43 Facts About Pete Burns

Peter Jozzeppi Burns was an English singer, songwriter and television personality who formed the band Dead or Alive in 1980 during the new wave era and was the band's lead vocalist and principal songwriter.

Pete Burns had a significant impact and influence on Japanese pop culture especially with J-pop and visual kei.

Pete Burns achieved greater superstar status in the region than both Michael Jackson and Madonna.

Pete Burns continued to achieve celebrity status in the British media following his appearance on Celebrity Big Brother 4, in which he received attention for his verbal tirades against housemates Jodie Marsh and Traci Bingham.

Pete Burns was noted for his powerful, deep baritone voice along with his flamboyant dress style, eyepatch, and androgynous gender bender appearance.

Pete Burns was the subject of tabloid speculation over his addiction to cosmetic surgery which bankrupted him and caused fatal health problems.

Pete Burns was born the youngest of two children on 5 August 1959, in Port Sunlight, Wirral.

Pete Burns's mother, Evelina Maria Bettina Quittner Von Hudec, was German-born and, according to his autobiography, her first marriage was to a German Freiherr.

Until he was 5, Pete Burns spoke only German which resulted in local children spending days outside his house shouting "Heil Hitler".

From a young age, Pete Burns developed a penchant for wearing costumes and he became obsessed with Native American culture going so far as to wear an Indian headdress constantly along with having his mother put up a tepee at his school playground.

For Pete Burns, school was "almost non-existent", and his mother frequently kept him away so he could spend the day with her.

Pete Burns was endlessly taunted by teachers and peers, before being thrown out of school at 14 after being summoned to the headmaster's office because he had arrived at school with "no eyebrows, Harmony-red hair, and one gigantic earring".

Between 1977 and 1984, Pete Burns worked as a shop assistant at Probe Records, a small independent record shop in Liverpool.

Pete Burns had been hired by Probe owner Geoff Davies due to his outlandish appearance that he hoped would attract customers.

Pete Burns had an uncomfortable relationship with the corporate music industry and expressed disgust at the way it functioned.

In 1980, after replacing several members, Pete Burns changed the band's name to Dead or Alive.

Pete Burns had, like, a complete lack of respect for the divinity I had in the city at the time.

Pete Burns often informed his customers that the clothes they bought from him were "crap" even going so far as to mock people he spotted around town wearing his designs.

The band released its second album Youthquake in May 1985, produced by the then-fledgling production team of Mike Stock, Matt Aitken, and Pete Burns Waterman, known as Stock Aitken Waterman.

Pete Burns claimed the song was "completed" by the time the producers were then chosen to work on it, stating that "the record companies don't trust a band to go into the studio without a producer".

Pete Burns said this changed when Bananarama had major success with their Dead or Alive-inspired cover of "Venus", which Burns claimed encouraged the label to schedule "Brand New Lover" for release.

Later, Pete Burns blamed the song's disappointing chart run in his home country on his then-ongoing war with his UK label, alleging that the company had failed to press and distribute enough copies of the single to make it a hit, and claiming the band had lost out on 67,000 UK sales as a result.

An acoustic album Love, Pete Burns was made available during a US personal appearance tour in 1992 and was since widely bootlegged with the title Fan the Flame : The Acoustic Sessions.

In 1997, Pete Burns claimed that some of the song covers were included as "album fillers" after studio time to write new material was cut short when "the record label started to fall to bits".

In 1999, Pete Burns covered Madonna's song "Why's It So Hard" from Erotica for Virgin Voices: A Tribute to Madonna, a compilation album featuring various artists covering her most iconic songs.

In 2004, Pete Burns enjoyed solo success with the Pet Shop Boys-produced track "Jack and Jill Party".

That year, Pete Burns appeared with Dutch Eurodance group Vengaboys in the music video for their song "Rocket to Uranus".

In December 2003, the BBC apologised to its viewers after Pete Burns swore once on its pre-9pm watershed Liquid News show when asked about his views on the Michael Jackson trial.

Pete Burns appeared in the first episode of the ninth series of the UK version of Celebrity Wife Swap.

In 2008, Pete Burns was the subject of an episode for the show Psychic Therapy on the Biography Channel where he was interviewed by medium Gordon Smith.

In January 2006, Pete Burns appeared on Channel 4's Celebrity Big Brother 4, eventually reaching fifth on the show's final episode.

Pete Burns acted as a co-host on the 2013 E4 show The Body Shocking Show and that same year he co-hosted an episode of Celebrity Wedding Planner.

Pete Burns married Lynne Corlett in Liverpool on 8 August 1980, after he met Corlett in a hair salon where they both worked.

At first, they [Corlett's parents] thought Pete Burns was just a gay friend of mine.

Additional surgery-related health problems experienced by Pete Burns included pulmonary embolisms and near-fatal blood clots.

In March 2009, Pete Burns was admitted to a London hospital after collapsing from a kidney ailment.

Pete Burns was diagnosed with seven large kidney stones, which were removed with laser surgery.

Pete Burns died in London following a sudden cardiac arrest on 23 October 2016, at the age of 57.

In May 2016, Pete Burns had previously sparked concerns when he was seen in public appearing bloated and dishevelled.

Pete Burns was just so flamboyant and just right out there with his dress and that.

Pete Burns always looked absolutely amazing and it was a pleasure to work with him.

Boy George paid for the costs of his funeral, despite the two artists' rivalry during their parallel music careers, and the fact that Pete Burns accused him of appropriating his image.

In 2024, previously unseen photographs of Pete Burns were put on display in an exhibition entitled Total Stranger in his hometown of Port Sunlight.