Boy George has revealed Ant and Dec begged him to do I’m A Celebrity... Get me Out Of Here! – and has vowed to be crowned this year’s 'queen' of the jungle.
The camp 80s singer says he will give the show his all as he admitted he is being well paid for his I'm A Celebrity stint.
George, 61, is said to be picking up £500,000 for his time in camp.
Asked about being crowned king and winning I'm A Celebrity by the Mirror, George said: "Queen darling! It is about b***dy time isn't it, we are so fashionable now, the gays.
"Listen, I don't think you should go on a show like this if you don't want to do your best. I mean, it's the same as walking on stage. I don't ever walk on stage and think I will give a half level performance, you know. And I feel like I've been paid well for it so I'm going to be a Boy Georgey as I can.
"Will I sing? Of course, I will get involved in everything."
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The singer, full name George Alan O'Dowd, also spoke about how show hosts Ant and Dec personally played a crucial part in persuading him to sign up for the series.
The pair planted the idea in his head when they worked together but then also had further chats to lure him in.
George said: "I think I was asked a couple of times in the past. Then I went on Saturday Night Takeaway to do that a while back, I feel like I was set up by Ant and Dec.
"They said to me, what would make you do it and I said, 'if you did like a vegan or vegetarian one', And they said we can, and I thought 'oh s**t'.
It actually took a while because I talked about it with my manager, and then we stopped talking about it and I said 'oh I'm not doing it'.
"And then I spoke to Ant and Dec – and you know how charming they are – I spoke to them, and they just encouraged me you know, as they do."
George also insisted the ITV show has changed over the years and he wouldn't have done it in the past when things appeared more volatile – with rows and shouting matches happened most days on screen.
He explained: "I've always watched this show. It's not as aggressive as it used to be.
"You know, if you go back to like, you know, when say Johnny Rotten was on it, or Katie Price that was really hostile. And that's not something I would have enjoyed.
"I mean, I don't mind an argument or a debate and I'm excited about who might be in there and what might come up and, you know, I try to be an intelligent person.
"Geminis are quite open minded, we don't have fixed opinions about things. We're not overly moralistic. We're finger waggers you know, we understand that when people aren't comfortable in who they are, they act out and they can be aggressive because of that.
"And I think you just have to look at everyone, I'm a Buddhist, and I have to look at everyone as if they do have a buddha light that they forgot to turn on sometimes when they are not being nice."
Boy George and Culture Club enjoyed two number one hits as well as nine top tens and five top ten albums.
As well as singing, George also said he would chant away from camp to try to avoid annoying people and was convinced he would not get in too many rows thanks to therapy and studying The Three Principles which is a self-help guide.
He said: "Well all through my life. I've done various types of therapies. And in the last two years, I've been practising this thing called the three principles, which is, it's not really therapy as such, because it's about sort of how you manage your own thinking.
"I guess the best way to describe it is mind laundry, you know, where you kind of look at your reactions to things and I think, in a large part, it is about sort of taking a breath before you react, you know, in the sort of current culture.
"Because we have these devices where we can insult people and we can respond to people immediately. If you go back to like, the 80s or 70s, whatever. If somebody wanted to say something horrible about you they had to write a letter to a newspaper, or they have to be on some TV programme to voice their view."
He continued: "Whereas now everyone has access to giving their opinion straightaway. So I feel like if you are in the public eye you have to be more mindful of how you respond to them. So this sort of practice (Three principles) is very useful for pausing before you say what you might have said 10 years ago."
George dressed in a lion's mask when he landed in Brisbane Airport, causing much amusement.
Asked if he would roar into camp he said: "Well, I'm not a lion, but the thing about lions is they are quite lazy. They get the lionesses to do all the work and then they sit around, enjoying the spoils.
"I don't think I'll be that type of person. I mean, you know, boredom is something that I kind of fear."
* I'm A Celebrity starts on Sunday night on ITV at 9pm
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