GEORGE MICHAEL

A comprehensive biography of the massively popular singer and songwriter.

The broad contours of George Michael’s life (1963-2016) in the spotlight are well known to pop-culture fans. In this detailed, evenhanded biography, Gavin, biographer of Chet Baker, Peggy Lee, and Lena Horne, puts those moments into context and offers explanations for Michael’s often confusing actions. As the charismatic, swaggering frontman of Wham! and then the multiplatinum solo superstar behind Faith and its string of hits, Michael seemed unstoppable in the 1980s. “I’m 21 years old and I’m not saying this to brag, but I’ve achieved more as a performer, writer, and producer than anyone else ever has by the same age,” Michael said early in his winning streak. However, in pop culture, the highs rarely last—especially, as Gavin points out, when the star is a closeted man, taunting both competitors and the media. “He had set himself a dangerous trap,” Gavin writes. “He wanted to titillate with sex and keep his secrets untouched.” From there, Michael’s problems only multiplied. The love of his life died from AIDS, his drug addiction intensified and expanded beyond marijuana, and his sexual adventures got him arrested in a public restroom in Los Angeles. To his credit, Gavin handles Michael’s problematic years as equitably as the storybook ones. When the facts are inconclusive, as they are surrounding Michael’s death in 2016, Gavin makes sure to say so: “Had he, in fact, committed suicide? Perhaps not consciously, despite prior efforts. But anyone who remembered Michael’s belief that he had set himself up passive-aggressively to be outed in 1998 had cause to wonder if he had taken steps to set his own death in motion.” 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.