13 February 2014
Newsdesk
Boy George can "identify" with Justin Bieber.
Heartthrob Justin's wild antics have landed him in the headlines a lot of late. He's been accused of causing $20,000 of damage to his neighbour's home with eggs, been arrested for DUI in Miami and had to hand himself into Canadian cops over claims he assaulted a limousine driver.
George's life hasn't been without scandal either. He's battled drug addiction and was sent to prison for assault and false imprisonment. The 52-year-old's life experiences mean he can understand where the 19-year-old singer is coming from.
"I can definitely identify with it completely and I can also identify with the fact that if you said anything to him, he'd laugh at you. Because I would have," he told Access Hollywood.
George has been sober for six years, but was previously addicted to heroin and arrested for cocaine possession. He admits that had someone tried to make him sort his life out when he was going through his issues, he wouldn't have paid any attention.
"If you said to me, 'You know what? You're messing this up.' I wouldn't have listened because you don't listen when you're that age. you don't and that's a shame because I could've saved myself a lot of drama," he said. "A lot of money as well."
The star feels lucky to have made many of his mistakes before the internet was such big business. He can barely imagine what it would be like to be hitting the headlines for life choices as a young man these days.
George joked there are already many photographs of him online which he "hates", so he can't deal with finding even more.
He also spoke about his decision to clean up his life. Before he made that choice he'd been through a lot, including his prison stint, and that contributed to him making some changes.
"I think leading up to getting clean was such a kind of drama for me. so many awful things happened that once I sort of got to that place where I decided. this has to stop, I kind of knew it's what I needed to do," he explained. "Since that day, you know, it's been pretty easy."
