#beatle books can be so defensive and embattled about their blorbos: see he did good things so the bad stuff doesn't count!

[torchlitinthedesert]

Elton John, John Lennon

We began spending a lot of time together, whenever I was in America. He'd separated from Yoko and was living in Los Angeles with May Pang. I know that period is supposed to have been really troubled and unpleasant and dark, but I've got to be honest, I never saw that in him at all. I heard stories occasionally - about some sessions he'd done with Phil Spector that went completely out of control, about him going crazy one night and smashing up the record producer Lou Adler's house. I could see a darkness in some of the people he was hanging out with: Harry Nilsson was a sweet guy, an incredibly talented singer and songwriter, but one drink too many and he'd turn into someone else, someone you really had to watch yourself around...

But I genuinely never encountered that nasty, intimidating, destructive aspect of John that people talk about, the biting, acerbic wit. I'm not trying to paint some saintly posthumous portrait at all; I obviously knew that side of him existed, I just never saw it at first-hand. All I ever saw from him was kindness and gentleness and fun, so much so that I took my mum and [Elton's stepfather] Derf to meet him. We went out to dinner, and when John went to the toilet, Derf thought it would be a great joke to take his false teeth out and put them in John's drink: there was something infectious about John's sense of humour that made people do things like that. Jesus, he was so funny. Whenever I was with him - or even better - him and Ringo - I just laughed and laughed and laughed.

Elton John, Me (2019)