BOY George understands the ups and downs of fame. When the lead singer of British 1980s icons Culture Club arrived in Australia in 1984, he was mobbed by thousands of screaming fans.

"I remember ringing this friend of mine in London and laughing about it," he says.

Although he's still performing – he recently recorded a single, Time Machine, with James Blunt collaborator Amanda Ghost and has established himself as a successful DJ – George, 45, recently received more media attention for the five days he spent sweeping the streets of New York after being arrested for cocaine possession last year.

Rather than playing the drama queen, George got on with his chores "with style".

"I think people expected me to feel really low and ashamed of myself, and certainly that's not how I felt.

"I think if I were an ordinary deluded famous person, maybe I would feel like that. I think for someone like Elton John or Madonna it would have been quite traumatic."

Snide comments aside, despite his high-profile ups and downs, in conversation George comes across as honest, articulate and down to earth.

His mum, Dinah O'Dowd, recently published Salty Tears, an autobiography of which he is extremely proud. Her book is less about her famous son and more about her relationship with his violent father.

"I heard her on radio last week, and I was like, 'Oh my God, is that my mother?' To have survived what she went through with such dignity, to be able to be so articulate about it, is amazing. Every time I see her, it makes me want to cry. My mother's a goddess!"

Professionally, the pop superstar is going back to basics, up-loading his music on-line and posting his own videos on YouTube, including songs about his experiences at the hands of police and rebuttals to a recent unflattering British documentary, The Madness of Boy George.

Rather than being the "tragic has-been" he says they portrayed him as, the real Boy George is focusing on his DJ career – he is playing Sydney's Gay and Lesbian Mardis Gras as well as The Met in Brisbane – and fashion label B-Rude.

It's a return to his basics, as he started in the rag trade in London, running a small shop in Carnaby St before Culture Club took off.

"In a way I sort of have gone back to what I was doing in the very early days, because I don't really get any airplay on the radio, so I'm doing everything myself now. Everything's become much more organic.

"Which is in a way better, I think, because I spent my whole life battling against authority, and when I became a musician I had this dream that the music industry was the bastion of creativity, but you suddenly realise it's just really a bank.

"That's not really why I started making music, and in a way the success that I experienced with Culture Club was really accidental. It was great, I'm not complaining, but I had no idea that little girls would throw teddy bears at me."

What has he learned from his experiences? "I think every day is a challenge. Particularly if you live your life in the public eye.

I think a lot of people have an idea of what I am, and to an extent I encourage that. But human beings are multi-faceted. I'm not a soundbite. I don't want to be a quip in a hat."

 http://www.news.com.au/sundaymail/story/0,23739,21241166-7642,00.html#