“Insulted” Boy George hangs up on radio host in awkward interview
Boy George hung up on a Brisbane radio show early Friday morning after getting frustrated at the host for giving him an “insulting” introduction.
4BC host Neil Breen played a bit of the Culture Club song Karma Chameleon before introducing Boy George to his listeners.
“If you grew up like I did as a teenager in the 1980s then Boy George was bigger than a big deal here in Australia,” Breen said. “He was massive.
“His band Culture Club dominated the Australian singles chart from late ’82 into ’83 with two songs. Karma Chameleon was obviously their most notable one that we remember, but Do You Really Want To Hurt Me as well was their breakthrough song.”
Breen then said to his guest, “I’m a bit nervous, Boy George.”
But things didn’t start off as smoothly as expected when The Voice coach informed the host he wasn’t thrilled with the introduction.
“Especially after that terrible comment about my music. I mean there’s about 10 records you missed that were huge massive hits,” Boy George said, laughing.
The singer then proceeded to list a few of his other hit songs before saying, “I mean, please.”
The interview then went from bad to worse when Breen said to Boy George: “We know how big you were, you were big in my house.”
Boy George snapped: “No, no, please don’t talk about me like I’m in past context. It’s really insulting.”
Scrambling to get the interview back on track, Breen continued: “I don’t mean to insult you, I was just reintroducing you to the audience who remember those great days but also remember you now and how big you are on The Voice.”
But once again, Boy George was less than impressed.
“Reintroduce them to someone who has been on national TV in Australia for the last four years? You don’t need to reintroduce me. I’m on TV. Everybody knows who I am,” the singer said.
“I know that, Boy George,” Breen said. “But we’re just having a bit of fun. It’s a breakfast radio show.”
The comment was met with silence and it took a few seconds for the 4BC host to realise that Boy George had hung up on him.
“OK, well Boy George is gone,” Breen said. “We were trying to have a bit of fun here on this breakfast radio show and he was insulted that I played Karma Chameleon, but anyway.
“I didn’t want to insult Boy George but there you go. He hung up on me and that’s the way it goes.”
4BC is owned by Nine Entertainment, the same company that airs The Voice in Australia.
“I thought we were all in the Channel 9 tent, but anyway,” Breen joked.
“Sometimes pop stars, they’re funny, they’re finicky. If you play their old song that made them famous they want to disown it, so you know what we’re gonna do, we’re gonna play it again,” he said, before hitting play on the song.
And believe it or not, this isn’t the first time Boy George acted like a diva.
In 2017 he ended an interview with ABC Radio National’s Breakfast program, telling host Fran Kelly, “You’re boring me, goodbye”.