George Michael's Date Rape Drug Addiction, Final Years Of Substance Abuse Detailed In New Book

A new book has revealed harrowing details about singer Geroge Michael's final years, which were steeped in his illegal substance abuse.

According to the book, the "Careless Whisper" singer was addicted to the so-called “date rape” drug GHB. After the singer finished his 25 Live Tour in 2008, he “lived in a haze,” according to the book "George Michael: A Life."

“He slept until midafternoon then stayed high on pot for almost every waking moment,” writes James Gavin in the biography. “He sat at his computer playing video games, binge-watched TV, arranged GHB-fuelled trysts and took midnight joints to [Hampstead] Heath” — one of the most notable gay cruising areas in Europe, according to Page Six.

In September 2008, the Wham! frontman was found by the police in an underground men’s room. After searching Michael, they found marijuana and crack cocaine, and arrested him. Months later, he was arrested again after a car accident and the police found him “drenched in sweat” with “gaping eyes and dilated pupils.”

The car accident arrest was the singer's seventh in 12 years.

“For Michael, GHB seemed heaven-sent,” Gavin writes. “Apart from fuelling his sexual compulsiveness, it made a depressed and self-loathing man feel attractive; it brought joy where there was little. GHB gave him confidence on Hampstead Heath and with the most intimidatingly sexy escorts. But it also took him to a frightening new level of self-destruction. GHB is more addictive than meth, and riskier in all varieties.”

The drug was also the reason behind his on-and-off nine-year relationship with British adult-film actor and escort Paul Stag.

“Michael paid him both for sex and for procuring his new drug of choice, GHB,” Gavin writes. “In text messages, they called it ‘champagne.’”

Stag reportedly delivered the drug in travel-size shampoo bottles, and Michael would mix it into a glass of Coca-Cola, according to the book, News.com.au reported.

“All of a sudden,” Stag recalls in the book, “Michael would announce, ‘I’m ready now. Let’s go and have sex.’”

“‘George was mad on G,’ Stag told the Sun years later,” the book notes. “‘He was incredibly sexually active, and in his mind drugs equalled sex and sex equalled drugs.’”

Michael was found dead at age 53 on Christmas Day 2016 at his home northwest of London. The cause of his death was heart disease — dilated cardiomyopathy with myocarditis — and a fatty liver.