Elton John on how he found Michael Jackson to be “genuinely mentally ill” and “a disturbing person to be around”

"For whatever reason, he couldn’t seem to cope with adult company at all"

Elton John has recalled how he found Michael Jackson to be “genuinely mentally ill” and “a disturbing person to be around” in his new book.

Writing in his new memoir, Me, Sir Elton said after meeting Jackson as a teenager, he later found himself questioning “what prescription drugs he was being pumped full of” by the early ’00s, when he appeared to have “totally lost his marbles”.

“He was genuinely mentally ill, a disturbing person to be around,” John wrote, in an excerpt obtained by RadarOnline.

Michael Jackson

Sir Elton also recounted a troubling lunch that the pair shared in the ’90s – at which Jackson’s make-up appeared to have been applied by a “maniac” and his nose was “covered with a sticking plaster”. “The poor guy looked awful, really frail and ill,” John continued.

Things turned more bizarre when Jackson left the table “without a word” and was found in the cottage of his housekeeper “quietly playing games” with her 11-year-old son.

“For whatever reason, he couldn’t seem to cope with adult company at all,” John wrote.

Elton John performs live (Credit: Getty)

John’s tell-all memoir also sees John share the story of how he once attempted to give “scruffy” Bob Dylan a makeover after he mistook him for his gardener, and another of an evening which saw him “hijack” a Rolling Stones gig while high on cocaine.

Controversy continues to surround the legacy of Jackson – particularly after the documentary Leaving Neverland – which split opinion when part one aired in the UK earlier this year and focuses on testimony by Wade Robson, 36, and James Safechuck, 41, who both claim that Jackson sexually abused them when they were children.

Jackson’s daughter Paris recently made headlines earlier this summer after hitting back at rapper 50 Cent for jokes he made about the allegations of sexual abuse.

Meanwhile, there has been news of a Michael Jackson musical heading to Broadway in 2020.

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