Y ou can tell a lot by the title of an autobiography. Some are obviously deliberately self-aggrandising, some display an unnecessary obsession with wordplay, while others try to suggest a kind of monolithism. In the world of entertainment, they tend to be even worse – some of the biggest offenders are My Booky Wook by Russell Brand, for instance, or Are You There, Vodka? It’s Me, Chelsea by Chelsea Handler, All You Need Is Ears by George Martin or Hitch-22 by Christopher Hitchens. Two of the best music autobiographies of recent years have wildly different titles. Life, by Keith Richards, is a suitably grand moniker for a suitably grand book, while Chronicles: Volume One is the rather pretentious title of the brilliant Bob Dylan memoir (a title made even more annoying because it hints there might be sequels).
Me, the much-anticipated autobiography of Sir Elton John, not only has an appropriately clever and almost mythical title, but it also joins Life and Chronicles in being one of the best music books you’ll ever read, a searingly honest and laugh-out-loud funny tear through one of the biggest lives and most successful careers pop has ever seen. Few music autobiographies do their subjects complete service (a lack of self-awareness often being a unifying factor), but Me is not just a fitting testament to Elton’s life, it’s also unrelentingly enjoyable. As far as I’m aware there are only two other autobiographies that share the title: one being Katharine Hepburn’s 1991 memoir (which is somewhat ruined by its subhead: Stories Of My Life) and the other being the self-penned book by the Alan Rickman character in the 2012 remake of the Sixties classic Gambit (the retread being one of the worst films ever made).
Elton’s Me was actually written by GQ’s former music editor Alexis Petridis and he has done a terrific job in capturing Elton’s voice, in much the same way that James Fox captured Keith Richards’ voice in Life. The book moves effortlessly from Elton’s teenage years in suburban Pinner to sudden, extraordinary fame in the US, right through the sex, the drugs, the rock’n’roll, the clothes, the addictions (all of the above and more), the lawsuits, the tantrums, the tiaras, the lot. Having been through treatment (he had an almost unparalleled fondness for cocaine in the Seventies and Eighties), Elton already knows that in order to continually move forward in life he has to consistently tell the truth about his past. This makes him a terrific interviewee, as you can usually ask him anything without making him flinch; this honesty also gives Me a richness you don’t often find in books of this nature. Only once does the narrative feel clunky, when Elton suddenly goes from mawkish North London troubadour to internationally renowned rock star. In real time this took a lot longer than the two-page transition in the book.
But this isn’t a ghostwriter’s book. It’s Elton’s book. And it’s difficult to imagine it ever being told more effectively than it is here. Anyone who has had the good fortune (and, on the odd occasion, the misfortune) to meet Elton will know that the term larger-than-life could have been invented for him, and his larger-than-life personality is squeezed brilliantly into this book. I read Me avidly over a weekend and would disappear early from lunch, slip away from the television and bow out of walks with the family in order to curl up with it once more, just to find out who Elton would shout at next. One of Elton’s most engaging traits is not just his ability to laugh at himself, it’s also his self-awareness. You might think he wouldn’t want to address his sexual proclivities, his relentlessly foul mouth (when I asked him once if he had heard that a well-known tabloid columnist had just died, he shot back with, “Oh, yes. I gather she died of c***ishness”), his appalling short temper or his penchant for shopping on an industrial scale, but, trust me, Elton knows more incriminating stories about himself than anyone and they’re all here in glorious, granular, often cinematically hi-res detail.
Elton wanted to do only two interviews to publicise the book: one for the BBC and another for British GQ. The interview took place in his holiday home outside Nice on Friday 30 August.
Dylan Jones: You must have been asked dozens of times to write your memoirs. Why did you finally decide to do it now?
Sir Elton John: It’s the right time. I’m 72 years old and I thought it was a good time to reflect on my life as it’s in pretty good shape now. I’m doing the farewell tour, Rocketman has come out, so it made sense to follow all that with the book. I didn’t want to do a book when I was 30 or 40, because it wouldn’t have been as honest as it is now. This is the time in my life in which I’m the happiest, when I feel most contented. Originally the book was going to be written by [the journalist] Ingrid Sischy, who unfortunately passed away; it would have been a much more analytical book and it wouldn’t have been so humorous and personal. I modelled it on The Moon’s A Balloon by David Niven as I thought that was such a great book. It was full of information, full of his personal memoirs and also incredibly funny. There’s been so much humour in my life, and I wanted to reflect that. When I started thinking about my life I thought, “Oh, my God, how did I do all this?” From a boy in Pinner with no idea of becoming who I became.
DJ: I assume you couldn’t have written the book while your mother was still alive.
EJ: That’s right, as it would have been too painful for her. I never responded to all the things she said in the tabloids and all the other things she did, so I thought it was time to address them, to tell a couple of home truths, and it wouldn’t have been appropriate. She died at a good age, 92 [in 2017], and we reconciled in as much as we could before she died and I’m glad we did. We had her funeral at the house and it was very emotional. I cried. I was very emotional because she was my mother. Unfortunately we grew apart, but families do that. The last six or seven years of my relationship with my mother were pretty awful, and it wasn’t great before that. But it was very cathartic for me to write about it.
DJ: You’re far more benign about people than you could have been.
EJ: I wanted to settle a few scores and I did with Tina Turner. I have nothing but love for Tina, but when she roasted me on The Oprah Winfrey Show – she roasted me uphill and down – it wasn’t fair, although I never said anything at the time. I thought when all this has settled down, I would say exactly what happened and set the record straight. I didn’t want to write a book where I was horrible about people. I wanted to write a joyful, honest, funny book. The older you get, you start to put things into perspective. I’ve done that with my father, I’ve done that with [former lover and manager] John Reid, I’ve done that with all the people I had grievances against. In fact, I don’t have any grievances concerning my father and I’m very happy to have met his wife, his widow, who came to the show with my half-brothers and her grandchildren. Life’s too short. You can’t die hating people. It’s the wrong thing to do. I wouldn’t have got in touch with my mother at all had I not overheard someone talking about their relationship with their father. In Alcoholics Anonymous there’s a thing that says you can’t change people; you have to accept them for who they are. And I thought if my mother died and I didn’t reach out to her, I would feel terrible about it. So partly it was for me and, of course, it was for her too. I didn’t want that on my conscience when she died, that I hadn’t tried to reach out and give her an olive branch.
DJ: Having been through treatment and through rehab, where you are encouraged to be honest about your past and to be transparent, did that make it easier to be revelatory?
EJ: Of course. When I got sober, Alcoholics Anonymous gave me a set of rules on how to live my life. I always say people should read the AA’s Big Book, because it’s a guide to life, not just to staying sober. It has so many useful things in there. I could never have written this book unless I’d gone through what I’ve done with AA and becoming sober. I’ve been sober for 29 years and a lot of bad things happened in those 29 years, but you learn to deal with it. You don’t have to run away and shut the door and take drugs and drink and scream and shout. You just have to deal with them on a regular basis. Shit happens to everybody in everyday life. Problems arise and I have the tools now to know how to deal with them, whereas before I didn’t.
DJ: You talk a lot in the book about sex and drugs, a lot of which is entertaining, but there must have been some red lines you didn’t cross. What did you leave out?
EJ: I didn’t want to mention names and I think you can only go so far. Rocketman had sexual scenes in it and I thought they were graphic enough and they left some things to the imagination. Sex is like going on a beach and seeing people nude. It’s like, “Oh, God. Put your clothes on!” Sex is something that is all about the imagination and the idea of sex and the fantasy of sex is sometimes so much greater than the sex itself. I didn’t want to name names, otherwise the book would have been 450 pages longer! I think it’s graphic enough and, with the drug stuff, I talk about it for a long time. In rehab they encourage you to write everything down and I was like, “Where do I start?” I was so constipated and so full of crap. And then when I started writing, and you will know this as a writer yourself, it’s the most cathartic thing to do. I started and I couldn’t stop. It was a wonderful way of starting my rehabilitation. I used to keep a diary, but I never kept personal thoughts, I was just like, “I saw Ringo for lunch, bought a Rolls-Royce, blah, blah, blah.” So I thought the writing I did in treatment was really very helpful to me while I was doing the book. But Alexis has done the most incredible job, because you would think it was my voice.
DJ: What was the process? How did you collaborate on the book?
EJ: Just like you and I sitting down here with a tape recorder for two or three hours every time, starting at the very beginning. The book was originally going to start at Dodger Stadium [in 1975], but that wouldn’t have appealed to a lot of people, so we started when I was born. The incredible thing is I remembered so much about the early days, about being in Bluesology, because I had such a great time even though I was earning nothing. It’s great to talk about those early days of English music, which paved the way for The Rolling Stones, for The Beatles and stuff like that.
DJ: You talk about your excessive years in a really engaging way, because you don’t glorify them, but neither are you censorious or moralistic about them.
EJ: That’s how it was. If I hadn’t gone through what I did then I wouldn’t have become the person I am now. So in a way, I’m grateful for those years of sex and drugs, although I despise looking back on them. I had a good time at the beginning, but at the end it was just awful. But if I hadn’t have gone through them, I wouldn’t be sitting here having the great life I have now. I would have never met David [Furnish]. I would never have had children. I spent 16 years getting fucked up and 29 years getting better.
DJ: You even manage to be quite nice about John Reid in the book.
EJ: Listen, I don’t go around sticking pins in a voodoo doll. He said in the press that I ignore him. That’s not true. I’ve seen him twice. I saw him at the airport very early in our separation in Nice and I went up and said hello. And I saw him in Saint-Tropez and I went up and said hello. I’ve always taken the high ground. So for him to say that I’ve ignored him is absolute nonsense. If he came over to me and said hello, I would be very nice. It’s in the past. It’s gone.
DJ: It’s a big book and there is so much in it, but there must have been lots of encounters you didn’t put in. Did you have to kill any of your darlings because you didn’t have the space?
EJ: There are hundreds of other encounters, hundreds of other people I could have written about. Take Eartha Kitt, for instance. I went to see her sing at a gay club in LA called Studio One. I’d always loved her and remembered her being carried on stage by all those guys on Sunday Night At The London Palladium. Before she went on stage that night she came up to me and said, “I’ve never liked anything you did except the Transylvania thing, by which she meant “Philadelphia Freedom”. I mean, what do you say to that? [Another time] I remember the agent Sue Mengers invited us for lunch and she rang a friend of hers to ask, “Is there anything they don’t eat, except pussy?” There were so many things I could have put in the book, but I didn’t want it to be anecdote, anecdote, name-drop, name-drop.
DJ: It’s obviously been an extraordinary year for you in so many different ways. When Bohemian Rhapsody became so successful, was there any pressure from the studio to make Rocketman more of a PG film?
EJ: I have to say, Paramount was incredibly on our side. There was talk about the PG thing, but I said I can’t tell my life like that. What Bohemian Rhapsody did was to prolong Queen’s career and it worked in a brilliant way because their catalogue is flying.
DJ: Have you seen it?
EJ: I couldn’t see it. I couldn’t watch it because I’m so close to Freddie. I’ve seen snippets of it and I thought that Rami Malek was fantastic, but being Freddie’s dearest friend, I couldn’t watch it.
DJ: How upset were you about the censorship by Russian distributors of the sex scenes in Rocketman?
EJ: Well, we didn’t sit here and go, “You fucking c***s.” When they cut out the bit with me and David and the family at the end of the film, I had to say something because the old Iron Curtain countries are becoming more and more homophobic. They said they did it to protect children, which is what the propaganda law in Russia is all about, because a lot of Russians think you’re influenced to be gay rather than born gay. The film still has an 18 rating in Russia, even with all the cuts, so children can’t get in to see it anyway. It is blatant homophobia and it’s hypocrisy on every level.
DJ: When you were writing the book, did it make you think about your legacy?
EJ: I very rarely think about my legacy because I’m still working and I’ve got two years of touring to do. I’ve more or less finished the Devil Wears Prada musical, there’s another musical that is more or less finished and I’m going to record when I finish touring. I have a huge propensity for work. Even when I was at my lowest, the thing that kept me alive was working. I still toured. I still made records and that kept me alive. I didn’t just sequester myself away, otherwise I wouldn’t be here. So I loved music so much and I’m still the fan that I was when I was 15 or 16. And I think that is what keeps McCartney going, what keeps Springsteen going. And while they don’t work as hard as I do, and they haven’t toured as much as I have, they still love music. I always get pissed off when people criticise The Rolling Stones for still touring. They wouldn’t say that about Muddy Waters. It’s bullshit. The Stones go out there and they’re probably playing as good now as they ever have. So I will still be heavily involved in music. I just don’t want to do the travelling any more. I have two boys who need me and David needs me.
DJ: Have you seen the new Lion King film?
EJ: The new version of The Lion King was a huge disappointment to me, because I believe they messed the music up. Music was so much a part of the original and the music in the current film didn’t have the same impact. The magic and joy were lost. The soundtrack hasn’t had nearly the same impact in the charts that it had 25 years ago, when it was the bestselling album of the year. The new soundtrack fell out of the charts so quickly, despite the massive box-office success. I wish I’d been invited to the party more, but the creative vision for the film and its music was different this time around and I wasn’t really welcomed or treated with the same level of respect. That makes me extremely sad. I’m so happy that the right spirit for the music lives on with the Lion King stage musical.
DJ: One of the things I’ve always loved about you is your obsession with new music and also your obsession with what works commercially. You’re looking at the charts all the time. But are there really any stars any more?
EJ: Good question. To be a star, you have to be a star for a long time and you have to do that by being a live performer. You can’t be a star just by making records. That’s not going to happen. To be a star, you have to last for 50 years. You have to be a Barbra Streisand. You have to be a Paul McCartney. You have to be Sting. You have to be Fleetwood Mac. You have to be The Who. Christine And The Queens, in my opinion, is a huge star, but she hasn’t cracked it yet commercially. The only real star at the moment is Lady Gaga. She could have a career like Barbra Streisand if she wanted to. She’s got the ambition, she’s got the talent coming out of every pore of her body, so it’s up to her whether she wants it and I think she does want it.
DJ: Ed Sheeran?
EJ: I believe Ed will last, but he’s got to broaden his one-man-band thing. I’d love to hear his songs played with a band, but that’s up to him. I told him that and he’s very good and listens to me. For instance, he came to me after his first record and said, “Look, the record company want me to do a new album, but I’ve also been offered 80 dates with Taylor Swift. What should I do?” I said, “You should pick Taylor Swift because you’ll be coming on to a half-empty audience who are just finding their seats. It’s not your audience. It’s a country audience, so it’ll be incredibly hard work for you. But it will give you balls of steel.” And he did it and he triumphed and he emailed me and he said, “Thank you. That was the right decision.” So kudos to him.
DJ: Stormzy?
EJ: He’s amazing and he was terrific at Glastonbury. It was a very hard thing for him to do, because he was the opening headline act and he was a relatively new artist and he came on and he killed it. Dave is another young artist who is full in your face, but it’s lyrically exactly what’s happening.
DJ: When was the last time you saw [David Furnish’s 1997 Elton documentary] Tantrums & Tiaras?
EJ: I loved that show and still do. Every artistic person I know has a monster inside them and that monster always rises up on some occasion, so when David made that film about me it was completely honest. It’s strange. When you go on a talk show your persona clicks in. You become “Elton John”. And when I finish a concert, I try to leave my persona on stage. But when you’re on a talk show you can’t let your guard down. Tantrums was me with my guard down and I just thought, “I’m going to put this out because you see exactly what I’m like.” A lot of people thought it was a step too far and it would ruin my career, but I didn’t care.
DJ: Me is often laugh- out-loud funny.
EJ: I’ve always had a good sense of humour and I wanted the book to reflect that. The tabloid press in Britain can be infuriating, but in America the press turns everyone into Michael Jackson or Beyoncé, and they treat everyone like royalty. That would never happen in England. No way in a million years. I don’t like some of the criticism and the outright lies that the tabloids write, but I’d rather put up with that than live in a world where they revere you 100 per cent of the time. Your shit does stink sometimes and to have it pointed out to you is not very agreeable, but it’s important.
DJ: Being outspoken is obviously part of your DNA and that hasn’t changed. Why was it important to you to lend your support to Harry and Meghan?
EJ: I’m very fond of both boys because of Diana and I think what they had to go through with the funeral was terrible. I’ll never forget the funeral and seeing those boys having to walk behind the coffin for 45 minutes. I thought it was slightly inhuman, well, not slightly, incredibly. I don’t see Harry and Meghan very often, but I’m there for them. I completely support his views. We’ve worked together on numerous occasions, been to the International Aids Conference together, and while we’re not in each other’s back pockets, I have a certain feeling for him because he reminded me so much of Diana. I love the fact that he would walk into a room and disarm people straight away, which in all my life I’ve only seen about two or three people able to do. One was Bill Clinton, one was Princess Diana and the other is Harry.
DJ: What was President Macron like? You appeared to get on very well when he presented you with the Legion Of Honour.
EJ: He was very disarming. When we were at the Elysée Palace he made a 45-minute speech in English about my life and my career, my marriage to David, our children and he looked me straight in the eye all the time. It didn’t feel like we were meeting the president of France. He was just a laugh, just fun and down-to-earth and very friendly. In fact, we kept everybody waiting for the ceremony for 25 minutes because we were having such a nice, normal exchange. Sometimes you go into those situations and they are steeped in protocol or very formal. The boys sat there asking questions and he was talking to all of us and so was Brigitte and they were just lovely people.
DJ: You’re very good at reaching out to people who have attacked you or said something that you vehemently disagree with. Have you reached out to Trump?
EJ: I don’t have any connection with Trump. But this year in his State Of The Union speech he pledged to end aids by 2030 in the US and beyond. That’s something I really care about. America’s Pepfar programme, which was established by a Republican and has been sustained for the last 16 years, has done more to prevent global aids than any other initiative on the planet. The US’s domestic HIV epidemic really needs help, so if there’s more funding and political will for that, I’m for it. Of course, there are things about him that I disagree with totally. But personally, I feel that criticising and dragging people down can be very counterproductive to changing things for the better. If I’d taken that position over the last 25 years we would have fought with just about every leader in the world! A president who says that he wants to end aids is a starting point. You know, I go to America, I play in front of Trump supporters and Democrats and they all come together and appreciate the same thing. I remember playing in Ireland in the Seventies to both Catholics and Protestants and that was amazing. I don’t get carried away too much with who I am. But what I do is make people enjoy the two-and-a-half hours and forget everything else. And nowadays it’s never been more important to try to forget what’s going on.
DJ: Have you ever tried social media?
EJ: Oh, my word. Thank God I don’t run my Twitter account. My career would have been over years ago.
DJ: What do you think of what’s happening in Britain right now?
EJ: I’m appalled about what’s happening in England. I don’t think we’ve ever been in such a state. I mean, I’m 72 years old and I can’t remember the country being in such a divided state between Brexit and non-Brexit. The whole country is affected and I don’t see how we are going to come back from it. I mean, people are so violent about Brexit, both pro and con, and it’s frightening and sad. Our leaders have divided us rather than united us and they’ve used lies to do it. Strong political leaders should be uniting people and bringing people together, but instead they’ve decided which side of the fence they’re on and they’ve contributed to the divisiveness.
DJ: Did you vote in the referendum?
EJ: Yes, I voted to remain. I’m touring Europe all the time and people are going, “What the fuck is going on?”
DJ: What do you think of Boris Johnson?
EJ: Not much. I like him as a guy. I mean, he interviewed me for GQ years ago in Vegas. As a politician, I think he’s been a liar at times. And, unfortunately, politicians do lie. I’m not that naive, but now they believe it’s OK to lie. It’s become part of fake news. It’s not only in America, Britain, it’s everywhere, as despots are in charge of so many countries.
DJ: Do you have any relationship with the authorities in China?
EJ: Does anyone? I mean, everyone who goes to China gets vetted. It is the most bizarre experience when you’re there, because it feels like a Western democracy, but it’s not. Like you’re staying in Western-style hotels and there are Starbucks and Rolex shops and it doesn’t feel like a communist country, but the reality is everything’s very strictly controlled. The first time I went, with Watford FC, the crowd weren’t allowed to make a noise during the game. They had to remain silent. The second time I went, they were playing Madonna records at half-time.
DJ: Have you had a lot of people to stay this summer?
EJ: I reconnected with Pete Townshend, who I hadn’t seen for years, and that was lovely, and Michael Stipe, who always comes here every year, and we’ve seen Bono and The Edge. Bono’s son is in a band called Inhaler from Dublin and they’re fucking amazing. And his son said, “Please don’t tell the record company you’re my dad.” Lewis Capaldi came for lunch. I’ve had lunch with James Blake, Tom Odell, Sam Smith, Sam Fender. I just have lunch with them and say, “Listen, what you’re doing is OK. If you ever need any advice, here’s my email. If you ever need any help, then here I am.”
DJ: Did Bono ask any advice? He’s currently finishing his autobiography...
EJ: I don’t think he needs any advice from me. We had the most wonderful summer with him. He’s a great mimic and he was talking a lot about his early days and how he met his wife’s family and how they all were in the same school. Hearing about those early days in Dublin was great, as you don’t often hear Bono talking about that and it made me even more fond of him.
DJ: I gather you now have a swear box, to discourage you.
EJ: Oh, yes. I’m up to €520. Plenty of fucks and bloodies, but no c***s.
Me is out on 15 October 2019.
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