Boy George has recalled meeting Janet Jackson for the first time, claiming she was not friendly.
The singer-songwriter and former frontman of English pop band Culture Club wrote about the experience in his new memoir, Karma: The Definitive Autobiography.
According to “The Crying Game” singer – real name George Alan O’Dowd – the two met backstage during a 1983 episode of the variety show Solid Gold. He wrote that he approached her “without my face on”.
“She wasn’t friendly and didn’t try to be. But I just walked off and got myself into my best ‘Boy George’ and was walking around backstage to make sure I was seen by everyone,” he added, according to People.
Later when a cameraman asked him to record a message for Jackson, Boy George remembered saying: “Next time you meet someone, be nice.”
He described meeting Jackson in her dressing room after the show, where she apparently told him that she hadn’t recognised him earlier. He recalled asking her: “‘Are you saying you would have been nice to me if you knew who I was?’ We parted on awkward terms.”
When he ran into her years later on Top of the Pops, he said the “That’s The Way Love Goes” singer “looked straight through him”.
Boy George and Janet Jackson— (Getty Images)
Boy George told People: “When you write a book like this, there’s a chance you’re going to bump into someone that you’ve written about. I have to say what I’ve written about people is the truth of what happened and how they behaved.
“So I’m kind of comfortable with that. I’m always someone who’s prepared to bury the hatchet because there’s always another opportunity to be different,” he said, before adding that there are certain people, however, “that I’m never gonna be friends with unless a miracle happens”.
“And I guess I put her in that category,” he said of Jackson.
The Independent has contacted Jackson’s representative for comment.
Elsewhere in his memoir, he disclosed that he’s been using type 2 diabetes medication for weight loss following a tummy tuck surgery.
“I have struggled with my weight most of my life and being under public and media scrutiny doesn’t help,” George wrote. “We are all guilty of saying, ‘Hasn’t so and so got big,’ even when we are carrying extra pounds ourselves.
“I love food and I can’t control my appetite, but I think I have finally got it under control,” he continued. “Well, I’m on Mounjaro. Isn’t everyone? Trust me, anyone who was fat last year and is now skinny is on the wonder drug.”
Karma: The Definitive Autobiography is out now.
