The album Elton John made when he was “out of control”
For a lengthy period of Elton John‘s life, the singer-songwriter could burn the candle at both ends and not face the repercussions of his heady lifestyle. The piano man viewed taking substances and partying hard as simply part of the job description as an international pop star. However, Elton’s habit became a dependency, which quickly spiralled out of control.
As somebody sober for many decades, Elton now looks back on his period of drug use regretfully and wishes he’d never touched any substance. He’s an all-or-nothing character, and once he started to experiment, there was no going back for many years, which largely didn’t interfere with his musical ambitions.
Unlike other artists who’ve succumbed to addiction problems, John maintained the wherewithal not to mix pleasure with work. If he’d crossed that unspoken line, there’s a strong chance he’d have fluttered away his career, but instead, Elton successfully restricted the chaos to his manic personal life.
Opening up about his past drug problems, Elton explained to Rolling Stone: “Personally, I’m headed for the abyss. There didn’t seem to be a way out. I’m not the sort of person that should ever have taken a drug, because I don’t need it – I have enough speed in my body to deal with anything; I have enough enthusiasm. The only reason I liked taking cocaine was because it was an aphrodisiac for me, which for 99 percent of other people, it was not, but it just made me horny, so I liked taking it.”
However, things began to stop being fun and took a turn for the worse around the making of his 1988 album Reg Strikes Back. Elton made the record following a 12-month break from music, which was intended to get him back on track after throat surgery. However, John continued to evade getting on the straight and narrow.
While the album was billed as his grand comeback, Elton still suffered from issues that had previously blighted his life. However, the lead single, ‘I Don’t Wanna Go on With You Like That’, proved to be a monstrous hit for the singer-songwriter despite everything happening in the background.
He explained in the same interview: “When I’m in the studio, I’m paying full attention, but on that album, I was out of control. I never took my personal stuff onstage, though. You have to divorce yourself from it.”
Elton also used the fateful tale of Amy Winehouse as an example of an artist who was incapable of divorcing her personal problems from her craft, noting: “Don’t come onstage and ruin yourself. Come onstage and go with it, however sad you’re feeling. I’ve only got to see an audience, a piano and the band, and I’m off. Then I’ve got to come offstage and deal with it. But for two and a half hours, I’m transported to somewhere else.”
Thankfully, in 1990, Elton finally addressed his long-standing substance abuse problems and began his recovery. Before getting clean, he’d firmly hit rock bottom, which resulted in a sub-par record which didn’t meet his high standards.
