the children crept out the back door

# And it's hard to love. #

Not only really just his writing,

but it's the vocal performance, you know.

And it's always just like...

..it just always feels so honest.

You just believe kind of every word that he sings and even the

ad-libs, even him throwing out a line was like,

better than most people's verses.

When I hear that, it's right up there, you know what I mean?

And then you're getting the lyrics.

The one that jumps out is, the rich declare themselves poor.

I like it because it's got a bit of a dig, you know what I mean?

It's like, I mean that's the way I take it anyway,

it's like you bunch of fucking cunts,

always fucking playing the poverty card.

I like that because it's got a bit of a Lennon vibe,

he likes to dig people out.

There was no-one before The Beatles that did them kind of songs.

It's a classic, it's up there.

I'd say it could have been cut from the same cloth as Imagine,

you know what I mean?

It's a bit much, innit?

I didn't expect to be as moved as that.

# Let me tell you a secret

# Put it in your heart and keep it

# Something that I want you to know. #

It was my time to discover The Beatles.

And at the time, I was big into Abbey Road and Revolver, you know,

and it's the people that you are trying to emulate sometimes that can

bring you up.

I made one record to show how much I loved Lennon,

I made another record to show how much I loved McCartney.

I didn't dream that McCartney would ever sing it.

And actually when he sings it,

it sounds like a Paul McCartney record.

Next week, we are going to do some vocals, yeah?

Cos you're in for a few days.

# I can heal the pain that you're feeling inside. #

It was the most surreal moment of my career, I think,

to have Paul McCartney singing something that I wrote as a tribute

to Paul McCartney.

I don't think I would have had the nerve to ask him when I wrote it.

Sounds like a fucking group.

Cool.

# I'll be good to you

# I can make this thing true

# And get to your heart somehow. #

Yeah, go on, lad!

OK.

You know, the man forgot to introduce me.

But I heard the beginning of Baby You Can Drive My Car start up.

There's this bit of film of me going...

So that's what I did, I just ran on

just before I was suppose to sing the chorus.

# You can do something in between

# Baby you can drive my car... #

I haven't done this in a long time.

MUSIC STARTS

See how piano-based the album is?

# No more lying friends

# Wanting tragic ends

# Though they do pretend

# They won't go when I go. #

I mean, it sounds like Stevie.

I love this song.

I hear...

..so much...

..like, exhaustion.

Like, not exhaustion in him as an artist,

but exhaustion in him, you know,

as a human in this world we live in.

I hear...

..a fight.

SHE CHUCKLES

Sometimes, you know...

..you definitely hear the pure talent.

Pure talent.

I hear hope.

Brilliant.

They Won't Go When I Go, for sure.

Like that was...

That was probably my introduction even to Stevie Wonder.

The version that he did of They Won't Go When I Go,

it brings back a lot of memories because,

it's a thought that at the end of the day,

we come...

..alone in this world and we will die alone.

It's what we do in-between that's going to determine how and what

we'll be remembered as and what we can think about in spirit.

So, it's great to hear him sing this song.

I'm actually crying, so...

You know, it takes a massive amount of bravery

for George to do a song like that.

When you go into an area

that you know is sort of like sacred ground...

You're going to a place

because your heart tells you to go there.

You have a love of something and you want to be...

You want to live in that world.

The reason for me doing so many Stevie Wonder covers,

I've done, in over various sets,

I've done like four or five Stevie Wonder covers,

and apart from the fact that I consider him

to be an incredible writer,

his voice, the key that he was writing for at that time

is perfectly suited to my voice.

# His patience's long, but soon he won't have any

# To find a job is like a haystack needle

# Cos where he lives they don't use coloured people

# Living just enough, just enough for the city... #

Stevie, one more time!

Well, George reminds me of me as a little kid, you know,

my passion for music.

He and I doing Living For the City, I remember that,

it was a lot of fun.

Chemistry is something that you can't fake.

It's about how you relate to each other and how it connects.

I'm aware of the need for a persona,

and my actual persona, I'm not really prepared to give.

I'm a real home body, I'd much rather be...

..taking my dog for a walk or, you know, be with friends.

I feel like I don't belong out there,

being this professional person going round selling his wares.

He had a much harder journey than me in a way because if you get fame and

accolades and wealth beyond your wildest dreams, as a teenager,

it usually goes wrong.

But he obviously had a wiser head on his shoulders than most.

I think a lot of young musicians now are kind of, you know,

what's the word, manufacturered.

And I think for him, he didn't ever want to be like that.

Part of his reactionary way was to break away from all of that.

I was still struggling with the idea of having that much attention

and I think I recoiled from that,

and I felt that stepping back would save me from

somehow screwing up my career.

I see kind of hard sell promotion as prostituting myself,

I can't help it.

Even if it's a complete fallacy, that's how I see it.

I'm of that generation.

He felt he needed to withdraw from the merry-go-round that is

promoting albums.

I'll explain in a very articulate way that he just felt he had

to withdraw from that, for the moment, for his own sanity,

that we'd probably get more albums out of him if we just allowed him

to back off.

It was quite a bombshell, I suppose, for us to have to deal with it.

The fact he didn't do any promotion of it, it begs, you know,

it's quite astonishing.

MUSIC STARTS

What's coming up now is one of the great intros...

Boom, boom, bap, ba-boom, ba-boom, bap.

..and it's not me on piano either.

Which is...

I always hated him for that.

# I won't let you down

# I will not give you up

# Got to have some faith in the sound

# It's the one good thing that I've got

# I won't let you down

# So please don't give me up

# Cos I would really, really love to stick around. #

Freedom! '90 is kind of like this funk-groove masterpiece that

just comes in on like track two.

You're striving to make something every time you go in the studio

half as good as a record like that.

It's the Mona Lisa.

# Heaven knows I was just a young boy

# Didn't know what I wanted to be. #

Big judgment. He is not there.

He doesn't appear.

Beautiful girls out there, the top, top, top, top, top models.

If you're going to say to your record company, "Look,

"I'm not going to be in this video,"

I'd say that's a fairly good consolation prize, really.

Five absolutely gorgeous super models that people still want to

look at today.

It changed the whole face of how videos were done.

The video said everything.

It was genius and it was a revolutionary thing.

George had raised the bar to a whole new level.

That was like a big statement.

It was really well done.

It could have been a disaster.

It was a specific group of women that George wanted and had just

been on the cover of British Vogue that was shot by Peter Lindbergh.

It was like, "He wants you five and it has to be all of you five."

Now in fashion, there is no super models.

Like this, this is gone.

It was like the magic moment of modelling.

I suppose that's the lasting memory of that whole video shoot,

was the cost of the girls and the fees they were charging

on a daily basis, that was pretty ground-breaking.

George pitched it to me in LA and his exact words were,

"You're the leader of the gang and unless you say yes,

"the rest of the girls won't."

His people talked to my people.

Yeah. You know how it went back then.

It was like, "Well, is Christy doing it?"

My scene where I'm sort of crawling on the ground,

you can just my eyes and people think like,

"Oh, that's so like sexy and mysterious."

It was just really...

I didn't know the words.

I prepared in the trailer with George.

He showed me how to hit the notes and it's hard to lip-sync.

David Fincher was directing it,

and even though the shot ended up looking

like the steamy bath scene, there was no water in the tub,

I was freezing cold, I was covered in glycerine to make my skin shiny,

and I kind of thought, "I hope Fincher knows what he's doing."

I remember David and George working closely together.

He was right there looking through the lens at times.

Everything suited each girl.

I think it was just strong, and we were all so different.

It's such a fun song.

You listen to the words and kind of the statement,

it has much more meaning.

And I feel like that whole time for George Michael

was about him saying, "Enough, like, you guys tried to pre-package me

"and sell me in a way that wasn't authentic."

# All we have to see

# Is that I don't belong to you

# And you don't belong to me

# Freedom

# I won't let you down

# Freedom

# I will not give you up. #

You can see the biker jackets, which is burning, like, with fire.

So, it's, like, symbolic.

I got the impression he was saying that chapter's closed

and I'm done being a public figure pop star.

The burning of the jacket,

the exploding guitar,

the exploding juke box was me just saying, "I'm sick of this,

"I really can't cope with it."

Not only were we not going to get him appearing

in promotional videos,

but we weren't going to get his image on the album sleeve,

we weren't going to get his name on the album sleeve.

Would I have chosen an album sleeve that wasn't a beach shot,

taken from 1940 or whatever it was?

Yeah.

Would I have liked his name on it? Yeah, of course I would.

A lot of people are just pimping themselves out 24/7,

you know what I mean?

And the mystique about George Michael...

# But today the way I play the game has got to change

# Oh, yeah, oh, yeah

# Now I'm going to get me some happy. #

Making records is fun, and then you have to

talk about it, which is not fun.

Yes, I thought it was bonkers.

But then it all makes sense, doesn't it?

When I spoke to the Los Angeles Times about

stepping back from promotion,

Frank Sinatra wrote me an open letter that just said, "You know,

"get over it, be glad that God gave you a gift,

"and get out there and use it."

I don't think he wrote the letter.

I actually believe that was the work of a publicist,

not the work of a genius.

What a wonderful letter.

Here, probably the greatest male singer of all-time is saying,

embrace your talent, enjoy the success, don't be threatened by it.

Now even though he's the greatest singer that ever walked the planet,

as far as I'm concerned,

I wasn't taking any advice from Frank Sinatra.

You can't put a gun to any creative person's head and say,

"Create, write, promote, market, whatever."

You just have to go with it. That's what we had to do.

By now, even though I delivered them what I thought was a great album

and a visual feast in the form of Freedom! '90,

Sony America was not promoting Listen Without Prejudice.

In the meantime, I did the one thing I was prepared to do - live work.

The basis for me going to do Rock In Rio

was I wanted to see Brazil.

# So you want to be free

# To live your life

# The way you wanna be

# Will you give... #

The front of those 160,000 people, there was this guy over

on the right-hand side of the stage that just

fixed me with this look.

And it was so cute.

I was so distracted by him, that I stayed away from that end

of the stage for a while,

because otherwise I thought I was gonna get really distracted

and forget the words or something.

# Tainted hearts

# Heal with time

# Shoot bad love

# So we can... #

The moment I looked at him, I got the feeling...

..that told me I was going to know him very well

and that he was gonna be a part of my life.

# Solitary brother

# Is there still a part of you that wants to live? #

Anselmo was the first time I think I really loved someone selflessly.

It was kind of immediate.

Everybody, with the exception of my family,

was introduced to him very, very quickly,

because I felt immediately that everything had changed.

# Solitary sister... #

All our friends knew, of course.

I remember seeing him and just thinking how I'd...

Just feeling so happy for him.

The two of them met and changed George's life.

It's very hard to be proud of your own sexuality

when it hasn't brought you any joy.

Once it's... Once it is associated with joy and love,

it's easy to be proud of who you are.

The first time you actually believe somebody loves you...

..that's a wonderful moment in your life.

And it was a wonderful six months.

What a poser!

He was just very full of energy, very loving.

I was happier than I'd ever been in my entire life.

He didn't care who saw him with Anselmo.

He'd found something. He'd found what he was looking for. You know?

By the time I met Anselmo, I had made the decision

to jump off the merry-go-round.

And I was already in the early stages of my confrontation

with Sony.

Recording an album...

...and then saying, "I'm not gonna to promote it,"

or, "I'm not going to market it, I'm not going to participate..."

..that's a serious detriment to an album.

I think we had some personality issues between...

Between people in the UK and people in the American company.

Why wasn't this Faith part two?

We wanted all those nice pop songs.

What do you mean he's not going to promote with...

We're not going to have his image on it?

It's like saying, "I'll do a movie but I...

"I won't go to one premiere.

"I won't do any interviews for the movie."

You know, you say, "Oh, my God."

The moment someone says to a musician or to an artist,

make more of them or do more of that, it kills you.

And I think probably for someone like George, especially...

at certain times in his career, he must've felt quite trapped.

In England, they made an effort,

and Listen Without Prejudice outsold Faith.

And lots of places it outsold Faith, because I think it was actually

a better album. But it wasn't about that.

It was about the total and utter lack of respect

that the minute somebody doesn't see themselves as a commodity,

they have the audacity to think,

"My God, I am actually creating something

"and I must keep myself sane in order to do that."

The minute somebody does that, they're over.

We tried very, very hard to get the American executives

to come over and listen to why George felt the way that he did

from George, cos there was no-one better to put that forward than

George Michael telling them, as he had told us.

The reasons how he really felt deep down.

But they wouldn't come.

There were executives that came to London in 1989

and we played them the record.

I explained to them that Faith had taken me to the edge of madness,

that I wanted to be a long-term player in this business.

Now, any logical CEO, I think, would have thought,

"OK, he's gonna do this. He'll get it out of his system

"and he'll get back on board."

George is very stubborn.

He's incredibly one the most stubborn people I've ever met.

But he was right to be stubborn on this occasion,

and I'm sure the record company recoiled in horror.

It was very much a clash of cultures, really.

In America, there was definitely a door that shut.

# But losing everything...

# Is like the sun going down on me. #

Mr Elton John!

I managed to have a couple of really big hit records in the meantime.

There was the track with Elton,

and, of course, the Red Hot + Dance album came out.

# Hey, you're just too funky for me

# I gotta get inside of you

# And I'll show you heaven, if you let me. #

It was very difficult to make that video.

It all fell apart, not for any of George's reasons.

It just fell apart...

and he saved it.

Linda, bless her heart, came back again.

We got a bit drunk.

I won't say any more about that.

It's your stupid, stupid song.

This would look great on me.

I think George should wear this.

So I realised at that point that if a hit record was not going to

reinstate any kind of relationship with Sony, then nothing was.

I don't want to pick a fight.

I just wanted to work with people who want to work with me

and who would have some respect for the fact that I was...

growing up.

It was deeply, deeply troubling times,

because you could see this... It was like trying to watch a...

train wreck in slow motion.

There was nothing you could do to stop it.

Anselmo and I were in LA when...

..he was advised to go for his test.

He hadn't been tested for a while

and he was absolutely healthy looking,

more than healthy looking, when I first met him.

Within a month or two of meeting him,

he had a flu that he couldn't get rid of...

..and some red marks that came up on his chest.

And I remember the kind of terror of...

..me understanding that this was possibly...

..the beginning of, you know, an illness.

I remember him leaving the house and...

..to this day, I remember...

..looking at the sky and saying, "Don't you dare do this to me."

I mean, I was 20... 27 going on 28.

But at that point in time, you think that's a lifetime to have waited

to be loved.

Anselmo had the test...

..in Brazil.

I went home to my family for Christmas

and sat at the Christmas table...

..not knowing whether my partner, who the people

sitting around the table did not know about,

not knowing whether this man I was in love with was terminally ill.

And, therefore, not knowing whether I potentially was terminally ill.

That Christmas was probably the darkest...

..DARKEST, most frightening...

..time in my life.

I remember my publicist calling me to tell me that Freddie Mercury

had died.

And he died of HIV obviously.

And I remember I was...

I was crying and...

He actually just thought... I mean, bless him, I was really sad

that Freddie had passed away.

But, of course, I was crying about something else entirely,

which was the fact that both my partner and possibly myself

were HIV.

It was an incredibly difficult...

..period for George, because it was something that he had

to hold close to his chest.

I was just absolutely devastated...

..to find out that he had a terminal illness.

I was just devastated.

# Each morning I get up, I die a little

# Can barely stand on my feet

# Take a look in the mirror and cry

# Lord, what are you doing to me?

# I spent all my years in believing you

# But I just can't get no relief, Lord

# Somebody # Ooh, somebody

# Somebody

# Can anybody find me somebody to love? #

Even by the time Freddie's tribute had been put together,

I was still sworn to secrecy.

# I got no feel, I got no rhythm

# I just keep losing my beat # You just keeping losing... #

I'm very proud of that performance, but Anselmo was in the crowd

and I went out there knowing I had to honour Freddie Mercury

and I had to pray for Anselmo.

# Someday I'm gonna be free, Lord!

# Find me somebody to love

# Find me somebody to love. #

But I just wanted to die inside.

So, it was so much to me, all in that one performance.

# Find me somebody to love

# Can anybody find me

# Somebody to... #

Come on!

CROWD: # Love! #

Yeah!

# Find me somebody to-ooh love

# Ooh # Find me somebody to-ooh love

# Find me somebody, somebody

# Somebody to-ooh love # Somebody to love. #

I was so overwhelmed by the sadness of singing the songs of this man

that I absolutely worshipped as a child, who had passed away...

..in the same manner that my first live-in partner

was going to experience.

It was just overwhelming to me.

# Anybody, find me somebody to love

# Yeah, yeah

# Oh. #

It's not an accident that the performance

probably most well-known in my career was sung...

..to my lover who was dying.

Who was the reason I had the strength to go to battle with Sony.

I saw it as, if I'm going to do nothing but love this man

and care for this man, if I could do nothing beneficial as a musician

because I cannot even think of a note,

maybe I have a chance to do something truly special and change

the standard record contract forever.

I didn't think that it would end up in court, at the time...

..because I really thought that sanity will prevail.

Well, I was wrong.

It didn't.

Our relationship broke down because they said,

"No, you are this kind of artist.

"This is the kind of artist that we sell.

"This is the kind of artist we know how to sell.

"And if you don't want to sell yourself that way,

"and you want to go off on this journey

"and find this other audience, we're not gonna support you."

The relationship had completely disintegrated.

George flew out to New York with his publisher

and basically, it was at that meeting that George

told the head people at Sony that he'd wanted out of the deal,

wanted a divorce.

What he was basically saying is, "How can I stay with a company...

"..who won't support me in any way when I feel so strongly?"

We issued a writ three days later.

I will never know if Sony and I would have ended up in court

had Anselmo not become ill.

I was absolutely terrified of losing him

and the prospect of watching him die of AIDS.

I was in LA and the phone rang,

and I was told that Anselmo's best friend in Brazil was on the phone.

And...

..then it all goes blurry for a long time.

He still, 23 years later, brings a tear to my eye.

He was... He was my saviour.

It's still very hard for me to explain how finding a companion

at that stage in my life...

..changed me.

And such a beautiful companion, such an amazing...

person.

I think, to some degree, the Sony court case was a perfectly

good place to put my anger.

I used to go and run on a treadmill every day and play squash

and do everything I could get rid of all of this anger and fear.

But that best place for it was court number one, really.

George, come on, George.

There was the part of my personality that could say,

"OK, fuck this! This can't all be bad.

"I've got to do something good with this time in my life...

"..and change the path of artists' lives."

One of Britain's most successful pop singers, George Michael,

is today asking a High Court judge to declare

his recording contract null and void.

He says the contract with Sony music is too restrictive and that

the company takes too much of the profits.

George Michael's counsel told the court that this case

is not about money.

Mark Cran QC argues that his client's contract

is in restraint of trade.

He stressed what he called its unreasonable length,

perhaps 12 to 15 years,

and he says it's drafted in Sony's favour.

For the music industry, this case could mean a dramatic shift

in power towards major artists.

How are you feeling after today's trial?

George, look up. Look up, George!

What is it going to mean for the record industry?

This was a worldwide, major artist saying to a record company

that the basic contract which record companies used was invalid.

If you really fall out with the people who control your

professional life...

..you have a right to walk away.

I think that is the right of every individual.

And the music industry takes away that right

from every artist it signs.

George is very, very brave. He's not afraid of anybody.

And he thought he was being wronged and he went out

and fought his own corner.

What we couldn't do was stand up and say, "Yeah, you're right.

"These contracts are slavery and they shouldn't be allowed...

"..your honour." We weren't going to do that!

You would have artist after artist queuing up...

to take their record company into court.

I can't think of one artist that supported me.

I know of a lot of artists who sat back and waited for the result.

But that's a different thing.

Artists like George Michael come along, if you're lucky,

once-in-a-lifetime. My feelings as the court case went on were...

that we'd lost him. How could you ever patch that up?

I'd never let on to George of the problems

until after he'd been in the witness box.

And I said, "It's not going well."

And, you know, you shouldn't raise your hopes at this stage.

The pop star George Michael loses his High Court battle

to break away from his record company, Sony.

In dismissing the claim, the judge, Mr Justice Parker,

ruled that the contract was both reasonable and fair.

The 30-year-old singer had argued that the agreement

was stifling his artistic development and he threatened

never to record for Sony again if he lost.

George Michael says he'll appeal against the judgment,

which he said condemned him to "professional slavery."

Having received this judgment,

I would like to reiterate the reasons why I embarked upon

these proceedings.

I have no right to resign.

In fact, there is no such thing as resignation for an artist

in the music industry.

Effectively, you sign a piece of paper at the beginning

of your career and you are expected to live with that decision,

good or bad, for the rest of your professional life.

I shall obviously take full advice from my lawyers.

But the initial view is that we have very strong grounds for appeal

and we hope to have the appeal heard as quickly as possible.

Thank you very much for your time and for all the support

that I've received since this action began. Thank you.

George, will you sing for Sony again?

After the court case was finished and I'd lost

and not just lost... I lost completely.

I mean, I lost on everything.

Every count.

They then called up and, you know, kind of said, well, isn't?...

Can't we patch things up? Kind of thing.

But I knew in reality that was like a formality.

They had to do that.

Erm...

But ultimately, the whole thing was a complete waste of time.

And I regret it to this day.

Looking back on it now, 25 years on,

my first thought is that I just think it's sad.

When you win a court case,

you're normally out there high-fiving and...

putting the drinks in. But I don't think anyone felt,

not on my team anyway, a sense of euphoria.

Certainly, there were no winners.

I mean, we won the court case, but we didn't win anything.

You've actually lost because you've lost the support of that artist.

George said in passing,

"David Frost wants to do an interview with me."

And I said, "You've got to do it."

They know you're a man of principle.

Now, you've got to be a man of principle who's totally obsessed.

Well...

What happens now is that we go to appeal.

I can't see any other way around it.

I mean, of course, there is the ultimate option

that an appeal at the House of Lords, which would take...

forever. Oh, it was all bluff.

I mean, they intended to take it to the Court of Appeal in the UK.

Never to the House of Lords, never to the European Court of Justice.

They can only lose...

by going to appeal.

Everybody was watching. Erm...

including David Geffen.

No-one was going to let a talent like that flounder out there

for very long.

So David Geffen contacts Sony and said to them...

"Listen, guys...

"He's never, ever going to make another piece of music

"for you. Ever.

"You might as well let him go."

I flew to New York, had a very quick meeting there, where basically,

you know, we agreed that the contract would be sold.

I was like in seventh Heaven.

Sony said, "We want this transfer fee" and...

It would've bought you a top class footballer.

It probably would've even bought you Lionel Messi in those days.

In the end, he did whatever he did with David Geffen and Virgin and...

basically bought himself out of the contract.

Was it a good decision in hindsight of history?

I'm not sure.

George unquestionably...

lost the battle but won the war.

Because he got the freedom that he craved for.

Cos he felt he had to get away.

Peace to George Michael.

CHEERING

Peace.

I think the whole experience of losing Anselmo,

the period of grief, roughly two years,

that I didn't write a note of music...

And then, the absolute knowledge

that the next album I was going to write

would be about grief and recovery.

Older is my greatest moment.

# Kindness

# In your eyes I guess

# You heard me cry

# You smiled at me

# Like Jesus to a child... #

I sat at a keyboard, played a very simple string part,

stream of consciousness rubbish comes out my head.

Just rubbish.

And then, I sang "like Jesus to a child".

And I thought, Oh, my God.

That's him.

That's him and me.

Like Jesus to a child.

# But now I know

# When you find a love

# When you know that it exists... #

Then I was so excited that I'd finally been able to put my feelings

about Anselmo into words.

And within a week of writing it,

I was singing it in front of the Brandenburg Gate,

playing my first kind of public tribute to him there.

# Well I've been loved

# So I know just what love is

# And the lover that I kissed

# Was always by my side...

# Oh the lover I still miss...

# Was Jesus to a child. #

I just celebrate people who are able to use their joys

and their pains to really help people to heal.

I think I wrote the best, most healing piece of music.

It was all systems go from that point on.

# In the absence of security...

# I made my way into the night

# Stupid Cupid keeps on calling me

# And I see lovin' in his eyes

# I miss my baby ... #

For anyone who had a clue

about any kind of symbolism, I was coming out.

And you know, Fast Love makes me laugh,

because it's all about cruising and covering my pain.

Blunting out that pain with fast love.

Simple as that.

# I do believe that we are practising the same religion... #

There's not one track on that album that is not about Anselmo,

about the risk of AIDS, which was Spinning The Wheel.

# Watch you spinning...

# That wheel for me...

# You've got a thing about danger

# Ain't you getting what you want from me?

# You've got a thing about strangers

# Baby that's what we used to be

# That's what we used to be

# You've got a thing about danger baby

# I guess the hungry just can't see

# One of these days you're going to bring some home to me... #

I believe I was destined to feel that particular pain

so that I could do the ultimate with my music in terms of healing.

And the number of people who come up to me and say,

"Oh, you don't know how much you helped me with Older

"when I lost this person or when I lost that person..."

# Give me time

# And I'll lead you...

# Back to... #

# You've got a thing about... #

And the winner of the Best Male Solo Artist is...

George Michael!

CHEERING

Now, unfortunately...

George cannot be here tonight.

But I...

But I have a message from him.

And I've got to read it out.

And it says, "to everybody here and everybody watching at home,

"I would like to apologise for not attending tonight's award show.

"I would genuinely have loved to have been there

"to say a huge thank you..."

I had about a six-month period where things were OK

and I was recording Older.

Then I found out that my mother had cancer.

I was so...

spiritually crushed after Mum died.

So crushed and so...

Felt so bloody picked on by the gods, you know?

For all of my adult life, she was phenomenal, absolutely phenomenal.

A terrible...

Horrible loss.

From the day that I found out about my partner,

to the day that I could say

I actually felt that I was well on the mend from my mother,

it was just constant... fear.

It was either fear of death or...

Or fear of the next bereavement, you know?

And I just took it very, very badly.

Very badly indeed.

I've never felt that kind of depression.

I felt... It was something different to grief.

It was on top of grief, because I was grieving for my mother still.

But it was something else. It was...

I felt like...

A sportsman that...

had had a terrible injury in the middle of...

an incredibly successful career.

I'm so,

so much more aware of how intrinsic to my entire being it is

to be able to create music.

Having lost it for three or four years of my life,

I really did, I lost... the music at the centre of me,

which was like losing God for me.

It really was. It was the darkest, darkest time.

GEORGE GROANS

But even when I've lost control,

even when I've really hit rock-bottom, I believe...

that the red line is still there.

There's a part of George which is really private.

His inner soul is quite private.

There's a space for him and I think that's why, you know,

he's writing his music, he's performing...

All of that is this big external thing.

But all of that comes from some really private internal place.

I think if George wasn't like a superstar musician,

he'd be an accountant that writes poetry every night.

Do you know what I mean?

CHEERING

I'd just like to say very genuinely, I'm...

really touched by this, er...

The first half of the '90s was pretty crap for me.

And, er...

1996 has kind of made it all worthwhile.

Thank you very much. CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

It always feels better when you're able to, you know, to be yourself.

To just be you.

And, erm...

Being you means, you know, not being afraid or ashamed...

of sharing the gift that you've been given.

One, two, three, yeah!

# Star people...

# Counting your money till your soul turns green... #

George is authentic.

And there aren't that many authentic artists around.

He's real. He's not mass-produced. He isn't owned, he isn't...

He isn't bossed around by anybody.

He's never been bossed around by record companies.

He's done exactly what he's wanted to do.

You know, and everyone had this go about him

because he didn't come out when he was 18.

Loads of people didn't come out when they were 18.

Especially when they've got signed at some fucking giant record label.

But boy, did he come out later in a big way.

# And yes, I've been bad

# Doctor won't you do with me

# What you can? #

When he came out, I wanted to go, George, you don't need...

We know!

Don't make a song and dance about it.

And he did. He did a song about it, didn't he?

Did a whole song and dance about it.

# You want it, you got it I never really said it...

# Before... #

He's fearless. He disarms...

the press, cos they think they've got him.

They say, "Oh, you did this." And he goes, "Yep".

"And?" And then when they went, "Ah, you're gay!"

He went, "Yeah. Sorry I didn't call you."

You know what I mean? He didn't call everyone.

Listen... I think people genuinely adored George.

Not just the music...

But they feel for him and his struggles.

He's a villain.

George Michael is probably my favourite singing convict.

Bless him.

He did his time. We're all imperfect and we've all made mistakes.

George has made his mistakes sometimes publicly.

But people are willing to forget, because underneath,

I know for a fact George is one of the most kind kindest,

most generous people I've ever met in my life.

# I'm your man...

His music feels like...

feelings or moments in your life that are personal to you.

Someone saying the very same thing that you felt. Go!

# If you're gonna do it, do it right

# Right, do it with me

# If you're gonna do it, do it right... #

It feels like he just puts his arm around you and says...

"You're not on your own."

It's just such a journey.

He's just taken us on a journey with him.

# Baby!

# I'm your man! I'm your man!

I love it!

# You know that...

# Baby, I'm your man! Baby, I'm your man!

# You better...

# If you're gonna do it, do it right... #

Without that sketch, I don't think I'd have a...

successful show in America.

Because... There was something so joyful about it,

there was something so brilliant about being with him that made us go, oh...

I wonder if we can do that with other artists?

In Extras, George played George Michael, on Hampstead Heath,

looking for fun. I've only got 20 minutes, actually.

I'm on my lunch break. He just nailed it.

He gave us that sort of decadent...

almost bored rock star...

Lunch break? Yeah, I'm doing community service.

Are you still doing that?

Oh, not that one, no.

I'm doing another one now, I'm picking up litter now.

All right. What did you do wrong this time?

Fly-tipping, believe it or not.

It was great. It was really, really great.

I was, I was really...

really knocked out on how good an actor he was.

And such a sport.

Well, I'd better get going cos, you know,

I'm going to have to get back to work soon.

Come on then, you. I'll give you a quickie. Oi! I'm not that desperate, matey.

Cheeky bastard!

# I'll be your sexual freak... #

I think he's challenged the stereotype of...

the gay man, as well.

And what was acceptable.

Because, you know...

Even when people were out in, like, the '60s and '70s, they were safe,

sexless gay man.

Whereas George went, I've got a cock.

RICKY LAUGHS

That, that, that... That frightened some people.

Yeah.

Literally, I imagine.

You know something about George, he's really sexy.

You know? Really sexy.

And living with that, good-looking, sexy, talented...

You know? It's tough out there. TRACEY LAUGHS

He's very hairy, isn't he?

RICKY LAUGHS

# Doing it to me, to me

# I know that you're horny

# But there's something about that Bush ain't right...

BUSH LAUGHS

# Right, right, right... #

There's so many different facets to George.

And you can see him growing as an artist

and moving away from the original stuff into a more...

beautiful kind of Edith Piaf, Frank Sinatra territory.

But it's George.

# I know...

# How do you keep the music playing?

# The way I feel for her...

I just loved that he was very friendly.

We got along great.

He just walked in very prepared.

And he was so spontaneous he did it in one take.

I couldn't believe how...

equipped he was.

And I remember saying,

"Boy, this guy is going to be around a long time."

# Forever... #

I really am not in the business of selling myself any more.

When I do it, I want to do it properly.

# She takes the back road and the lane

# Past the school that has not changed

# In all this time. #

When he does up-tempo, it's full of joy.

And when he does sorrow, which is the true mark of a great singer,

you can hear the pain and everything.

He's a brilliant singer of lyrics.

It's an extraordinary talent to have.

# Just to give him life

# That man

# She loved that man

# For all his life... #

I absolutely, definitely know that George Michael

fits into the category of a great artist, a great performer...

# And rosebuds know to bloom in early May

# Now, I know deep in my mind... #

You could hear pain, you could hear joy,

I mean, you can hear everything in George Michael.

# And I'll be loving you...

# Loving you until the rainbow burns the stars out of the sky

# I'll be loving you! #

Mary J Blige and George Michael doing As, it was amazing!

The marriage of the two of them was just a magical...

experience of that song.

And I was in awe when I heard it.

# Now ain't that loving you? #

I know him as an extremely gifted artist

and I embrace the records that he made

with Aretha and Whitney.

Probably my two greatest vocalists.

# If we...

# Take this chance... Take this chance...

# And extend to each other romance And extend to each other romance

# I hope...

# Baby, I hope... #

You want to watch him, you're interested in him,

you want to listen to him, you want to know what he's got to say.

The impact that he's had, you have to see when you go to his concerts.

You have to really see it.

It is phenomenal.

So, would you like one more song? MUFFLED CHEERING

The word I think I'm hearing the most is...

# Freedom!

CHEERING

# Freedom!

# Freedom! Freedom!

# You've gotta give for what you take

# Freedom

# Freedom... #

When you play somebody a record like freedom, that music

is going to continue to mean something to people, like,

as long as it's heard.

# Freedom! #

And that's why you get to have a three-decade career.

# All we have to do now

# Is take these lies

# And make them true somehow

# All we have to see

# Is that I don't belong to you

# And you don't belong to me

Yeah! Yeah!

# Freedom...

# Freedom

# Freedom

# You've gotta give for what you take

# Freedom

# Hold on to my freedom! Freedom!

# Freedom

# You've gotta give for what you take

# What you take...

# Yeah...

Yeah!

# You've gotta give what you, give what you...

# May not be what you want from me

# Just the way it's got to be! #

MUSIC FADES OUT

What would you be hopeful for as a way to be remembered?

You mean what would I like written on my...?

Well, let's not go that far. OK...

But I mean, what would you hope the legacy

that's attached to your name is?

Great songwriter.

You know, and, erm...

I think two things. One...

You know, great singer-songwriter from a period of time

which I don't think will be, erm...

will be seen again. You know,

I don't think youth culture will produce people like...

myself and Madonna and Prince.

I don't think it's going to do that any more.

I think it's too fragmented now.

So I'd like to be remembered as one of those last...

kind of big stars

in the sense that there was a certain glamour to it.

But really, it's just the songs.

And I hope that people think of me as someone who had some kind

of integrity. And I hope I'm remembered up for that in a way.

Very unlikely. I think it's all been a waste of time.

Waste of effort.

# I'd say love was a magical thing

# I'd say love would keep us from pain

# Had I been there

# Had I been there

# I would promise you all of my life

# But to lose you would cut like a knife

# So I don't dare

# No I don't dare!

# Cos I never came close

# In all of these years

# You are the only one to stop my tears

# And I'm so scared

# I'm so scared

# Take me back in time

# Maybe I can forget

# Turn a different corner

# And we never would have met

# Would you care?

# I don't understand it

# For you, it's a breeze

# Little by little

# You've brought me to my knees

# Don't you care?

# No, I've never come close No, I've never come close

# In all of these years In all of these years

# You are the only one You are the only one

# To stop my tears To stop my tears

# I'm so scared

# Of this love

# And if all that there is And if all that there is

# Is this fear of being used Is this fear of being used

# I should go back to being lonely I should go back to being lonely

# And confused And confused

# If I could

# I would

# I swear

# Oh...

# Yes, I swear...

# If I could

# I would

# I swear. #

Subtitles by Ericsson