tantrums & tiaras
Elton John’s wild sex and drugs life left out of John Lewis ad, including taking cocaine every four minutes
IN the new John Lewis Christmas advert out today, we are presented with a sugar-coated, glossy version of Sir Elton John’s life.
But what the advert makers of The Boy & The Piano failed to include – no doubt because it didn’t quiet fit into the wholesome image - were the years John, 71, spent addicted to drugs, drink and sex and that, at its peak, saw him take cocaine every four minutes.
11
Instead, we watch him reflect back on his early years as the innocent blue-eyed boy playing on his grandmother’s piano in the 1950s, to the multi-million pound music icon he became in the 1970s where he sold out stadium tours, travelled on private planes, and continued to perform on stage and TV well into the 2000s.
While John has had an undeniably successful career, his riotous off-stage antics aren't even hinted at.
Drug addiction and bulimia
John admitted in a past TV interview that he could easily have died like singer Whitney Houston because he "did as much cocaine as she ever did", wasting a big part of his life in the 1970s and early 1980s as a drug addict, with people, “dying right, left and centre” around him yet being unable to stop.
John’s addiction was so bad he attempted suicide in 1975 by swallowing Valium and jumping into the swimming pool of his Bel Air mansion – all in front of his mother and grandmother, while screaming: “I’m going to die!”
11
But he didn’t die and the drug use continued, despite previously revealing he would turn blue from epileptic seizures after using cocaine, only to snort more when he came round.
"I never considered myself a drug addict," he said. "I thought drug addicts were people who stuck needles in their arms – and I was the biggest junkie there was. I came very close to dying.”
11
In a TV interview with Piers Morgan in 2010 John went into detail about the depravity of those days, saying: “'This is how bleak it was, I'd stay up, I'd smoke joints, I'd drink a bottle of Johnnie Walker and then I'd stay up for three days and then I'd go to sleep for a day and a half, get up, and because I was so hungry, because I hadn't eaten anything, I'd binge and have like three bacon sandwiches, a pot of ice cream and then I'd throw it up, because I became bulimic and then go and do the whole thing all over again.
"That is how tragic my life was.”
11
Legendary tantrums
As well as omitting the bulimia and drug and alcohol addictions, the John Lewis ad failed to mention John’s legendary tantrums, fuelled by his then raging cocaine habit.
One time he was woken up in his hotel room by a storm outside, and John rang his management office and demanded they do something about the weather.
11
Neither did the ad include an incident that happened while he was playing tennis at the Hotel du Cap near Antibes on the French Riviera.
Ironically, this was shown in a biopic – Tantrums and Tiaras – made by his now husband David Furnish in 1997, and it shows a passing fan recognising him and innocently calling out “Yoo hoo,” which then triggers a monumental meltdown that climaxes with the singer storming into the hotel demanding to be flown home in a private jet, while screaming: “I’m never coming back to the south of France again.”
11
There have been many on-stage strops too – like the one in Las Vegas a few years ago, where he reportedly badmouthed his production team, threw his piano stool and a glass of water across the stage and went off early. And the public scenes, such as his run in with photographers in Taiwan, whom he described as “vile pigs”.
Elton John has a run in with photographers in Taiwan, calling them 'rude, vile pigs'
“In the past, particularly when I was on drugs, there was a monstrous side to me, but I'm not really like that. I can be like that briefly, but everyone can,” he told The Guardian in 2013.
11
Sexual appetite - but drawing the line at goats
John was hardly a saint when it came to his sex life either. He was notorious for his sexual promiscuity during the 1970s and 1980s, confessing to Rolling Stone magazine in 1976 that everyone was bisexual to a degree and alluding to the voraciousness of his sexual appetite saying, “I just think people should be very free with sex - they should draw the line at goats”.
On a trip to Russia, Elton had sex with KGB agent who had been working in his entourage.
He admitted: "I went to Russia in 1979 and I knew we were being watched all the time.
"I had an interpreter that they'd clearly set up. I ended up having sex with him on the hotel roof."
He then surprised everyone on Valentine's Day 1984, by marrying Renate Blauel, a German recording engineer. They divorced four years later, the same year he told Rolling Stone he was “comfortable being gay.”
11
He went into rehab and got clean in 1990 but has since said he’s lucky to be alive, claiming he should have died of Aids years ago, and set up the Elton John Aids Foundation in 1992, a charity devoted to fighting the spread of HIV and helping those with the infection as a result.
Among his ex-lovers was John Reid, his former manager, with whom he was involved in an unsuccessful £8 million High Court battle in 2000.
11
£15k-a-month on flowers
During the case, in which the singer claimed that Reid mishandled his business affairs, John’s extravagant spending habits were revealed as he admitted spending £40 million in less than two years, including an average of £15,000-a-month on flowers alone.
Elton John tells the story of how he asked a member of staff to stop it being so windy outside his hotel, after being up all night on cocaine
Another ex-lover was an unnamed film-maker 15 years his junior, who committed suicide in 2010.
"Years back I had a relationship, and I had absolutely no idea in the world he was going to do this... he threw himself under a truck," Sir Elton told The Sunday Telegraph in an interview afterwards. "There was so much grief."
The singer now lives a far more relaxed and healthy lifestyle with husband David Furnish. The pair entered into a civil partnership in 2005 and married in 2014. They have two sons - Zachary, seven, and Elijah, five, born to the same surrogate mother.
11
Calling Keith Richards and 'arthritic monkey' - and other celeb spats
While he may appear all calm and controlled at the piano, John’s famous diva-like strops and spats indicate he is a man not to be crossed.
Elton John goes on foul-mouthed rant and storms off stage as fan grabs him
In 2012 an eruption began when D&G’s senior partner, Domenico Dolce, 58, a tailor’s son from a village in Sicily, told a magazine he did not agree with gay adoptions. Dolce said: “The only real family is the traditional one,” before turning his attention to IVF, saying: “You are born to a mother and father, at least that is how it should be. I call children of chemistry synthetic children.”
11
Elton, whose two adopted children were born through IVF to a Californian surrogate, retorted on social media: “How dare you refer to my beautiful children as synthetic? Your archaic thinking is out of step with the times. Just like your fashions. I shall never wear Dolce &Gabbana again.” He signed off with:“#BoycottDolceGabbana.”
YOU’VE BEEN AD How much do you remember about these Xmas adverts? Probably less than you think!
He also feuded with Keith Richards, whom he labelled: “an arthritic monkey” after the Stones guitarist scoffed that Elton could only write songs about “dead blondes”.
Then there was Madonna who he called a “fairground stripper” because she was apparently rude about his friend Lady Gaga, adding, “She is a nightmare. Her career is over.”
Elton John slags off Madonna at the Q Awards accusing her of lip-syncing
More on elton john
At an awards ceremony in London in 2008 he also exchanged vicious comments with singer Lily Allen, who told him to eff-off, adding: “I’m 40 years younger than you, I have my whole life ahead of me.” John scowled back: “I could still snort you under the table.”
He’s also laid into the record industry, claiming it was run by “idiots”, who didn’t understand creative talent and he fell out with Simon Cowell too and refused to appear on the talent show impressario’s American Idol.
So there really is a lot more to Elton John than just a talented man and his piano.