Elton John: ‘Hopefully, I’ve got at least another 20 years’

Elton John. Pic/Getty Images

Music legend Elton John, who is 78 years old, hopes to live for another 20 years.

The icon, who has sons Zachary, 14, and Elijah, 11, with husband David Furnish, said he doesn't like talking about his own mortality, but was still taken by surprise when he "lost it" and broke down in tears while recording the new song, When this old world is done with me, which tackles the subject, reports femalefirst.co.uk.

He told Rolling Stone UK: "I lost it for 45 minutes. It's all on film. I just sobbed and sobbed. When you're 77 years of age, and have a family [including] two children, there's only a certain amount of time you've got left. Hopefully, I've got at least another 20 years. But when you're actually confronted on a song, it's like, ‘Oh my God.' It really surprised me. I wasn't expecting it. I don't like talking about it, but you have to be realistic."

John spent years battling drug and alcohol addiction, but after overcoming those struggles, he insisted life hasn't always been easy since then. "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. And I woke up and smelled the roses, and things have been great since, but it doesn't mean that I haven't been through strife, operations, and everything like that. [This included] losing eyesight in [one] eye, which happened after the album. But there's always something tough I seem to be tackling." Making the new album LP, Who Believes in Angels? with Brandi Carlile, has given the Rocket man hitmaker a new lease of life, he says.

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