Elton John calls Michael Jackson 'genuinely mentally ill, a disturbing person to be around' in new memoir
Elton John has called Michael Jackson “mentally ill, a disturbing person to be around” in his memoir.
The superstar’s autobiography, Me: Elton John, has been packed with shocking revelations from his life in showbusiness, and in one section he details his experiences of spending time with the late pop star.
Jackson was the subject of a damning documentary, Leaving Neverland: Michael Jackson and Me, in which James Safechuck and Wade Robson spoke candidly about being children invited to the singer’s ranch at the height of his fame and accused him of years of abuse.
Now, John says that when Jackson was himself a child star, he was very sweet. But the “Tiny Dancer” singer felt that things had reached a turning point as Jackson grew older.
“At some point in the intervening years, he started sequestering himself away from the world, and away from reality the way Elvis Presley did,” he writes.
John went on to speculate about the impact of prescription drugs on the “Thriller” star.
"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,” John writes.
"I don’t mean that in the lighthearted way. He was genuinely mentally ill, a disturbing person to be around."
Jackson was known for his close friendships with a number of children when he was an adult, most famously including the then-child star Macaulay Culkin.
“For whatever reason, he couldn't seem to cope with adult company at all,” says John.
The memoir has included a number of other headline-worthy anecdotes, including throwing a dinner party where he says Sylvester Stallone and Richard Gere almost came to blows over Princess Diana, sharing a joke with the queen, his argument with Tina Turner and his difficult relationship with his mother.
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