Gay pop star George Michael has told the BBC that he deserved to be jailed for crashing his Range Rover through the door of a shop while under the influence of cannabis.
Michael was jailed for eight weeks and fined after the incident at Snappy Snaps in North London.
Michael told the Chris Evans show in an interview to be broadcast tomorrow that he is “ashamed” of the incident and is having treatment to stop his use of drugs which he says has earned him the status of “the poster boy for cannabis”.
“This was a hugely shameful thing to have done repeatedly. So karmically [Sic] I felt like I had a bill to pay. I went to prison, I paid my bill.
“Remarkably enough, I know people must think it was a really horrific experience – it’s so much easier to take any form of punishment if you believe you actually deserve it, and I did.”
He added: “It wasn’t a weekend break, put it that way. I didn’t feel sorry for myself. I thought, ‘Oh my God, this place is absolutely filthy, because it was Pentonville’. I just thought, you get your head down.”
Michael told Evans that he gave a signed photograph to every fellow inmate and prison warden.
Past convictions
The 47-year-old singer already has a conviction for driving under the influence of drugs and was found slumped over the wheel of his car when police found him on July 4th 2010.
He had crashed the Range Rover into a branch of Snappy Snaps in north London.
He pleaded guilty to the offence and to possessing two cannabis joints and was he was handed an interim six-month driving ban.
His arrest came not long after the end of a two-year driving ban incurred in 2008 after he was caught in possession of crack cocaine and marijuana.
In 2007 he was given 100 hours of community service after being found unconscious at the wheel of his car by police.
Michael’s new single, a cover of New Order’s True Faith will be released on 13 March, with all proceeds going to Comic Relief.
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