Elton John Pens Personal Essay Ahead of 'Rocketman' Biopic Release

According to Elton John, he just hasn’t “led a PG-13 rated life.”

The singer-songwriter composed a personal essay in The Guardian ahead of the Rocketman premiere, stating that he refused to minimize the scandalous decisions he’s made while under the public eye. As he touches on his decision to finally authorize a biopic, he explains the problems the film had to undergo — director changes, lead actors and the desire for some studios to obtain a PG-13 rating. In order for them to achieve this, the film would have to lessen the involvement of sex and drugs. “I didn’t want a film packed with drugs and sex, but equally, everyone knows I had quite a lot of both during the 70s and 80s, so there didn’t seem to be much point in making a movie that implied that after every gig, I’d quietly gone back to my hotel room with only a glass of warm milk and the Gideon’s Bible for company,” he wrote.

Aside from the taboo-filled aspects of his life, John also claimed that the studios wanted the movie to “lose the fantasy element and make a more straightforward biopic,” neglecting the essence of what truly happened in his life. “Like I said, I lived in my own head a lot as a kid. And when my career took off, it took off in such a way that it almost didn’t seem real to me. I wasn’t an overnight success by any means – I’d been slogging around the clubs, making records, writing songs with Bernie and trying to sell them to people who weren’t interested for four or five years before anything big happened,” he recalled. “But when it happened, it went off like a missile: there’s a moment in Rocketman when I’m playing onstage in the Troubadour club in LA and everything in the room starts levitating, me included, and honestly, that’s what it felt like.”

Read the full essay on The Guardian’s official website. Rocketman hits theaters May 31.

In other entertainment news, a third Alien prequel is reportedly in the works.