From the moment he was welcomed into the world, musician Pete Burns was given the freedom to do things his way. His mother, who was a holocaust survivor and married a British soldier, believed her son should be free spirited, and as it turned out, he accepted that with ease and lived his entire life in such manner.

My mother] had me when she was 51 years old, which was very unusual in 1959,” Burns said in the book Europe’s Stars of ’80s Dance Pop: 32 International Music Legends Discuss Their Careers.

“I wasn’t put in school until I was seven year old because my mother thought it was more important to let me have freedom of expression (much against my father’s will) than to know when the Battle of Hastings took place or when Henry VIII married. She was very troubled, especially when she found out her father had been [killed].”

She saw his mother as his best friend. He gave him the power to dream.

Around the time Burns reached 14, he got fascinated with fashion and trends and was courageous enough to try different styles, something that is in a big way related to the person he was his entire life. He started wearing earrings and dyed his hair, something the school he attended wasn’t happy with, so he was eventually expelled.

Burns found enjoyment in dressing as a drag, although he wasn’t comfortable with labels being put on him.

“I have never had a reason to separate gender. I’ve had two very powerful people in my life, my ex-wife Lynn, and my husband Michael, and that’s it,” he wrote in The Guardian in 2007.

Everyone’s in drag of some sorts, I don’t give a f**k about gender and drag. I’m not trying to be a girl by putting on a dress – gender is separated by fabric. I was brought up with an incredible amount of freedom and creativity. Society has put certain constraints on things.”

His music career started unexpectedly. He and his then girlfriend Lynn, whom he married in 1980 and was together with for more than 20 years, had a small shop near a club called Eric’s. There, they saw many musicians perform, and after a while, Burns was invited to perform himself.