Elton John. Theo Wargo/Getty Images for The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Elton John is getting candid about his battle with several health issues over the years.
“To be honest with you, there’s not much of me left,” John, 77, said at the Tuesday, October 1, New York Film Festival premiere of Elton John: Never Too Late, per People.
John elaborated on his past surgeries, adding, “I don’t have tonsils, adenoids or an appendix. I don’t have a prostate. I don’t have a right hip or a left knee or a right knee. In fact, the only thing left to me is my left hip.”
Despite having multiple body parts removed, John said he’s “still here.” He added, “And I can’t thank you [enough], you’re the people that made me.”
John continued by giving a sweet shout-out to his husband, David Furnish, and their two children: sons Zachary, 13, and Elijah, 11. “I want to thank David and Zachary and Elijah for making me the happiest man in the world,” he said.
John’s comments come on the heels of his announcement that he suffered a recent eye infection that impaired his vision.
“Over the summer, I’ve been dealing with a severe eye infection that has unfortunately left me with only limited vision in one eye,” he said in a statement shared via Instagram in September. “I am healing, but it’s an extremely slow process and it will take some time before sight returns to the impacted eye.”
John noted that he’s “so grateful” for the team of doctors and nurses, as well as his family, who took care of him for the “last several weeks” as he recuperated.
“I have been quietly spending the summer recuperating at home, and am feeling positive about the progress I have made in my healing and recovery thus far,” he concluded, signing the message “with love and gratitude.”
John also suffered a fall in late 2021, causing him to postpone the Europe and U.K. dates of his Farewell tour in 2023. After the shows came to a close, John revealed in a joint interview with Furnish, 61, that he’s retiring from touring to focus on his family.
“We’ve got our sons, you know, they’re getting into their teenage years now,” Furnish told Entertainment Tonight in June. “We don’t want to miss anything. We want to be present for that. It’s sort of a key decade, I think, in a child’s life. He’s been doing it for 60 years, so it’s nice to have that time to spend at home with family.”
