George Michael Recalls the Harrowing Moment(s) That Showed It Was Time to Leave Wham!

In the 1980s, George Michael and childhood best friend Andrew Ridgeley had huge hits as the duo Wham! And although the two ended their time together on a high note and with no drama between them, behind the scenes, Michael was at his lowest.

In just a few years together, Wham! became huge, with two No. 1 albums and record sales of over 25 million. After Michael announced his desire to pursue a solo career, the duo played a farewell concert on June 28, 1986 at Wembley Stadium.

“It’s not that we don’t want to still make records, we do occasionally,” Michael said at the time. “But I’m not 18 anymore. Andrew [Ridgeley] is not 18 anymore. Gradually, as we get older, the whole thing starts to become more and more forced in terms of sticking to the original formula that Wham! was supposed to be. I suppose it is just time to call it a day before it becomes, you know, really fake. We know we wouldn’t be enjoying it another year or in two years’ time. So, we thought we would quit while we’re ahead.”

But Michael Had Begun to Lose Himself

“I woke up one morning, and I realized that there had been a period in Wham! when I had actually completely forgotten who I was,” he said in a 1988 interview. “I had this depression for about eight months. It was a very self-pitying thing, sense of isolation and all that stuff.”

On top of feeling depressed, Michael was also very angry and began lashing out physically.

“I suddenly realized I have a vicious temper,” he said. “I got into fist-fights with friends, threw photographers against walls, acted very macho… terrible. In that period I lost my temper six or eight times. I wasn’t drunk or anything when I lost my temper. I was drinking a fair bit but it was worse that it happened when I wasn’t drunk because there was no excuse for my behavior.”

With Wham! behind him, Michael considered leaving the music industry entirely and had to reconcile who he really was with the version of himself he presented to the world.

“For a time I thought I really didn’t want to get back into the music business when we finished Wham!,” he said. “The problem was just that I had developed a character for the outside world that wasn’t me, and I was having to deal with people all the time who thought it was. So I made the decision to uncreate the person I had created and become more real. In retrospect I don’t think I could have made as clean a transition between Wham! and me without it. I needed a period where I could put things into perspective.”

Ultimately, Michael did successfully transition to a solo career, which led to even more success. He and Ridgeley remained friends until Michael’s death on Christmas Day in 2016 at age 53, and Ridgeley has praised Michael as “one of the finest, if not the finest, singing voices of his generation.”