Boy George regrets comments he made aboutLiam Paynein the days before his tragic death.
In a Wednesday, Nov. 20 episode of the High Performance podcast, the "Karma Chameleon" musician, 63, acknowledged that his comment toward the One Direction alum "wasn't very nice."
“I’d actually put a message under a post saying, ‘He’s off his nut,’ which wasn’t very nice, but I felt it. I felt like he was out of control,” George, 63, told hosts Jake Humphrey and Damian Hughes.
“And when his death happened, it just hit me. Same way that Amy Winehouse hit me just because it felt so senseless," he continued, referring to the “Valerie” hitmaker's death in July 2011 from accidental alcohol poisoningat the age of 27.
George also recalled the shock he felt finding out about Payne's death.
"You know, I was up at 5 a.m. and it came up on the American news and I literally was like 'What the f---. I was literally like 'No this isn't real.' I couldn't take it in and I think everybody felt like that," he said.
George was "appalled" by people's comments saying that he only cared because Payne "was good-looking."
"I watched the dad Geoff Payne, and it was h -
eartbreaking. I was quite tearful about it. I really very felt sad,” he explained.
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Paynediedon Oct. 16 at age 31 after falling multiple stories from a balcony at the CasaSur Palermo Hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Apress release by the National Criminal and Correctional Prosecutor's Office No. 14from Nov. 7 revealed that Payne's toxicology results showed traces of"alcohol, cocaine and prescription antidepressants"in his body.
In the release, prosecutors said that "self-harm of any kind and/or physical intervention by third parties were ruled out" as contributing factors in his death.
According to a forensic doctor, the "Strip That Down" singer's death was caused by "multiple trauma" and "internal and external hemorrhage" due to the fall, per the release.
Prosecutors also concluded that Payne was "not fully conscious or was in a state of noticeable decrease or loss of consciousness at the time of the fall."
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