Elton John Regrets Past Drug Use

Elton John performs in Oberhausen, Germany.Peter Wafzig/Redferns via Getty Images

Elton John has revealed he "wasted" a big part of his life using drugs in an interview regarding the musician's upcoming memoir, Love Is the Cure: On Life, Loss and the End of AIDS.

"I was a drug addict and self-absorbed," said John, who explained this was in the early Eighties, around the same time the AIDS epidemic was starting. "You know, I was having people die right, left and center around me, friends. And yet I didn't stop the life that I had, which is the terrible thing about addiction. It's that – you know, it's that bad of a disease."

During the interview, John also talked about how his lifestyle at the time made him feel unafraid of the growing AIDS epidemic: "When you take a drug and you take a drink and you mix those two together, you think you're invincible," the musician said. "I came out of this HIV-negative. I was the luckiest man in the world."

In the book, John writes, "I was consumed by cocaine, booze, and who knows what else. I apparently never got the memo that the Me generation had ended."

Though John admitted he felt some guilt about that period in his life, he added, "I'm making up for it. There is so much more to be done."

Ever the humanitarian, proceeds from sales of John's memoir will go to the Elton John AIDS Foundation. On September 21st he will headline an event at London's Wembley Arena that benefits the charity Peace One Day and promotes the Global Truce 2012 campaign, which hopes to "create the largest global reduction of violence ever recorded on one day."

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

Amazon Music and MP3 Center

Posted in: Elton,Regrets