Still, the music was always there, and the lyrical capability was always threatening to show its head.

Everything was meant to wind people up [in Make It Big ]. I don't know why we had this great pleasure in winding people up, but we really did think they would get the joke. And it backfired on us.

I think I'm getting there, but it's very hard to perform at my absolute peak when an awful lot of people come just to make their presence known, when the lights go down and all you can hear is people screaming.

I'm basically a control freak. It's not because I want to be. I'm not at all into the power play that's involved in it.

My American gay audience have continued to dance and sing to the music I make in a way that straight Americans haven't. I am grateful to them for that.

I think part of it has got to be compensation, yes, for the fact that when I was a kid, I wasn't particularly attractive. But at the same time I don't remember ever thinking, Oh, my God, I'm such a mess; I'm the ugliest sod in the class.

I had surprisingly little money when Wham! ended. You'd be very surprised how little, really, because you don't realize how much money it takes to maintain a band.