Pop rock star Elton John has waited until old age to spill the tea. In his new memoir, Me, Sir Elton John, the “Benny And The Jets” singer shared his sentiments about mega-stars Tina Turner and Michael Jackson and it’s not pleasant.
John, 72, claimed that Tina Turner roasted him when they were prepping for a tour in 1997. “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.”
He goes on in his book to say that him and Tina had a turbulent conversation in which she asked him to change his costumes from Versace to Armani to avoid looking fat. He claims that the “What’s Love Got To Do With It” singer also asked him to update his hairstyle. But, things really came to a head when, to his dismay, Tina asked John to perform “Proud Mary” exactly the way she performs it. He responded to Tina by telling her to “stick her f***ing song up her arse and stormed off.”
“I’ve thrown plenty of tantrums in my time, but there are limits. There’s an unspoken rule that musicians don’t treat their fellow musicians like s**t. She didn’t like my hair, she didn’t like the color of my piano, and she didn’t like my clothes,” he wrote. They never went on tour. But, they later made up at a dinner.
Tina is not the only star he throws under the bus. He also claims that he thought Michael Jackson was mentally ill. In his book, he reveals that he met Jackson when he was a teen. By the time he encountered Jackson as an adult, the singer was totally different and John thought he was being given some kind of prescription drug that would make him act out of character.
John wrote, “He was genuinely mentally ill, a disturbing person to be around.” John also tells of a story when he went to lunch with Jackson and the “Rock With You” singer’s makeup was oddly placed on making him look like a “maniac”. “The poor guy looked awful, really frail and ill,” John wrote. “For whatever reason, he couldn’t seem to cope with adult company at all.”
In the book, John also delves into his history of drug use. His choice of drug was cocaine, in which he was addicted to for over 16 years. His habit caused him to have spending binges and wild sex escapades.
Me, Sir Elton John definitely sounds like a juicy book full of celebrity stories. John felt like many stories surrounding him may have been misconstrued and wanted to use the memoir to set the record straight.
“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.”
Me, Sir Elton John comes out on Oct. 15.
