The singer, whose clutch of Culture Club hits includes the aptly titled, "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?," narrowly escaped death when a giant glitter ball fell on him during a concert rehearsal Wednesday in England.
The flamboyant, gender-bending 1980s pop icon was doing a sound check at Bournemouth International Centre when a wire holding the 62-pound, 4-foot-round ball snapped. The disco prop plunged 20 feet to the stage, striking Boy George on the shoulder (missing his head by inches) and knocking the 38-year-old entertainer to the floor.
Guess he really will tumble 4 ya.
"Boy George just crumpled," a witness to the accident tells today's London Sun. "I thought he must be dead. I can't believe he got away so lightly. He was very, very lucky indeed."
Boy George was treated for shock and bruises, but his sense of humor was intact.
"It would have been both ironic and glamorous to be finished off by a 4-foot glitter ball," the singer says in the London tab. "But I have survived and I'm still here, although my back is aching like anything."
Despite his pain, Boy George insisted on making like an old show-biz trooper and going on with the show.
"Strangely enough, our current double A-side single is 'Cold Shoulder' and 'Starman,' " Boy George says. "More like 'Sore Shoulder' and I was certainly seeing stars."
Boy George (real name: George O'Dowd) rose to fame in the early 1980s with Culture Club. During one red-hot stretch, the British-bred pop outfit cranked out the dance-friendly hits "Karma Chameleon," "Church of the Poison Mind," "It's A Miracle" and "I'll Tumble 4 Ya," among others. The group broke up in 1986, with George falling on hard times (and falling into drug abuse) before reviving his career and, in 1998, reuniting with Culture Club.
After Wednesday's accident, workers at Bournemouth removed two other disco balls still hanging from the rafters--just in case.