Elton John admits Michael Jackson was 'disturbing person to be around' and 'mentally ill'

'He couldn't seem to cope with adult company at all.'

Elton John has admitted the late Michael Jackson was a 'disturbing' person to be around, according to his own personal experiences. The singer, 75, made the revelation in his tell-all memoir, Me, where he recalled his interactions with the Thriller legend. Elton described MJ, who passed away in 2009 at the age of 50, as 'mentally ill' and 'a disturbing person to be around.' [caption id="attachment_360715" align="alignnone" width="2048"]

Michael Jackson and Elton have known each other since MJ was 13 or 14 (Picture:Getty Images)[/caption] The Rocketman singer explained that he first encountered Jackson, who had multiple accusations of child sex abuse against him, was when he was a child, and he was allegedly a very different person back then. "I'd known Michael since he was 13 or 14," Elton wrote. "He was just the most adorable kid you could imagine. But at some point in the intervening years, he started sequestering himself away from the world and away from reality, the way Elvis Presley did." Elton wrote about his speculation that the change in Jackson's character was the result of his reliance on prescription drugs. "God knows what was going on in his head, and God knows what prescription drugs he was being pumped full of, but every time I saw him in his later years I came away thinking that the poor guy had totally lost his marbles," Elton continued. [caption id="attachment_360716" align="alignnone" width="1247"]

British singer-songwriter Sir Elton John opens up in his memoir (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)[/caption] "I don't mean that in the lighthearted way. He was genuinely mentally ill, a disturbing person to be around." While Elton didn't comment on the sex abuse allegations specifically but he did briefly mention that the Man In The Mirror hitmaker appeared to prefer the company of children to adults. He wrote: "For whatever reason, he couldn't seem to cope with adult company at all." Elton's words echo sentiments shared after the release of high profile docuseries Leaving Neverland in 2019, which revisited the sex abuse allegations made against the late star.