Friday , March 29 2024
Michael, 42, was arrested in London early Saturday morning after being found by police slumped over the wheel of a car.

George Michael Arrested on Drug Charges

George Michael, 42, was arrested in London early Saturday morning after being found by police slumped over the wheel of a car. He was taken into custody and held on suspicion of possessing two separate Class C drugs, then bailed out.

“We were called by a member of the public to a man seen slumped over the steering wheel of a car on the street close to Hyde Park Corner,” a Metropolitan Police spokesman told the BBC. “A search of the man revealed what was believed to be controlled substances.”

Back at the end of the ’80s, George Michael came to a “underground club” I was DJing in the warehouse district of L.A. – at the time he couldn’t have been a much bigger star. His funky, rocking, sophisticated Faith album had been released in late-’87 and was a critical and commercial smash, winning the best album Grammy, going on to sell over 10 million copies and yielding number 1 singles “Faith,” “Father Figure,” “One More Try” and “Monkey,” and a number 2 with the steaming, percolating “I Want Your Sex.” The album thrived on the dance floor, MTV, urban, pop and modern rock radio and confirmed Michael a major league talent as singer, songwriter, producer, and pop star.

Michael’s tall, striking, modelesque female companion dragged him up with her to make a request, and he mumbled rather shyly something about me doing a “nice job.” I told him I thought his success was totally deserved and that Wham! — “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go,” “Careless Whisper,” “Everything She Wants,” “I’m Your Man,” “A Different Corner” — had been underappreciated and misclassified as a teenybop confection in this country. He smiled slightly, murmured thanks and they disappeared into the flashing, blinking miasma of the gyrating throng.

Since then, Michael has lost a companion to AIDS in ’93, lost a court battle with his record label Sony in ’94, lost his mother in ’97, was arrested for a sex act in a public restroom in Los Angeles the following year, leading to a public admission that he was gay.

In a 2004 documentary on his life, George Michael: A Different Story, directed by Southan Morris, Michael stated that he was retiring from public view and that his genre of music was “dead.” For a guy who is only 42, Michael sure acts old and defeated – I hope it isn’t so.

About Eric Olsen

Career media professional and serial entrepreneur Eric Olsen flung himself into the paranormal world in 2012, creating the America's Most Haunted brand and co-authoring the award-winning America's Most Haunted book, published by Berkley/Penguin in Sept, 2014. Olsen is co-host of the nationally syndicated broadcast and Internet radio talk show After Hours AM; his entertaining and informative America's Most Haunted website and social media outlets are must-reads: Twitter@amhaunted, Facebook.com/amhaunted, Pinterest America's Most Haunted. Olsen is also guitarist/singer for popular and wildly eclectic Cleveland cover band The Props.

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