Wham! recently celebrated their debut album ‘Fantastic’s 40-year anniversary, and Andrew Ridgeley reflected on certain things he would’ve done differently if he could go back in time. Andrew shared his feelings about George Michael’s determination not to tour ‘The Final’ with Spin and admitted:
“I regret not touring ‘The Final’ and not giving our fans the opportunity to say goodbye. I thought we were under an obligation to them, but I also understood Yog’s [George Michael] rationale that there is only one ‘final’ concert.”
On the 37-year anniversary of the band’s farewell gig at Wembley Stadium, Ridgeley told BBC that he regretted not touring one last time with Michael. He expressed:
“I would have liked to tour ‘The Final,’ to be honest. I felt a final tour to say goodbye to our fans around the world would have been a generous gesture. I felt it was a courtesy to them to have done that. The least we could have done. But I also understood [George’s] essential ideology behind having just one show.”
Andrew also shared with Spin that he would have advised his younger self to keep working on his craft by adding:
“If I were advising the younger AJR from this point in time, I’d be saying, ‘Don’t completely walk away from songwriting. Work at it, and you never know. You’re not utterly without talent. It’s work and you need to work. Everyone needs to work.’ George needed to work. Me being feckless and lazy, I didn’t.”
You can read Andrew Ridgeley’s interview with Spin here and listen to ‘The Final’ below.
