Boy George on why he didn't play Live Aid: "I was engaged chemically"

Boy George has revealed why he didn’t perform at Live Aid, 35 years after the iconic charity concert.

The Culture Club singer, 58, says he didn’t take to the stage at the Wembley Stadium show because he was “otherwise engaged chemically”.

“I messed it up. I was otherwise engaged chemically,” he told the Grounded with Louis Theroux podcast.

“I mean, I think it was a stroke of luck that we didn’t do it because I wasn’t in a fit state to do it.”

He added: “We were originally asked but then I think everyone was just looking at the state of me and going, ‘this might be more harmful than good’. So, they basically didn’t follow up on it.”

This comes after it was reported that Boy George’s life will receive the big screen treatment, after Queen’s performance at Live Aid was immortalised in the biopic Bohemian Rhapsody.

Speaking in 2019, the singer named Game of Thrones star Sophie Turner as one of the possible candidates to play him in a biopic about his life.

Plans for a Boy George biopic were first mooted last year, with Sacha Gervasi writing and producing a feature film based on the Culture Club frontman’s life.

“It’s really strange, but that’s been a suggestion [I think] that will upset people, which I quite like,” Boy George said of Turner playing the role. “[People will say]: ‘Oh she can’t play you, she’s a woman!’

“But you know, when I was 17 I would have loved to have been her… that was the ambition!”

Turner has since responded to George’s comments, saying that she would be “SO down” to play him in the biopic.