Elton John has revealed that he’s lost nearly all his sight. John told the audience at the premiere of the Devil Wears Prada musical over the weekend that he could only hear the production, not see it.
“As some of you may know, I have had issues, and now I have lost my sight. I haven’t been able to see the performance, but I have enjoyed it,” John told the audience at London’s Dominion Theatre. “To my husband, who’s been my rock because I haven’t been able to come to many of the previews… It’s hard for me to see it, but I love to hear it, and it sounded good tonight.”
The disability has come about because of a “severe” infection in his right eye. He had been hopeful that gradually his sight would return. But when he spoke to Good Morning America in November, he revealed how it was already impairing him: “It’s been a while since I’ve done anything. There’s hope and encouragement that it will be OK. But I’m kind of stuck in the moment because I can do something like this, but going into the studio and recording… I don’t know. Because I can’t see a lyric, for start.”
It appears that this may be holding up his new album – his first since 2021’s Lockdown Sessions. Earlier this year, his songwriting partner Bernie Taupin told Sky News: "It's all done, it's all in the can and ready to come out, I think, at the end of this year.” He also intimated that it wouldn’t the last album the pair would make together, saying: "It's a pretty amazing project, very cool...it tells a lot of stories and it's incredibly personal, but it's certainly not final."
The loss of sight isn’t the only health problem Elton has. At the New York premiere of the documentary Elton John: Never Too Late in October he said, albeit jokingly: “There’s not much of me left... 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.” But despite everything he has always been able to turn to music for support.
"Even when I was in my darkest times, I still played music, I still recorded music, so I have to say thank you to music for being the most incredible inspiration to me throughout my whole life.”
