Courtesy Henry Holt
Courtesy Henry HoltIf you figured that Elton John‘s new autobiography ME has lots of stories about the Rocket Man’s drug addiction, boy, are you right.
In an excerpt from ME published in the U.K. tabloid The Daily Mail, Elton recalls various incidents in which he behaved horribly while under the influence of alcohol, cocaine or both. For example:
–After drinking vodka martinis and doing coke with Duran Duran in 1983 while filming the “I’m Still Standing” video in France, Elton took off his clothes on the video set, rolled around naked, punched his manager in the face, smashed up his assistant’s hotel room and passed out. The next morning, he didn’t remember doing any of it.
–When invited to join The Rolling Stones onstage for one song, he wouldn’t get off the stage and just kept on jamming, much to the dismay of guitarist Keith Richards, who’s not exactly Mr. Just Say No himself.
–While high at a party, Elton mistook Bob Dylan for a gardener. Once he realized who it was, he attempted to bring Dylan back to his house to make him change out of those “terrible clothes” and into some of his.
–In the late ’80s, Elton’s boyfriend Hugh left him to go to rehab, to which Elton responded by spending the next two weeks doing cocaine, drinking whiskey, not dressing, not washing and purging what little he ate.
Finally, Elton writes, he admitted that he was addicted to drugs, alcohol, food and sex, and asked for help. In 1990, he went to rehab and estimates that he attended 1,400 recovery meetings over the next three years.
“Some people really struggle when they come out of addiction,” the pop-rock legend writes. “But…I was elated. Every morning, I was just happy to wake up without feeling like s***.”
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