Elton John has weighed in on the ongoing discussion surrounding late pop star Michael Jackson, saying the ‘Thriller’ singer was a “troublesome person to be around.”
John revealed he had known the American musician since he was a teenager but seemed to have wandered off at some point over the next few years. Notably, Jackson died at the age of 50 in 2009, which means many of the notorious stories and rumors surrounding him will never be fully put to bed.
Elton John made the comments in his 2019 memoirMe, as he discussed Michael Jackson and his interactions with him. John described Jackson, who has faced multiple accusations of child sex abuse in his life, as “mentally ill”.
“I had 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 years that followed, he started to sequester himself away from the world and away from reality, like Elvis Presley did.
Elton then surmised that he thought Jackson’s change was due to his longtime addiction to prescription drugs. “God knows what was going on in his head, and God knows what prescription drugs he was stuffed with, but every time I saw him in his later years, I came back thinking the poor guy had totally lost his marbles.” , the singer continued.
He added: “I don’t mean that in a light-hearted way. He was truly mentally ill, a disturbing person to be around.
Elton John has not commented on the allegations; however, he briefly mentioned that Jackson preferred the company of children to adults, concluding: He wrote, “For some reason he didn’t seem to tolerate adult company at all.”
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