LIFE –
Dec. 31, 2024 – In the midst of those “wild child” days, John says he was introduced to cocaine by his ex-lover and then manager John Reid, and he took to it.It was his experience with Ryan White, the teenager diagnosed with AIDS in the early days of the epidemic, which helped John turn his life around. Spending time with White, who used his last years advocating for people with AIDS as he was dying from the disease, showed John how selfishly he was living.
When White died, he was at the hospital with him.
“It all came to a climax, really, at the Ryan White funeral in Indianapolis — a really sad and emotional week — and I came back to the hotel thinking I’m just so out of line,” John says. “It was a shock to see how far down the scale of humanity I’d fallen.”
Six months later, he checked into rehab. Two years later, he started the Elton John AIDS Foundation.
As for his legacy, John says, “If people remember that we tried to change the world a little bit, we were kind, we tried to help people,” that would be enough. He added, “and then, apart from that, there was the music.”
