George Michael: A Life

"Though some of the author’s descriptions of the 1980s music scene are only serviceable, his first-rate reporting makes this biography sing. Gavin’s real stories of triumphs and tragedies poignantly explain one of pop’s most enigmatic stars."  -  Kirkus Reviews

Christmas night of 2016 brought the jarring news that, in the morning hours, George Michael had died in bed of heart failure at the age of 53; his boyfriend had discovered the body. Suddenly he was all over the news after nearly three years of mostly silent reclusion. It's said that he spent those years hidden away in his British mansion, bloated, chronically depressed, musically inactive, and high. 

Michael's story follows an arc that many who have raw talent and find fame come to know: He was a troubled, chemically dependent artist who poured his struggles into music of deep psychological complexity, musical sophistication, and soul. His mystique looms large over the work and is, in turn, not easily forgotten. 

George Michael: A Life explores the tragically predictable story of an utterly unpredictable artist - how he found and then lost himself in the music.