Geri Horner is releasing her first single in 12 years this week, and she's revealed the inspiration behind the track is her close friend the late George Michael, who passed away on Christmas Day last year. The 44-year-old star, speaking on ITV's Lorraine on Monday explained how "one of them I wrote because George [Michael] had died on Christmas Day and I just didn't know what to do because I'm not his immediate family."
"I was a fan and I was a friend and he had such an impact on my life. I didn't know what to do with all my feelings, I couldn't... it was a unique relationship and so I just wrote a song."
The former Spice Girls sat down with Dan Wootton and talked about her friendship with George Michael
Speaking of her reluctance to originally release the single, Geri admitted "I wrote these lyrics down and a bit of melody and submitted it to the record company and they went, 'we want to release that'. I was so scared for so many reasons particularly because it's vulnerable and it's about George and what would people think."
She also spoke about her four-month-old son, Monty, born only a month after George's death, and how this inspired her decision to give him George's middle name. "It was my mum's idea, she loved George. He really was very close with my mother, she used to always write him letters and he'd send her a hamper. He was adorable in that way, very loving person and that is the legacy I think he has left with all of us as well as his amazing music."
Geri's new single is called Angels in Chains
The former Spice Girl later shared a photo of herself to Instagram with the caption "Hope you just caught me on @itvlorraine with @danwootton announcing my brand new single, Angels In Chains. Out next Friday (23rd June)!"