From his early days in Wham to his stellar solo career, George Michael was one of the biggest music stars of the 80s, 90s and Noughties.
From teen idol to global superstar, his crystal-clear vocals, groundbreaking music videos and designer stubble earned him a huge fan-base.
"I grew up with George on MTV and those iconic music videos," recalls Craig Winberry – who stars as the titular singer in the Life and Music of George Michael.
"George made a lot of people happy. He entertained a lot of people, and he was a part of a lot of their memories, their happiness, those ballads in those tender moments that we have in life," said Winberry.
Winberry looks like 90s era George - with cropped hair and winsome brown eyes - and Winberry says the singer’s legacy lives on, since his untimely death on Christmas Day 2016.
"There was a sense of sadness. But then there was also I had a sense of disappointment in myself because I was always a fan of George Michael, but I took him for granted. And as an openly gay man myself, he kind of was a trailblazer," said Winberry.
"He laid the groundwork that allows me to stand on his shoulders today and do something that I love to do," he said.
George Michael’s private life was thrust into the limelight in 1998. He was arrested in Beverly Hills – which outed his sexuality to the public. The singer chose to embrace the incident, with songs like Outside, at a time when anti-gay sentiment was rife.
"That's what a good artist does, is they share their life with you," said Winberry. "And George was not afraid. From his early on years and way up until some of the last albums and music that he put out, he stood in his truth."
"The younger generations now, they don't understand what it was like for a massive pop star to come out and not just out like, OUT! 'Hey, this is me. I'm going to share my life with you. Let's go on this journey'. And when other artists wouldn't even dare to do something like this. And I think when the kids these days learn that about him, it draws them to him even more," he said.
"Then when you've got great music like he has, it just grows. It's infectious and people want to be a part of it. And that's what we're seeing out on the road. People want to be a part of the party. It's a little dose of therapy every time," said Winberry.
The Life and Music of George Michael comes to the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza on Wednesday October 9.
