Headline of "George Michael is finally a happy man.  And with 
good reason.  He has battled within himself for several years, 
striving for what he calls "inner peace."  The struggle has paid 
off." 

I've met Michael several times in brief backstage situations, 
and it's obvious by now, in early 1991, that he has managed 
to shed the intense insecurities and inner anger that have 
prompted the media -and the public-to think of him as an 
overwrought egomaniac. 

For years the former Wham! frontman has been trying to deal 
with the fact that critics and fans routinely make more of his 
sexual image and handsome looks than his music.  It's a 
situation Michael wholeheartedly resents.  That's why he 
vetoed the possibility of a pretty-boy facade overshadowing 
the songs on his latest album, the stripped-down Listen 
Without Prejudice Vol. 1.  One of his tactics:  to keep his 
photo off the front cover of the disc.   An even more shocking 
component in this image redesign was his decision not to 
show his face - or notorious buttocks- on music videos in 
support of Listen. (Columbia did release a video for the hit 
"Praying for Time," but it involves only the lyrics to the song- 
and no pretty pictures.  The second video, for "Freedom '90", 
also didn't include Michael.  It showed images form his past 
videos being destroyed.) 

To cap it all off, Michael has no plans to tour the US until he's 
released Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 2-Which allegedly will 
be more dance-oriented-this fall. 

"I've been out front enough," says Michael, born in England 27 
years ago as Georgios Panayiotou.  "It's time to let my music 
speak for itself.  The songs on Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1 
say a great deal more about me than three minutes of a 
camera honing in on me has ever said.  Video has helped me 
achieve the star status I have today, so I'm not totally knocking 
it.  It's just that it's not where I'm at right now.  It's not 
representative of today's  George Michael." 

The George Michael of the past happened to thrive on the image 
he's now trying to disclaim.  Wham!, the duo he formed with 
school buddy Andrew Ridgeley, seemed to depend as much 
on the pair's GQ looks as on Michael's perfect pop voice, crafty 
songwriting, and instrumental abilities. 

"When I came into this business, I never had any idea that I was 
going to be a physical entity,' he recalls.  "I'd grown up with 
Andrew, and I was a particularly unattractive adolescent.  He 
was always very handsome, and so I always assumed he would 
get all of the physical attention.  I guess I didn't handle it too 
well when all of that changed.  I got completely carried away. 

"You have to understand, I was only 19 and suddenly I was 
considered attractive.  I was still very insecure.  It was a major 
distraction.  Yes, I had to work out that the most important 
thing in the world was not to have people think you were 
gorgeous.  I eventually came to that decision, although it took 
a grueling six years.  'Freedom'90' is about that, about me 
moving away from selling myself as a physical person and 
getting on to what I'm best at, and that is writing songs." 

The desire to have his new material taken seriously didn't 
deter Michael from acknowledging his Wham! Days by again 
appearing on stage with Ridgeley.  The pair made a one-time- 
only appearance at the Rock in Rio festival in late January, 
although the turnout was disappointing (half of the 30,000- 
seat-capacity stadium was empty).  Just two years ago, 
Michael had all but vowed to never engage in a Wham! 
Reunion.  His newfound confidence and fresh, undaunted 
attitude finds him more mature and changed for the better. 

"I think I can say that George Michael now is a very different 
person even than the man who wrote the songs on Faith, let 
alone anything I'd done earlier," he says.  "I can definitely say 
that the person who wrote for Wham! Was a completely 
different individual.  That person had a completely different 
outlook on life.  But everyone has a right to change.  Most 
people make changes rather privately, but I have to change 
publicly, because everything I do as a songwriter is 
documented. 

"It's not that I'm apologizing for anything I've done before, 
because I'm not.  I'm very proud of a lot of things I did with 
Wham! And on Faith.  It's just that the time has come to 
approach things from a different angle.  I also have to admit 
that I'm not the same person that I was when I was younger. 
I couldn't carry on just doing what I did with the last album, 
because it wouldn't be honest.  I wanted and needed to say 
something different." 

While Michael's transition to celebrity status has been rocky 
and unsettling, he speaks openly and realistically about the 
process.  "It's obviously very easy for someone who has 
never experienced (being a) celebrity to think that it solves 
all your problems," he explains.  "But I'm afraid life doesn't 
work like that.  Human beings solve problems, and in solving 
them we automatically create new ones.  People will always 
find things to reach for-that they want but have not got.  I'm no 
different, but my situation is different.  You don't get richer 
and more famous and thus become problem-free.  I wish it 
worked like that, but it doesn't." 
 
 

"All of the controversy surrounding my receiving those awards 
definitely had something to do with the new CD's title," he 
adds.  "When I came up with it, I was warned by a lot of 
people that it might be misinterpreted, because immediate 
reaction suggested that I was using the word 'prejudice' as 
though it were directed toward me-which is true, in some 
cases.  But I was mostly talking about was that the album 
should be listened to by all types and races, and with an 
open mind.  You see, I think radio and video  in the last three 
or four years have veered very much into separate directions - 
one for white America and one for black America.  I think it's 
quite an unhealthy trend." 

That opinion mirrors Michael's feelings about his frequent 
categorization as a "soul singer." 

"In terms of music, any definition of soul is something that 
comes from the heart to the mouth, and bypasses the head," 
he says.  "I never thought I sounded black.  When people ask 
why I have a black following, and how come I've had that 
much support form R&B, I think it's because I've progressed 
as a singer with each album.  I try to say what I feel and make 
that jump from the heart to the mouth, and pretend there's no 
thought process in between.  Every time I go back into the 
studio, I get closer to doing that.  I've still got a ways to go, 
but that is soul singing to me.  It has nothing to do with what 
color you are; it's really got to do with expressing yourself 
without any kind of blockage. 

That sense of honesty comes across loud and clear on Listen 
Without Prejudice Vol. 1.  Part of the reason for the disc's 
soulful sound was Michael's autonomy in the studio.  In the 
past, he was known to complain that far too many people 
were involved in his and Wham!'s recordings.  Michael 
reportedly battled vociferously with departed CBS Records 
President Walter Yetnikoff over Faith.  This time Michael was in 
control-and happier with the process. 

"This is really the first record I've enjoyed making, "Michael says. 
"It's the first time I took the pressure off myself and thought, "It's 
done when it's done, and that's it.'  I didn't allow the interference 
to be a factor. 

"Originally, Listen was going to come out at the end of 1989," 
he adds.  "But I decided I had to relax and take things as they 
came.  After finishing the album, I felt like I could just carry on, 
whereas after making each of the other albums in my career, I 
was completely exhausted-and glad it was over.  This time I 
was actually enjoying myself." 

For critics who've labeled Michael's music "safe" and "formulaic," 
Listen Vol. 1 is a slap in the face, from the title track down to the 
last acoustic, simplistic chord of the Beatlesque "Heal the Pain." 

"As far as the content of the disc is concerned, I believe it's very 
much against the tide," Michael says.  "But I had no choice.  I 
wasn't about to make another Faith.  If I'd made Faith 2, it would 
have been very unsatisfying to me.  Instead, I merely returned 
to my roots.  Before going into the studio, I decided to listen a 
bit more closely to the music that had happened just before I 
began.  I went back and analyzed a lot of '60s stuff that was 
popular before the advent of the synthesizer-specifically the 
Beatles, the Stones, Joni Mitchell, and even a lot of Brazilian 
music.  It made me decide to strip everything down.  It was 
challenging, but it was also fun." 

Michael-who was born around the time the Beatles were 
invading America-thinks he would have enjoyed the challenge 
and excitement that was music in the '60s. 

"The thing I envy about a lot of those groups then was their 
rivalry and the incentive that it gave them," he says.  "I've 
grown up in a period where the real incentive has been to have 
a bigger record and to become a bigger celebrity.  All you 
have to do to have ever-increasing fame is to repeat what has 
been successful before. 

"What's obvious in '60s records is how all those people had a 
desperate desire to move ahead of each other.  You can hear 
it in the way Lennon would copy Dylan.  It must have been a 
fantastic period to be a songwriter, and I wish it were going 
on now.  Today, if you want to progress in your work, you 
have to do it in your own little world." 

When asked what prompted him to cover Stevie Wonder's 
"they Won't Go When I Go," Michael replies, "He's probably 
my favorite writer, and definitely one of my favorite singers.  I 
always thought 'They Won't Go' was a great song that had 
not been arranged to full effect.  I thought it was an incredible 
 vocal, and I would not and could not try to emulate what 
Stevie did.  But at the time, he had just discovered 
synthesizers. As a result, there was so much synth work 
going on that it detracted from what he was doing as a singer. 
It's very tempting to me to hear a classic song and think 
there is a way it could be done differently, but just as 
effectively." 

Indeed, Michael frequently pays tribute during his concerts 
to musical idols.  On his "warm-up for Rock in Rio" gig in 
Birmingham, England, earlier this year, he treated the 
capacity crowd of 12,000 to an impressively diverse set that 
found him tearing through riveting renditions of David Bowie's 
"Fame," Elton John's "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me,' 
Wonder's "Living for the City,' the Eagles' "Desperado,' 
and the Doobie Brothers' "What a Fool Believes." 

Those songs may or may not appear in Michael's Cover to 
Cover '91 tour, which so far has been scheduled only for 
England and Japan.  But fans in those parts of the world can 
count on plenty of original material, songs such as the 
eloquent "Something to Save."  Michael wrote that number in 
bits and pieces at the conclusion of the Faith tour in 1989. 
(**Should have been 1988!**) 

"That was the first song I wrote for Listen Without Prejudice," 
he says.  "At the time, I had been on tour for 10 months and