Music legend Sir Elton John opens up about his life with husband David Furnish, his contentious relationship with his late mother, drugs, recovery and his new autobiography, Me, in an interview with Tracy Smith for CBS SUNDAY MORNING to be broadcast Sunday, Oct. 13 (9:00 AM, ET) on the CBS Television Network.
The 72-year-old entertainer talked with Smith in Vancouver, one stop on his three-year farewell tour.
In the book, he calls his mother "the Cecil B. DeMille of bad moods." He tells Smith she was hard-working, but he was never sure which version of her would walk through the door. Moreover, no matter how successful he became, he could never please her. They stopped talking for long periods of time.
"She never liked David. She never liked anybody. She never asked to see the children," John says, referring to his husband and their two sons.
"But I'm glad they didn't meet her, because she would have criticized them, like she criticized me," he says. "She couldn't help herself. She's a sociopath."
John tells Smith that he and his mother reconciled before her death in December 2017. He says they had a couple of lunches at his house, but nothing had really changed between them.
"But the only thing that changed was I didn't lose my temper," John says. "I knew what was coming, and I let her get on with it. And I just said, 'I love you, Mum,' and she said, 'I love you, too. I don't like you, but I love you. But I don't like you.'"
Asked about regrets, John tells Smith it was trying cocaine in 1974. He vomited the first time and yet went back for more. He said he did so because he wanted to be part of the group. Soon, he was hooked.
"It nearly destroyed my soul," John says. "My soul was black, like a charred piece of steak, until I said, 'I need help.' And suddenly a little pilot light in my soul came along going, 'Yes, I'm still here. I'm still here.'"
He's been clean and sober for 29 years.
John tells Smith that he wrote the book for his sons.
"I wanted my boys to know what I was like and what happened, so that when I'm not here, they can read the book and read the truth," John says.
"I just want them to understand what I was like when I went through
THE JOURNEY I had before I had them," John says. "How they made my life complete. How they've, you know, finished the circle. And that, you know, they were the last chapter in an incredible life."
CBS SUNDAY MORNING is broadcast Sundays (9:00-10:30 AM, ET) on the
CBS Television Network.
Rand Morrison is the executive producer.
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