Tomorrow, George Michael's 236th greatest hits package, Twenty Five, gets a U.S. release a whole year-and-a-half after coming out in Europe. You may recall mine and MoogaBoo's rather mind-blowing banterview we did on George -- "Dissing A Fool" -- when Twenty Five dropped in England.The British crooner is also embarking on his first U.S. tour in 17 years this summer. (XO London posted the dates last week.) But I don't know if I wanna go see this crunked-out old daddy live...I mean, what if he falls asleep, instead of the audience, while singing his old chestnuts?
Here's what George had to say to Entertainment Weekly in a small interview running in the current issue:
"I have no real intention of reawakening my career in America. I'm coming over to play because there are a million people in America that stood by me. I'm there to say thank you, then slink off. I want to divorce myself from pretty much everything public after the tour. In the future, I don't want to be making and releasing physical CDs, and I don't think I want to be charging people for my new music."Hooker, I got charged 99 cents this past weekend when I downloaded your 1986 jam "Take Me To The Edge Of Heaven" from the Wham! days. Why the hell isn't that one on Twenty Five, instead of these six new songs no one cares about? People want the hits, George -- the hits!!
P.S. I was floored to read on Wikipedia recently that the broad singing the Patrice Rushen/"Forget Me Nots" bit at the end of "Fastlove" is none other than an uncredited Siobhan Fahey, of Bananarama and Shakespear's Sister fame. Never knew that.