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Elton John did not hold back during his Icon of the Year interview with Time magazine. The hitmaker spoke candidly about addiction and rehab, proclaiming that he thought "legalizing marijuana in America and Canada is one of the greatest mistakes of all time." He also divulged "the most embarrassing thing" that's happened in his life.
“It was the most embarrassing thing in my life when I went into treatment that I couldn’t work a washing machine,” John, who got sober in 1990, admitted. “I thought, ‘F**k. Here you are at 43 years of age, and you can’t work a washing machine. That shows you how you’re f**ked up.’”
“You make terrible decisions on drugs," he noted. "I wanted love so badly, I’d just take hostages. I’d see someone I liked and spend three or four months together, and then they would resent me because they had nothing in their life apart from me. It really upsets me, thinking back on how many people I probably hurt.”
Since getting sober, John has made it a point to help others who are struggling with addiction. He's Eminem's sponsor and was an organizer during Robbie Williams' first trip to rehab. He also tried to reach out to George Michael but was unsuccessful.
The 77-year-old star recently shared a grim health update, revealing he lost sight in his right eye following an infection. "I had an infection in the South of France. It's been four months now since I haven't been able to see, and my left eye's not the greatest," he said in an interview last month. "There's hope and encouragement that it will be OK. But, I'm kind of stuck at the moment."
"I can’t see a lyric, for start. We’re taking an initiative to try and get it better, but at the moment, that’s really what we’re concentrating on," he added. "It’s never fortunate for anything like this to happen. It kinda floored me, and I can’t see anything. I can’t read anything, I can’t watch anything."