Elton John, 78, issues poignant three-word piece of advice to younger self as he gears up for new album
Sir Elton John has revealed the one piece of advice he would give his younger self during a candid interview with Kate Garraway for Smooth Radio.
The 78-year-old music legend made the admission as he promoted his new collaborative album “Who Believes In Angels?” with American singer Brandi Carlile, released today.
The 10-track album features eight songs with the duo together, plus a solo song from each artist.
John told Garraway in a snippet shown on Good Morning Britain: “This is probably the freshest album I’ve done since the 70s.”
When asked what advice he would give his younger self, he candidly responded: “Never take drugs. I mean, I took drugs. Enjoy what you do, which I’d done. Never take drugs.”
The singer has been incredibly open about his crippling addiction to alcohol and cocaine at the height of his fame in the 1970s and 80s, with his battle with addiction being documented in the 2019 musical biopic Rocketman and in his autobiography “Me, Elton” published the same year.
John first took cocaine in 1974 and became hooked on the euphoric feeling it gave him and explained: “It took me down, and then when I recovered, I had to go through that journey to become the person I am.
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“But I wouldn’t have wanted to go through all that, but it did land me up where I am now.”
Writing about his addiction in his autobiography, John revealed: “Because I was doing coke, I wasn’t a rational human being anymore. You become unreasonable and irresponsible, self-obsessed, a law unto yourself. It’s your way or the highway. It’s a horrible drug.”
After a 20-year battle with both alcohol and drugs, he quit them both for good in 1990 and throughout his struggles, music remained a constant in Elton’s life.
“Music has been in my entire life. It’s been with me when I’ve been up, been down, depressed, but I still went out there and made music, I recorded, I toured, and it saved me. It nearly destroyed me, but it saved me,” he told Garraway.
The singer explained how even during his darkest periods, he continued to create and perform.
During the recording of his new album, cameras captured Elton’s frustrations, including moments where he slammed headphones down and tore up sheet music.
In 2015, he celebrated 25 years of sobriety with a picture on Instagram of a cake topped by the number 25 and the phrase “One day at a time,” and during a recent appearance on the Smartless podcast, the star reflected on how fame affected him.
“That little boy inside of me had vanished, but the little boy has come back, and everyone needs that little child inside of them to keep them going. Unfortunately, I lost it and it made me very sad and depressed.”
The recording process for “Who Believes In Angels?” wasn’t always smooth, with Elton explaining how Brandi Carlile helped him through difficult moments.
“Brandi came in and saw the state I was in at breakfast, and she wrote A Little Light, which is a really positive song,” he revealed. She told him: “Listen, we’re musicians. What we do is try and heal people with our music’.”
The album has received widespread critical acclaim, with The Guardian calling it “easily the best album he has made this century” and MOJO describing it as “a career highlight for Carlile and a rejuvenation for John.”
Elton also spoke about his family life during the interview, expressing pride in his sons Zachary, 14, and Elijah, 12, whom he shares with husband David Furnish.
“I am so proud of them because they’re polite. They’ve been brought up to be polite. They are our life.”
