How George Harrison Helped Elton John Fight Addiction
Elton John has never been shy about his struggles with addiction. Now that the rock icon has been clean since the early ’90s, he has been more than up for talking about his experiences. One tidbit he has shared involves George Harrison. Reportedly, the Beatle helped John curb his drug addiction.
The Beatles weren’t strangers to drugs. They had their fair share of bouts with weed and other substances. Nevertheless, Harrison took it upon himself to help out his fellow musician when he noticed he was struggling. John has opened up about how bad his drug addiction got in his heyday.
“I thought, ‘This is the drug that has opened me up,” John once said. “I can converse, I can be verbose. I would have an epileptic seizure and turn blue, and people would find me on the floor and put me to bed, and then 40 minutes later, I’d be snorting another line.”
“I’m not being flippant when I say that, when I look back I shudder at the behavior and what I was doing to myself,” he added elsewhere.
It was caustic enough to prompt John to do a 180 and attempt to get sober. Part of that journey involved Harrison’s keen advice. The Beatle came to him one day to try and give the singer a wake up call.
“It’s very hard to put into words,” he once said. “He was very forthright, and he actually administered quite a few tellings-off to me about my drug problem.”
Source: Alex Hopper/americansongwriter.com
