Sir Elton John is "grateful" for his years of "sex and drugs"
Sir Elton John covers GQ Hype (picture by David LaChapelle)
The 72-year-old singer spent 16 years battling various addictions but has been sober for decades, and though he hates looking back at his time of excess, the 'Tiny Dancer' hitmaker - who has sons Zachary, eight, and Elijah, six, with husband David Furnish - is thankful for his experiences because they made him the person he is today.
He told GQ Hype magazine: "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.
"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. I would never have had children."
The 'Rocket Man' icon claims age has put things into perspective and influenced the tone for his new autobiography 'Me' as he didn't just want to be "horrible" about people in his life but simply "set the record straight".
He explained: "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."
Read the full interview with Elton at https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/culture/article/elton-john-interview
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