By continuing to use our site, you agree to our Private Policy and Terms of Use.
George Michael's Wham! Bandmate Remembers The Last Time They Saw Each Other
Andrew Ridgeley opens up about his life-long friendship with the gay icon.
Andrew Ridgeley, former Wham! bandmate of gay icon George Michael, opened up about the last time he saw his musical partner before his passing in a new documentary out now on Netflix.
In an exclusive interview with People ahead of the release of the documentary WHAM!, Ridgeley revealed that he and Michael played Scrabble together shortly before he died in 2016 at the age of 53.
“He’d beaten me the week before, and I was exacting my revenge,” the singer said of his life-long friend. “It took us right back to just… the essence of our schoolboy friendship and one-upmanship. It was a game that stimulated him, and me also.”
The pair shot to superstardom with songs like “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go” and “Last Christmas,” but Michael also had a successful solo career. The singer-songwriter bravely came out in 1999 and his second solo album, Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1, was about his experience being a closeted gay man during the height of the AIDS epidemic.
Later this year, Michael will be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, an accomplishment Ridgeley called a “great privilege” and said of Michael, “I'm sure that he would recognize it as such. He was aware of the meaning of accolades from his peers."
Ridgeley heaped much-deserved praise on his former bandmate, saying he was “a genuine legend and an icon of contemporary music.”
“I said so in my tribute to him at the BRITs, that he was a supernova in a firmament of shining lights and stars, and he was probably the finest singing voice and songwriter of his generation,” he continued. “There ain’t too many that held a candle to him.”
When the interviewer asked what he would say to Michael if he was still alive, Ridgeley gave a jovial response that clearly speaks of someone who misses their friend: “What would I say to him? Oh, let's go and have a drink.”
The new documentary will explore the two friends' lives as they went from teenagers to international superstars and will include interviews and never before seen archival footage.
WHAM! is now streaming on Netflix. Watch the trailer below.
Ariel Messman-Rucker is an Oakland-born journalist who now calls the Pacific Northwest her home. When she’s not writing about politics and queer pop culture, she can be found reading, hiking, or talking about horror movies with the Zombie Grrlz Horror Podcast Network.
Ariel Messman-Rucker is an Oakland-born journalist who now calls the Pacific Northwest her home. When she’s not writing about politics and queer pop culture, she can be found reading, hiking, or talking about horror movies with the Zombie Grrlz Horror Podcast Network.
