Elton John claims that Michael Jackson was a “disturbing person to be around”
Elton John has weighed in on the ongoing discussion surrounding the late pop star Michael Jackson, saying that the ‘Thriller’ singer was a “disturbing person to be around”.
John revealed that he had known the American musician since he was a teenager but that he appeared to lose his way at some point over the following years. Notably, Jackson passed away aged 50 in 2009, meaning that many of the notorious stories and rumours surrounding him will never fully be put to bed.
Elton John made the comments in his 2019 memoir, Me, as he discussed Michael Jackson and his interactions with him. John described Jackson, who had multiple accusations of child sexual abuse made against him in his life, as “mentally ill”.
“I’d known Michael since he was 13 or 14,” Elton wrote. “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.”
Elton proceeded to suppose that he thought the change in Jackson came via his longtime dependence on prescription drugs. “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 that the poor guy had totally lost his marbles,” the singer continued.
He added: “I don’t mean that in the lighthearted way. He was genuinely mentally ill, a disturbing person to be around.”
Elton John didn’t comment on the allegations; however, he did briefly mention that Jackson preferred the company of children to adults, concluding: He wrote: “For whatever reason, he couldn’t seem to cope with adult company at all.”
