UK presenter Jonathan Ross has praised singer George Michael as a “great role model for young gay men,” the UK's Evening Standard reported.

Ross praised the singer in an essay to promote the re-release of Michael's Faith album.

Michael recently pleaded guilty to driving under the influence of drugs during a July 4 car accident, in which he crashed his Range Rover into a Snappy Snaps 1 hour photo shop in north London. The crash reportedly occurred after the openly gay Michael attended London's gay pride parade and festival. He was given an 8-week jail sentence and fined nearly $2,000 in September.

In his essay, Ross praises Michael for refusing to “pay lip-service to dominant hetero-culture.” Michael instead offers “himself up as a radical and yet much-needed alternative role model to young gay men who don't embrace camp or feminised homosexual behavior as their own.”

Michael was also arrested in 1998 for lewd conduct in a Los Angeles men's room. The incident forced the reluctant singer to come out gay. He's since said the arrest was “a huge relief and it took me about a year to admit to myself that I had done it deliberately.”