Elton John
Elton John
Sir Elton Hercules John, CBE, is an English pianist, singer-songwriter and composer. He has worked with lyricist Bernie Taupin as his songwriting partner since 1967; they have collaborated on more than 30 albums to date. In his five-decade career Elton John has sold more than 300 million records, making him one of the best-selling music artists in the world. He has more than fifty Top 40 hits, including seven consecutive No. 1 US albums, 58 Billboard Top 40 singles, 27 Top...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionRock Singer
Date of Birth25 March 1947
CityLondon, England
They're [[harmaceuticals companies] just making a killing out of people's death. And they're benefiting by people's suffering. And I find that obscene. I find it ridiculous in this day and age, that that would happen. And it took President Clinton to go to rogue pharmaceutical companies to copy the antiretroviral drugs for a fraction of the cost.
I've had my fills of cocaine and pills.
I get high in the evening sniffing pots of glue.
I get bombed for breakfast in the morning, I get bombed for dinner.
I've got to do something to make up for all those self-absorbed and selfish years when I just, you know, was taking drugs, sitting in my room, doing bad things, whatever.
I've dodged so many bullets. Not just because of unsafe sex, but because of the amount of drugs I did, the amount of alcohol, the amount of work I was doing. I started the Elton John AIDS Foundation because I got so lucky.
Basically, I wanted redemption for the way I lived my life beforehand, and that was the drugs, the drink, the loose sex, whatever...
The work became like the drug addiction, the clothes, anything in my life. It became - it's become an addiction. I'm addicted to working.
But actually, my drug addiction thing, I was so stubborn.
Well, we can't leave anyone behind just because they are sex workers or they are needle users, intravenous drug users, prostitutes.
I wasn't involved in anything. I wasn't out - you know, I know I wasn't in ACT UP. I wasn't with Larry Kramer. I wasn't by his side. I wasn't saying what I should do, because, by all accounts, I was a drug addict and an alcoholic. And I was living in a complete bubble of self-absorption.
I'm glad I've given up drugs and alcohol. It would be awful to be like Keith Richards. He's pathetic. It's like a monkey with arthritis, trying to go onstage and look young.
And it's one more beer and I don't hear you any more.
I was more ashamed that I couldn't work the washing machine than the fact that I was taking drugs.