In an interview with CBS' The Talk,
Sir Elton John claimed that singer George Michael was “uncomfortable
in his skin about being gay.”
John, whose memoir Me: Elton John
Official Autobiography arrived this month, is currently on tour
for the last time. His “Farewell Yellow Brick Road” tour includes
more than 300 shows and ends in 2021.
Michael died at his home on Christmas
Day 2016 at the age of 53. Michael was the subject of persistent
rumors about his sexuality until he was forced to come out in 1998
after the British singer was arrested for lewd conduct in a Los
Angeles men's room.
“He was uncomfortable in his skin
about being gay even though he said he wasn't,” Elton John told
co-host Sharon Osbourne.
John said that he tried and failed to
get Michael to seek help for his drug addiction.
“He couldn’t get it, George,”
John said. “And he resented the fact that I had hinted that maybe
he change his life a little bit and he’d be happier if he tried
something.”
“The person has actually got to want
it. It’s like me in the end; I really wanted it,” John said,
referring to getting sober.
“I had two alternatives: one, to die,
and one to live, and I wanted to live,” he said. “But that's the
difference: If you want it. And poor George didn't want it.”