Before I interviewed Boy George in 2012 I had read his 1995 biography Take It Like a Man, in which he documents his friendship with London Blitz Kid and androgynous pop star Marilyn, who briefly rose to fame in the ’80s with his hit “Calling Your Name” and his performance with Band Aid in 1985. I was fascinated by Marilyn, who George wrote about dancing the night away with, with Madonna, in New York City and who was infamously arrested along with George in 1986 for heroin possession. When I asked George whatever happened to his former chum, he didn’t seem to know — or care.
On the heels of Bob Geldof’s launch of Band Aid 30, the Mirror has tracked down the elusive Marilyn, real name Peter Robinson, and in an interview with the paper, Robinson opens up about spending 20 years on heroin after never getting over the loss of his first love, Bush frontman Gavin Rossdale.
“After Band Aid lots of things went wrong in my life and I had a nervous breakdown,” Robinson says. “I started smoking heroin and taking shedloads of prescription drugs. I moved into my mum’s house and basically spent 20 years on heroin. Heroin would be passed through the window and I was also on anti-depressants and sleeping pills by the bucketload. I had the Alien box-set and would watch them in my room one by one, then start all over again. That went on for ages.”
Robinson has been sober for the past four years but hasn’t been able to bring himself to date anyone since having his heart broken over his breakup with Rossdale.
“[Gavin] was a fan of mine,” Robinson recalls. “He’d follow me around the clubs everywhere and I was vile to him so he would stop. But he never did. One day I saw him in a club and told him it had to stop. He had his car outside and asked to speak to me somewhere quiet. He told me he loved me, which I said was ridiculous because he didn’t know me. But after about an hour-and-a-half we were both crying and ended up in each other’s arms. And that was it. We were a couple. I cried every day for 10 years [over the split]. I’ve not even kissed anyone else since.”
Photo: Phil Harris
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