The flamboyant singer and DJ has lived a colourful life - most of it in the public eye.

As the frontman for chart-topping Eighties band Culture Club, Boy George took centre stage with his wild outfits and elaborate makeup.

His catchy pop songs and outrageous style attracted famous fans such as Andy Warhol and Keith Haring. He was photographed by everyone from Richard Avedon to Lord Snowdon to Steven Meisel.

During the past 25 years, he's sold millions of albums worldwide while wearing his heart on his glamorous sleeve and developing a Class A drugs habit.

When Culture Club broke up, George continued to release solo tracks and also carved out a career as an international DJ. He's got his own record and fashion labels, has written a best-selling aurobiography and even had a bold attempt at photography.

Says George: 'I love being creative. I just have to do something. I can't sit still, I need the buzz,' he says.

It's that craving for a constanat high that's often landed him in hot water. But now it's time for Boy George to reinvent himself once again. This time as a good boy.

He insists he's finally going straight - at least as far as his drug-taking is concerned.

'It's true. I'm off drugs. I'm clean. I have been for ages,' says the entertainer who admitted to using heroin in his Culture Club days and who, in 2005, was famously found with cocaine in his flat in New York.

'Enough! I'm over it,' he says dramatically. 'I had nowhere to go with that. My soul felt exhausted. I reached a point where I said, "OK, I don't want to do this anymore", so I joined N.A. (Narcotics Anonymous) and my head's a lot clearer now.

'I'm 47 and I admit I needed to grow up a bit and take responsibility. My life's not all been about bad things, but I'm trying to learn not to be so selfish. I'm pretty good, but I'm trying to be better.'

Despite his excessive lifestyle and naked self-absorption, it's hard to dislike Boy George. He's got the sort of open, playful personality that draws you in, his tone is conspiratorial - like a gossiping granny - and his throaty laugh is infectious.

He's good at sounding sincere and it may well be genuine. But there's often an undercurrent of mischievousness with Boy George. You have to take what he says with a pinch of salt, which can be both irritating and irresistible.

But he's sincere when he talks about his beloved mum, Dinah, and the heartache he's cause her over the years. He says she is the biggest reason he's finally kicked the drugs.

'My mum spent years weeping and begging me to stop,' he confesses with his usual disarming candour.

'But all her warnings and advice fell on deaf ears. She said it was the happiest day of her life when I went to N.A.'

George says he's hoping it will be forever, although he admits to 'having an addictive personality'.

The man who once famously told reporters that he'd rather have a cup of tea than have sex, recently confessed to spending up to six hours a day trawling gay internet sites looking for casual encounters.

Says George: 'I think the internet was the best thing that ever happened to gay culture. I've made lots of friends there, not necessarily sexual.

'It's good to have an alternative to going to clubs. And you do meet interesting people.'

As for the shame he felt after his arrest in America led to him sweeping rubbish off the streets of New York as part of his community service, George is adamant that was a good thing and a turning point for him.

'I needed a good shake and that did it for me,' he says.
'They gave me a broom and I used it to make a clean sweep,' he adds, unable to resist a one-liner even while swearing he's deadly serious about his future intentions.

They include once again focusing on singing, saying by way of an explanation, that 'it's time.'
He says with irony, that he became a DJ because as a singer he was beginning to feel like 'the old man at the disco.'

''I retracted from pop music because it was becoming formulaic. It was all about what 15-year-olds were buying.

'Being a DJ felt fresh. There was a punk aspect to dance music which was how it was when I first started singing.

'But it's the other way round now. It's not hip, not underground any more. It's music for the masses. Now dance music has gone the way pop music went - formulaic rubbish.'

So Boy George is back on tour and he's really excited about it. Buzzing even.
'I'll be singing a handful of old songs and quite a few I haven't done for a while. I've reclaimed those Culture Club songs, I've gone through the stage of begrudgingly singing them. It feels good to be performing them now. I can't complain about them any more. It's exciting to still be singing live.'

Yes We Can is the name of George's latest single and it's a departure for him in that it makes a statement about party politics - American party politics.

Says George: 'I was inspired by the speeches of Barack Obama when I wrote Yes We Can.

'We've sampled his voice throughout the track using quotes from some of his many inspirational speeches; the song is about his journey and it's also about what I've been going through – it's very uplifting.

Adds George: 'It's a bit like the track by ? that sampled Martin Luther King's famous I Have A Dream speech.'

Does he think it will match the success of the likes of Do You Really Want to Hurt Me? and Karma Chameleon?

'I hope so. I would love to have a hit, to be honest, but not just for the sake of having a hit - it's doing something that I love and am proud of. I didn't make records in the first place to have a hit - it was just what happened.
'I'm back doing what I do best. And that's not getting arrested.'

* Boy George will be at Portsmouth Guildhall on Tuesday October 14.
For tickets, call (023) 9282 9282 4355, or go to www.portsmouthguildhall.co.uk
Yes We Can will be released on the Upside Records label on Sunday October 12.