Elton John is opening up about how he can have quite the cold heart when he gets vexed.
In a new interview with Time magazine, the “Tiny Dancer” singer, 77, said he’s aware of how bad his infamous temper can get at times. But John said that David Furnish, his “very rational” husband of more than 10 years, keeps him centered.
“David can tell you that my fuse is very short, and the worst thing about my temper is that David is very rational about things, and he’ll explain,” John told the publication in a story published Wednesday. “And I’ll get even madder about it.”
Furnish, who met John in 1993, said the musician was “very shut down in terms of accepting love” in the early stages of their connection.
“No one had ever asked him to do personal things like go for a walk together, those kind of joyful things,” Furnish, 62, said.
The British superstar, who was named Time’s 2024 Icon of the Year, said that his temper has stabilized somewhat over the years, but every now and then it will “flare up.”
“I will flare up if I’m tired, if I’m exhausted, if I’m overwhelmed,” John explained. “I don’t like having that temperament, but it’s all usually done and dusted within five or 10 minutes.”
Furnish said he previously introduced John’s fans to the singer’s irritable side after he directed the 1997 documentary “Tantrums & Tiaras,” which he said was cathartic for him.
“It was a bit like video therapy in a way,” Furnish said. “It gave me a chance to go in with a camera, like a shield, and kind of confront and shine a light on things in his life that I thought were odd.”
In 2021, John said he was trying to get better at managing his temper, but confessed it was still a work in progress.
We Need Your Support
Support HuffPost
Already contributed? Log in to hide these messages.
“I’ve been trying to work on that for a long time and I’ve got a wonderful husband who knows how to get me out of that stuff,” he told The Guardian at the time.
John added: “I think it’s an artistic thing — artists can be so self-destructive sometimes, for no reason. I can have a day when everything in my whole life is going so well, and I get up and I feel like the world is against me. Why, I do not know.”