Meet Elton John

He's a legend of pop music, and his story is out of the ordinary. This is Elton John's life.

Transcript

00:00All it takes is for Putin, Trump, Merkel, Macron, Trudeau to say,

00:06okay, let's, the president of China, to say, right, let's do one great humanitarian thing,

00:14let's just end this disease. They can do it like that.

00:30People who are creative are blessed and have

00:59a blessed life because they're able to do what they want to do.

01:29I went to the Royal Academy of Music when I was 11, and it's a place where I learned a lot.

01:59It was an absolute fluke. It's called right place, right time, luck.

02:22When people told me, when I was using, that I was doing the wrong thing, I was so angry,

02:27and I just told them to go away, or I actually strung along in that.

02:30I was a self-obsessed asshole, excuse me.

02:41It's a staggering achievement to actually have done this, and I don't say that flippantly.

02:59It's a tremendous achievement, and it will be, obviously, the concert of the decade,

03:04at least, I would say. Both concerts will be tremendous. It's just a staggering achievement.

03:09I'm very proud to be part of it.

03:29I lost so many friends to AIDS in the 1980s, when it was the most horrific death possible,

03:34and there was no cure and no compassion, and nobody seemed to care.

03:39But it was just something that I wanted to do because I felt so guilty that I hadn't done enough

03:46for my fellow mankind who died of AIDS, not just men, but women and children.

04:05This is one of the most exciting things that has ever happened to me.

04:15I never thought in my life I would ever be holding one of these.

04:35So

05:00we feed him, we bathe him, we do everything that a parent should do, and we give him love.

05:05He gives us so much more love back, and without doubt, it's one of the greatest things I could

05:10have ever imagined in my life. At 63 years of age, I was against having a child because

05:16I thought I was too old. I was too set in my ways. Absolutely nonsense. We've given this boy

05:21so much love. He's given us so much love. It's the greatest thing that's ever happened to us.

05:34I'm 70 next year, and I will always be a voice for AIDS. I will, till I die,

05:47be a voice to help people suffering from this disease and living with this disease.

05:56But I'll be perfectly honest with you. Young people won't listen to me because I'm not a

06:02person that is part of their culture. They need voices from their culture, people that they aspire

06:09to. We always meet the LGBT people and the AIDS people before I do a concert. It's the first thing

06:26I do. I'm so anti what's going on for the LGBT community throughout Eastern Europe. We're here

06:43to protect them. It's my duty as someone who is a visible gay man who isn't HIV to go there and try

06:51and help the situation, but get better.

07:22It's testament to the kind of men they are. Hugely philanthropic, kind, warm people

07:28who recognize that they have a powerful platform and they want to do good things with it.

07:51I'm a raggedy man, burning out his fuse, I'll carry on.