Courtesy of Henry Holt

Courtesy of Henry Holt

If you thought Elton John‘s biopic Rocketman portrayed the rock legend as being over the top, out of control and completely debauched, well, you ain’t seen nothing yet: Wait until you read his upcoming autobiography.

In an essay Elton wrote for a booklet that comes with the Blu-ray and DVD release of Rocketman, he reflects on the reason he wanted to have his life depicted on film, and why he decided to write his autobiography, Me, which is coming out this October. The answers: his two sons, Elijah and Zachary.

“I liked the idea of them having an autobiography and a film where I was honest, no holds barred, no punches pulled,” Elton writes, adding, “I wanted something [they] could read and something they could see and think, ‘Well, that was our dad…that was what he was really like.'”

Elton goes on to admit, “I don’t mind people knowing about my bad side — at my worst, my bad side was pretty dreadful. There are moments in the book that I don’t come out of very well, where I seem completely disgusting and awful, but I was completely disgusting and awful, and there’s no reason to pretend otherwise.”

He continues, “I can’t stand books or movies about rock stars that give you some whitewashed version of reality. It’s boring, because it’s a lie: No one is perfect, and certainly no rock star is perfect. They can be horrible sometimes. They can be fabulous and charming and they can be outrageous and stupid.”

Declares Elton: “That’s what I wanted to show in Rocketman, and that’s definitely what I wanted to show in Me.“

Me hits bookstores October 15. Rocketman is out now digitally; it arrives on DVD, Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD on August 27.

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