Boy George keeps ''unflattering'' images of his younger self on his phone.

The 52-year-old star has stored old photos of himself - where he has a double-chin, weighs about 19-stone and looks like he is dosed on drugs - as a reminder of how much he has changed.

He told the Daily Mirror newspaper: ''I could barely look at these a few years ago. Now I look at them and just don't recognise myself - it doesn't seem like me at all.

''But I keep them on my phone so I can show people. 'This is the flattering me .... and this is the unflattering me!'

''I look back and think 'Who the hell were you? How the hell did you even cross the road when you were like that?'

''And I'm not even talking about when I was off my head - I'm talking about when I was normal.''

George - real name George O'Dowd - was sentenced to 15 months in jail in 2009 after he falsely imprisoned a male escort in his East London flat by handcuffing him to a wall and beating him with a metal chain.

This came at a time when his life was spiralling out of control with his drug habits getting the better of him.

When he left prison - after being released early for good behaviour - he turned his life around. He lost weight and got a nutritionist to aid a healthy diet too.

He added: ''After I came out of prison I lost about four stone in two years through a vegan diet and lots of exercise but I couldn't get that final bit off.

''Then a friend told me about a nutritionist called Amelia Freer and she put me on a metabolic plan, so I'm avoiding sugar, glucose and processed food.

''Of course I can fall off the wagon... but now, for me, that's having a Snickers bar.''