Elton John has never been one to filter his thoughts, and in an interview for the new issue of Rolling Stone, the music legend let his opinion be known about his fellow singers’ showmanship.
“I say what I feel,” the 68-year-old musician explained. “I probably went too far with Madonna [publicly calling her out for lip-synching], and I got very personal and I wrote her — she was very gracious. … You know, f–king music magazines writing a review of Janet Jackson saying, ‘This is the greatest show — four and a half stars.’ It’s f–king lip-synched! Hello! That’s not a show! I’d rather go and see a drag queen. F–k off.”
John and Jackson, 49, previously collaborated on the 1999 hit “I Know the Truth.”
The outspoken singer and pianist also had no problem calling out his frequent touring partner – and longtime friend — Billy Joel.
The pair got into a very public feud after John blasted Joel, 66, for not getting help for his alcoholism, calling him a “conundrum.” The pals made up two years later.
“He’s one of the great American songwriters. But I know when people used to say to me, ‘You’re wasting your life,’ I’d go, ‘F–k off!’ and I wouldn’t speak to them for two years,” he said. “Billy was pissed [about my public comments], and I understand. But does it mean I don’t love him? No, of course not.”
Despite his fiery words, however, John has managed to maintain strong friendships with the very people that he has criticized. In March 2015, John got into a highly publicized row with Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana of Dolce & Gabbana for their controversial views on “gay adoptions” and IVF.
(John and his husband, David Furnish, share two young sons, Zachary and Elijah, who were conceived via IVF).
“The only family is the traditional one,” the fashion designers told Italy’s Panorama magazine at the time. “No chemical offsprings and rented uterus: life has a natural flow, there are things that should not be changed. … I call children of chemistry, synthetic children. Rented uterus, semen chosen from a catalog.”
John fired back at the pair and announced his plan to boycott the brand. Madonna backed up the British singer shortly afterward, sharing an Instagram image of herself in a Winter 2010 campaign for Dolce & Gabbana.
“All babies contain a soul however they come to this earth and their families,” the mom of four captioned the photo. “There is nothing synthetic about a soul!!”
