Inside Boy George's First PEOPLE Feature — Opening Up About Culture Club and His Genderfluid Style in 1983!

Mar. 15, 2025

Boy George in London in 1983.Photo:Koh Hasebe/Shinko Music/Getty

Koh Hasebe/Shinko Music/Getty

Got that? OK. Now you need to know that George, 21, emerged from London working-class roots (his father, Jeremiah O’Dowd,ran a boxing club) to become founder and lead singer of the latest rock-theater phenomenon, Culture Club. Their debut album,Kissing to Be Clever, has gone platinum in England and gold in the U.S., and their reggae single, “Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?,” sold 6.5 million copies worldwide. A second single, “Time (Clock of the Heart),” went Top Five and a third, “I’ll Tumble 4 Ya,” is currently vaulting up the charts. Yet for all their gender-blending and onstage flash, Culture Club’s neatest trick is producing its ambitious and undeniably ingratiating merging of American soul, Caribbean reggae and British New Wave.

Boy George in ‘PEOPLE’ in 1983.

That’s not a bad landing for a lad who says he was booted out of school at age 15 for dyeing his hair orange. Even his father has come to terms with his outré son. “He began to dress outrageously at 15 and suffered considerably,” says Dad. “But he refused to give in.” Gloats George: “It’s people’s attitudes that have changed, not me.”

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Boy George in 1985.Dave Hogan/ Getty

Dave Hogan/ Getty

source: people.com