Pop star Boy George credits a German self-help book with helping him to turn his life around.

The Culture Club frontman, real name George O'Dowd, famously struggled with drug addiction in 80s and relapsed a decade ago. He hit a new low when he was handed a 15-month custodial sentence in December 2008 for the assault and false imprisonment of a Norwegian male escort.

The singer is now drug-free and claims German spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle's book The Power Of Now changed his life.

He tells Britain's the Sunday Times Magazine, "(It) sounds like quite an extreme thing to say about a book, but it took all the stuff that I've read - because, you know, I've been on various spiritual journeys in my life, read all the books, done the courses and the therapy - and it just contextualised everything for me.

"It made sense of everything that I've read before and everything I wanted to understand.... The great thing about the past is that it's always behind you. Tolle encourages very, very strongly to live in the now. Not next week. Not last week. Now."