Elton John has claimed that late pop star Michael Jackson was ‘a disturbing person’ who was just ‘off in a world of his own.’
John reportedly disclosed this in his yet to be released memoir, Me, in which he talked about his battle with drugs and his other dealings with the royalty.
“I’d known Michael since he was 13 or 14,” John wrote, saying that he met Jackson after one of his shows in Philadelphia.
“Elizabeth Taylor had turned up on the Starship with him in tow. He was just the most adorable kid you could imagine. But at some point in the intervening years, he started sequestering himself away from the world, and away from reality the way Elvis Presley did,” the 72-year-old said in the excerpt of the book cited by the Independent.
“God knows what was going on in his head, and God knows what prescription drugs he was being pumped full of, but every time I saw him in his later years I came away thinking the poor guy had totally lost his marbles.
“I don’t mean that in the light-hearted way. He was genuinely mentally ill, a disturbing person to be around. It was incredibly sad, but he was someone you couldn’t help: he was just gone, off in a world of his own, surrounded by people who only told him what he wanted to hear.”
John further recounted that at a party he once hosted with future husband David Furnish in the 1990s, Jackson wouldn’t eat anything offered at the event and later disappeared without a word.
“We finally found him, two hours later, in a cottage in the grounds of Woodside where my housekeeper lived: she was sitting there, watching Michael Jackson quietly playing video games with her 11-year-old son. For whatever reason, he couldn’t seem to cope with adult company at all,” John wrote.
Me, the official Elton John biography, is expected to be released on October 15 by Macmillan.
Jackson died on June 25, 2009. The Man In The Mirror singer recently faced sexual abuse accusations following the release of a documentary, “Leaving Neverland”, which focuses on two of his accusers who say he sexually molested them when they were young.
Premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah on January 25, the documentary focuses on accusations by choreographer Wade Robson, 36, and former child actor James Safechuck, 40, who have previously denied being molested by the pop star when they were children.
Jackson’s family condemned the documentary, describing it as a “public lynching”.
Jackson has captivated audiences in a career that spans over four decades and remains a towering influence on artists today.
His 1979 record, produced by Quincy Jones, was a polished affair that made the most out of Jackson’s impressive vocal talents and natural ability. The album sold 20 million worldwide to date.
The next album released in 1982, “Thriller,” hardly needs an introduction. Jones returned to the producer’s role and the magic was evident.
Selling 65 million copies worldwide, it is the highest-selling album in history. It was such a gigantic success that Jackson didn’t release music until five years later with the high-charting “Bad” album in 1987.
