Well, that’s certainly a possibility. Except, Sinatra’s responding to an interview that George Michael gave to the LA Times. So, it’s not exactly like George discussed the stress of fame with his third-aunt-removed in Little Wallop – he’s more or less broadcasting his opinion to the world. And the two subtextual cues we might get from that are: he has to know that other celebrities will read it (or at least hear about it), and he’s still acting like an A-List celebrity at the top of his game. (It’s hard to imagine Dexy’s Midnight Runners or Don Most giving a similar interview).
If George Michael were truly serious about retirement, because the stress of fame had become too much of a burden, it’s hard to think of a worse venue for airing that opinion. It strikes me as a kind of cry for help (“Hey world, I have a problem!”), and not a heartfelt, soon-to-be-acted-upon conviction (“Screw this, I’m out”).
Edit: corrected typo.
