Boy George: I’ve never had an audition

Boy George has never had to audition for anything.

The 53-year-old singer shot to fame as the frontman of 80's pop group Culture Club.

Since then, he has ventured into various careers including songwriting, photography and writing books.

Most recently, Boy George appeared as a guest mentor on his US TV reality show American Idol.

And he says the process made him realise just how lucky he has been to avoid the audition process throughout his career.

"Coming into a room without a microphone and singing with just a piano is ballsy," the singer told EW.com. "It's something I never had to do. I've been very lucky—I've never had to audition for anything. It takes real b**ls to do that."

Boy George's appearance on Idol was a first for the singer. And he admits that prior to appearing on the programme he thought the mentoring process would be easier than it actually was.

"I've never mentored American Idol before—it's one one of those things I've done from my sofa, where you kind of sit there and go, "I would never have given them that song!" It's much easier to do from your sofa, as is any criticism.

"When I was asked to mentor, I wondered how much influence I would be able to have, really. I thought it might be very cosmetic, that I might be there just to talk and sound good, but not really do any good. But it was quite amazing what we were able to do."