A poignant tell-all of the Rocketman: Elton John
Music icon Elton John in his memoir ‘Me’ shares about his painful childhood, stardom, addiction and path to recovery…
If you are a fan of Elton this a must-read. And, if you're not… then also it is an incredibly intriguing read, which you will definitely savour. Multi-award-winning solo artist Elton John has penned his autobiography 'Me', in which he bares all truths of his life.
Reginald Dwight, a shy boy with thick-framed glasses, who grew in Pinner, a suburb of London, never shied away from dreaming to become a pop star. And boy did he realise his dream and how! This little introverted kid was known to the world as Elton John.
Sir Elton John has achieved 38 gold and 31 platinum or multi-platinum albums, has sold more than 300 million records worldwide and holds the record for the biggest-selling single of all time, 'Candle in the Wind 1997'.
Earlier this year a biopic on Elton John 'Rocketman' was released and it showcased the emotional travails of the pop star. It took fans closer to the life of the star, who was known for his outlandish stage costumes and outsize temper tantrums. The autobiography by the legend gives the world a ringside view of his life.
While penning the book Elton does not hold back throughout and delves into various phases of his life. He starts the book with his painful childhood, where he had to deal with his mother who was extremely neglectful of him. And his very ill-tempered father, who was never really there when Elton was growing up. And whenever his father was around young Elton had to face the wrath of his father's anger, who found wrong in whatever Elton did.
"Once, he hit me because I was supposedly taking my school blazer off incorrectly," Elton writes.
With such a troublesome childhood Elton found solace in rock and roll, which took him on a musical journey of a lifetime. He writes about his early struggles in British pub circuit. And his tryst with fame when his song 'Your Song' exploded across the globe in the '70s. Elton writes in detail about the escapades he had during that decade. He tells the world how he was introduced to drugs, which was followed by heavy addiction.
"The first line I snorted made me retch. I went out to the toilet and threw up. And then I immediately went back... and asked for another line," he writes in the book.
This moment was the gateway to the dark phase of his life which lasted for 16 years. During this period the music maestro battled bulimia, alcoholism, addiction to cocaine, extreme anger, and, of course, the shopping extravaganzas.
The year was 1991 when John joined a rehab centre in Chicago. In the book, he recalls during this period in rehab he was forced to share his room with another patient, do his laundry, clean toilets amongst other chores.
Subsequently, Elton writes about life after rehabilitation. How the success of 'Candle in the wind' made him uncomfortable, his recent fight with prostate cancer, which he kept secret until now. In one of the pages, he writes he was urinating into a diaper while singing the song 'Rocket Man' in front of 4,000 fans in Las Vegas.
In the memoir, he also talks about Princess Diana, John Lennon, Gianni Versace, George Michael, and of course Freddie Mercury among others.
The autobiography is as colourful as the shades that he is wearing on the cover of the book. It is more than rock and roll, drugs, sex, addiction; it delves into the difficult path that Elton treaded.
