Much had already been said of the great George Michael. The late British pop star sang "Careless Whisper," was an active LGBTQ rights activist, and shared his final thoughts in the 2017 documentary, Freedom. But the singer wasn't the only member of the '80s pop duo, Wham! Michael formed the band with his friend, Andrew Ridgeley, when they were both just 18 years old. Their friendship serves as the basis for the new Netflix documentary, Wham!, which debuted on July 5.
You might be asking: What happened to Ridgeley after Michael went solo? Well, after the duo performed their final concert at London's Wembley Stadium, the tabloids were especially harsh to Ridgeley. News outlets claimed that Michael was the real talent—and his partner was a weak link. With the 1990 album Son of Albert, Ridgeley went on to have his own solo career, but it failed to chart—even in the UK.
Though Netflix's Wham! documentary explores Ridgeley's contribution to the famous pop duo, he told The Big Issue that he "had no real idea" what to do after they split. "I didn’t have the voice to compete with George, but that was fine," he revealed. "Being in a band was the full extent of my aspirations at 16 and I had realized it. I had no desires and no burning deep-held ambition to do anything else... I was thrilled to pieces with his development into the artist that he became. He was my best friend. It is so alien and bizarre to me that anyone would feel otherwise. I genuinely don’t understand it."
Ridgeley later took on some small acting roles, but the new direction didn't stick. "It was immediately apparent to me that it was not something that I wanted to do," he said at the time. "The chap said to me, Imagine your mother's died. I think he was trying to get me to cry but I thought, Why the f**k would anyone want to imagine that?" Acting: it's weird work. But Ridgeley was still collecting royalties from Wham!, so he tried his shot at Formula Three racing. "He was much more successful at being a pop star than a racing driver but at least he had a go," one of his former team owners recalled.
Michael and Ridgeley planned several reunion shows through the '00s, but the concerts never materialized. Ridgeley also hated talking about his past in interviews, rarely speaking about Michael or the split. After Michael passed away in 2016, Ridgeley delivered an emotional speech at the 2017 Brit Awards—paying respect to his former friend. "George has left for us in his songs, in the transcendental beauty of his voice, and poetic expression of his soul, the very best of himself," he said. "I loved him and in return, we, you, have been loved."
In 2019, Ridgeley published a book, titled Wham!: George & Me, which featured rare commentary from the former pop singer. Curiously, he raised questions about Michael's death within the book, stating that the circumstances "seemed unclear," according to Digital Spy. The coroner at the time determined Michael's cause of death to a rare heart condition known as dilated cardiomyopathy. "We don't like our lives being monitored, so when someone dies alone, perhaps there are always answers that remain out of reach," he continued, "It still feels uncomfortable though. God knows what it must be like for George's family."
If you want to learn more about the pop duo's rise and fall, watch Wham!, which was directed by Tiger King and Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond filmmaker Chris Smith. As for Ridgeley, he told NME that the time was, "almost exclusively a joyful and positive period in both our lives."
