Elton John says 'there's not much of me left' as he opens up on health struggle

Pop icon Elton John admits "there's always something tough I seem to be tackling" as he opens up about his health struggles. The Rocket Man singer suffered his latest health struggle last summer when he suffered a partial loss of vision following an eye infection. Just seven years earlier Elton had a prostate cancer scare and hip surgery.

It led the 78-year-old to joke "there's not much of me left" when speaking to People magazine. Considering his own mortality, he said: "I don't have tonsils, adenoids, or an appendix. "I don't have a prostate, I don't have a right hip, or a left knee or a right knee.



In fact, the only thing left to me is my left hip. To be honest with you, there's not much of me left." The pop superstar added that he's "still here".

Although, he does admit that could have been very different, admitting there was a "good chance" he might die during the height of his addiction. Speaking to Rolling Stone magazine, he said: "I didn't think I was going to die, but I knew that if I carried on, there was a good chance it was going to happen. But I woke up and smelled the roses, and things have been great since, but it doesn't mean that I haven't gone through strife, operations and everything like that, losing the eyesight in this [his right] eye, which happened after the album.

" Elton concluded, "But there's always something I seem to be tackling." Elton's 33rd studio album, Who Believes in Angels?, which he recorded with singer Brandi Carlile, was released earlier this month, reports Gloucestershire Live . Elton described the album as "one of the toughest I've made", as he was battling against his eyesight loss during its recording.

Despite many people considering slowing down as they approach their eighties, Elton says that creating music "gets him through it". Alongside his family - Elton shares two children with husband David Furnish - the star says that making the record helped him to "feel good" again. However, recording the album was an emotional journey for Elton, as he admits it forced him to confront his own mortality once more.

The song "When This Old World is Done with Me" sees him singing about his own death. Elton reveals that the song, written by long-term writing partner Bernie Taupin, resulted in him "losing it for 45 minutes". After singing the lines, he confesses he just "sobbed and sobbed and sobbed".

Elton, who learned piano as a child, began playing music in the pubs and social clubs around his native Watford when he was just 15. He released his first single, I've Been Loving You, in 1968. However, his 1970 hit Your Song saw him break into the top 10 of the charts on both sides of the Atlantic.

He was knighted for his services to music by Queen Elizabeth II in 1998. An Evening with Elton John and Brandi Carlile, a concert recorded at the London Palladium, will be broadcast on ITV One at 9.05pm tonight (April 19).

It will feature the pair performing tracks from the album..