Elton John On 'Today' With Matt Lauer On Top Magazine
go to original July 15, 2012

Love Is the Cure: On Life, Loss, and the End of AIDS by Elton John Check it out on Amazon.com

Singer Sir Elton John has said coming out gay did not negatively effect his career.

The 65-year-old Sir Elton makes the revelation in a two-part interview with TODAY host Matt Lauer to be aired Tuesday and Wednesday, July 17 and 18.

The conversation revolves around Sir Elton's upcoming memoir, Love is the Cure: On Life, Loss and the End of AIDS, sales of which will benefit the Elton John AIDS Foundation.

“I wasted such a big part of my life, when this [AIDS] epidemic was beginning to happen in the early 1980s. And I was a drug addict and self-absorbed,” he told Lauer at his home outside London. “You know, I was having people die right, left and center around me, friends. And yet, I didn't stop the life that I had, which is the terrible thing about addiction. It's that – you know, it's that bad of a disease.”

“I'm making up for it,” he added. “There is so much more to be done.”

On coming out, he said: “In America, people burned my records for a second and radio stations didn't play me. It didn't have any effect like the Dixie Chicks had when they made the anti-Iraq statements and their career was ruined. So by me saying gay in the 1970s – it didn't have a big effect on me whatsoever.”

Sir Elton and his partner, filmmaker David Furnish, are raising 1-year-old Zachary.

“I'd love to have more children,” Sir Elton said. “And I want him to have a brother or a sister to go to school with. And so that he can have someone to play with.”

For more from the "Today" interview with Elton John, tune in on Tuesday and Wednesday July 17 and 18. Check your local listings for times and channels and visit the official "Today" website for more information.

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