Boy George Is Free

Boy George was freed from prison on Monday for good behaviour after he served just four months of his 15-month sentence after he was convicted of falsely imprisoning a male escort in April 2007.

"It's great to be out," the '80s pop star (real name George O'Dowd) said when he left prison, according to U.K. tabloid The Sun.

"It's daunting, but nice. It went fine."

O'Dowd began his incarceration in London, England's HMP Pentonville prison, but was soon moved to the less stringent Edmunds Hill facility in Suffolk. He was given a job as a pot washer and made 15 British pounds a week ($8.55 Canadian).

The former Culture Club frontman was eligible for parole in August.

O'Dowd had a beard and looked like he'd lost weight when he emerged from the lock-up and returned to his north London home, where friends and family members had gathered to celebrate his release.

He told the U.K.'s Daily Mail newspaper he'd be enjoying coffee and cake and not the booze and drugs that had become a major part of his life before he went behind bars.

While O'Dowd is free, he must still wear an ankle monitor so authorities can keep tabs on him for the remaining 11 months of his sentence. The 47-year-old must also adhere to a curfew and report regularly to a probation officer.

Inmates told The Mirror tabloid that O'Dowd had it easy in prison. His room apparently had an en-suite bathroom.

"The wardens seemed star struck and couldn't be nicer to him," a prisoner told the tabloid. "One even carried his bag out and the rest were clamouring to say their goodbyes."

O'Dowd was sentenced to a week of community service as a New York City sanitation worker in 2006 for falsely reporting a burglary that didn't happen at his home. Police found 13 bags of cocaine when they showed up at his apartment.