Me by Elton John

I felt a little bad on Christmas Day 2019 when the husband opened his presents, which were inevitably mostly books, and he didn’t get one of the books he was expecting. The book was Me, the newly minted autobiography of Elton John. The trouble was, I didn’t know he wanted it, or I would have bought it. Note to husband, contrary to popular belief I am not psychic, not even after 30+ years together. The main reason I didn’t know he wanted it (apart from him not telling me…) is that he reads mostly science-based non-fiction so, much as he is an Elton John fan, it never occurred to me that he might want to read this autobiography. One upside was that come Christmas 2020 I had one sure fire hit for a present when the paperback came out, especially as it was updated with a new chapter to account for the weirdness of a COVID-centric year. Needless to say, he was delighted to receive the book, especially as he’d forgotten about it in the intervening year. Even more of a bonus was that he really enjoyed it, and kept reading bits out, which illustrated his enjoyment, but did mean that when I read it myself, I felt a distinct déjà vu in some chapters!

Anyway, the point is that Me is a terrific read. As far as I know it’s written by Elton John himself, not by a ghostwriter, and he writes engagingly and unflinchingly about his childhood, his early career, how collaborating with Bernie Taupin and then breaking America changed his life and led to global success and eventually to severe addictions to drugs, alcohol, sex, Versace, art and photography collecting, over-the-top stage costumes, being a control freak and generally being a drama queen, not necessarily in that order. You might say that Elton John was/is a bit of an addict and you’d not be wrong.

One of the things that impressed me about the book is that Elton John doesn’t flinch from describing any of his addictions. The book is called ‘Me’ for a reason, because he’s a narcissist, but it’s a trait he recognizes in himself and writes about with honesty and a great deal of charm and humour. It would have been easy for him to gloss over his less pleasant traits and addiction issues, but he’s brutally honest about the effect they had both on him and on others around him. It must have been really tempting to write a glossy hagiography that only acknowledged the darker side in passing, but when he is willing to describe how he pissed himself while wearing an adult nappy under his costume when he was performing in Vegas you get the impression that he took a clear-eyed decision to tell his story, warts and all.

I really enjoyed the film, Rocketman, but it’s interesting reading this book to realise how many scenes in the film were conflated for the sake of telling his story in a couple of hours. The book goes into much more depth and gives a real sense of a lonely, talented, rock and roll mad boy, growing up with loveless parents who grabbed his opportunities and gorged on fame, adulation and all the trappings of excess before he finally realized they were killing him and turned the dial down from 11 to a level where he could actually hear himself think.

The chapters dealing with the excesses of his career are by turns sad, shocking and funny, Donald Duck suits and all. I really enjoyed his lament that a piano player can’t look cool like Pete Townsend smashing up a guitar on stage, because if he tried to smash up a piano or push it off stage, he’d just look like a removal guy who was having a bad day. There are tons of similar self-mocking comments throughout.

Aside from all the excess, if you can put them aside, his description of his relationships with friends, lovers and family over the years really drive the book for me. I’m glad he writes about his relationship with Bernie Taupin so affectionately and his relationship with David Furnish and with his two sons towards the end of the book is steeped in warmth and love. There’s not so much love talking about his mum especially, who comes across as a complete harpy, who most of the time wasn’t happy until she was making someone else unhappy, especially her son, even though he continued to support her throughout her life.

He also talks with humour about his sexuality – his lack of both interest and understanding of sex until he was in his early 20’s, and his whole-hearted adoption of sex once he got there, and his gradual realization of the way AIDS was decimating the gay community in the 80s which led him to start his charitable work and fundraising. I also really liked that he’s very respectful when talking about his ill-fated marriage to Renate Blauel, also in the early 1980’s – there’s no backstairs gossip there which I’m sure will disappoint some people looking for some dirt. It’s actually one of the main things I really appreciated about this book – there is dirt, but in the main it’s all self-inflicted – this is a man who has been in the international music business since the 1960’s, so I’m sure he knows where a lot of bodies are buried, but for the most part he talks affectionately about his banter with contemporaries. He talks candidly about his relationship with his manager John Reid, with his many, many groupies and with his band members and production team. He is especially warm is his description of his musical heroes and his wonder that a boy from Pinner could end up rubbing shoulders with legends like Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Little Richard, Ray Charles or Leon Russell.

The bottom line is that I came out of reading this book with the confirmation that Elton John is a ridiculously talented musician – he wrote the music for three of the tracks on one of my favourite albums, Honky Chateau; Rocket Man, Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters and Amy before breakfast one day after Bernie Taupin had left him the lyrics overnight! But as well as being a great musician, he’s a talented performer, a great drama queen, an ex-multi-purpose addict, a husband, father, charity campaigner and now a very funny, warm and truthful writer. Some people are just annoying talented!

It's a book that covers a lot of ground and while I enjoyed reading it once, I also know that after a suitable gap I’ll enjoy reading again.

Me by Elton John was originally published in 2019 and my copy is published by St Martin’s Griffin.