George Michael’s generosity has become the stuff of legends. Stories of his philanthropy — from supporting charities to doing simple, ordinary acts of kindness — came out after the pop superstar’s death in 2016.
One of those stories came from Tony Parsons, who co-wrote George’s autobiography “Bare: George Michael, His Own Story.” In a 2017 interview published in Mail on Sunday, Parsons described how George was amazingly generous to him:
I had interviewed him for The Face magazine, and we got on well. One day, I said: ‘We should write your autobiography.’ I meant when he was 65, but he said: ‘Let’s do it now.’
Then I naively asked him if we could split the money from the book 50/50. And George said: ‘Yes.’ We shook hands on it. That is not the way it normally works. Ghostwriters do not usually get paid the same as global superstars but that is what we agreed.
When his slick LA lawyer-managers started howling in protest, I mentioned it to George. He told me I did not even need to think about it again. He was only 25 at the time, but he never took orders from anyone.
It took me a year to write the book and I earned far more from it than I had ever earned in my life before. A six-figure sum that, in 1990, represented a substantial amount of money.
Similar Posts:
- An Audience with George Michael: Interview with Chris Evans (1996)
- George Michael Interview with Capital FM Radio with Dr. Fox (Dec 1998)
- George Michael: The Lone Star State Interview on Q Magazine (June 1988)
- George Michael in Q Magazine Interview (October 1990)
- Wham! Teen Dreams Come True (NME, 1983)
In 1985, Melanie gave an interview to No.1 Magazine, in which she described what her brother was like growing up.