Elton John is famous for speaking his mind, and he’s at it again, this time in a fascinating and lengthy interview with the Telegraph newspaper, in which he goes in-depth about his past addiction issues, new music (which the paper describes as “his best in more than 30 years”) and his relationships with controversial conservative radio personality Rush Limbaugh and rapper Eminem.
The legendary singer received widespread criticism earlier this year when he accepted the staunchly anti-gay marriage Limbaugh’s invitation to perform at his wedding. “When [Limbaugh] asked me to play at his wedding, my agent said, ‘Well, of course you won’t be doing it,'” John tells the Telegraph. “But I said, ‘Well, let me think about that first.’ … Limbaugh’s not anti-civil partnerships, so maybe I can have a dialogue about that. I’ve put my foot in the water and so has he. I got on with him very well, got on very well with his wife.”
(Warning: Elton John is not afraid to use salty language!)
Interestingly, John credits his friendship with Eminem, a performer known for his sometimes-homophobic lyrics, as the reason he was willing to consider Limbaugh’s invitation. John famously performed with the rapper at the 2001 Grammys, in what many saw as a mea culpa for Eminem’s anti-gay lyrics.
Eminem has since come out in support of gay marriage and recently denied being homophobic during a ’60 Minutes’ interview with Anderson Cooper, claiming the anti-gay language he sometimes employs is influenced not by homophobia but is instead a part of the rap-battle culture in which he developed his talents as an MC. But if there is any doubt that the rap star truly has evolved when it comes to GLBT issues, his gift to John and partner David Furnish when they were joined in a civil partnership in 2005 should dispel all doubt. “For our civil partnership present,” John says, “he [Eminem] gave David and me two diamond-encrusted c*** rings.”
John, who recently recorded a duet with Lady Gaga (‘Hello, Hello’) for the forthcoming Disney film ‘Gnomeo and Juliet,’ also spoke candidly about how his work with AIDS charities saved him from his substance abuse problems and his relationship with Michael Jackson, who he describes as “charming, sweet, lovely – but damaged.”
Speaking about Jackson, John relays an interesting story about how removed the singer sometimes was from the mass hysteria that surrounded him. “He came down here and we closed all the curtains and had lunch. He said it was the first time he’d sat down and had a meal with people for 10 years,” John says. “He would always eat on his own.”
John implies that Jackson suffered from one of the caveats of fame: “You don’t ever grow up.”
It was John’s friendship with Ryan White, a hemophiliac who at the age of 13 became infected with HIV from contaminated blood during a transfusion, that sparked not only his investment in AIDS-related issues but also contributed to his recovery from addiction. John spent the final week of White’s life at his side, “making the coffee and fielding telephone calls” at his home. White died in 1990 at the age of 18, and John was a pall-bearer at his funeral.
“What I learnt from them in that one week was that my life was so out of kilter,” John says. “These people gave me an incredible example of how to lead one’s life as a Christian – forgiving, wonderful, not bitter; handling tragedy with such dignity, humility and generosity of spirit. And here I was complaining about the wallpaper in a hotel suite. What? What an absolute c*** you are. It made me think, you’ve got to make a change here, son.”
The singer – who claims to have attended over 1,500 Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous meetings and remains friends with his AA sponsor in Chicago, a one-time garbage truck driver and current counselor – founded the Elton John AIDS Foundation just two years after White’s passing. It has since raised nearly $250 million for AIDS research and education and is one of the largest such foundations in the world.
John attributes his decades-long addiction issues, which he says contributed heavily to multiple suicide attempts, to life-long insecurities about his appearance and his desire to fit in. “I never thought of myself as being handsome or good-looking or whatever,” he says. “I always felt like an outsider. And I think that’s why I started doing drugs, to be one of the gang.”
In 1975, the same week John was set to perform a series of concerts at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles and receive a star on Hollywood Boulevard, he attempted suicide by taking 60 Valium and jumping into the swimming pool at his Bel Air mansion – in front of his mother and grandmother – screaming, “I’m going to die!”
“It was stress. I’d been working non-stop for five years. But it was typical me. There was no way I was going to kill myself doing that,” John tells the Telegraph. He attributes his depression to having no sense of self: “I would only know how to be ‘Elton.’ I wouldn’t know how to live off stage. There was no balance in my life.”
His drug use also nearly took his life on multiple occasions. “I would have massive seizures where it felt like my head was spinning round like Linda Blair in ‘The Exorcist’ and I would collapse,” John says. “I remember once collapsing in my bedroom and they found me – and it’s a wonder they did – and I was blue. They put me back on the bed and revived me, and they went out, and 30 minutes later I was back doing blow.”
The singer sobered up in the early 1990s and laments that many of his most formative years remain “a complete and utter blur.”
Now 63, the John is particularly proud of his latest album, ‘The Union,’ which he worked on with a host of music legends, including Leon Russell, T-Bone Burnett and Bernie Taupin, John’s longtime lyricist and the man behind ‘Rocket Man,’ ‘Tiny Dancer‘ and ‘Your Song.’ He says the record was inspired by Bob Dylan’s acclaimed 2006 album ‘Modern Times.’ “Once I’d heard ‘Modern Times’ by Bob Dylan it really changed the way I wanted to make records. That was such a beautiful record,” John says. “It could have been made in 1950, it could have been made now – it’s timeless, just simple, beautiful music played so brilliantly.”
Elton John ‘Got on Very Well’ With Rush Limbaugh | PopEater.com.
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