Elton John Has ‘Most Magical Day’ As He Marks 30 Years Of Sobriety

Elton John celebrated a special milestone this week: 30 years of sobriety. 

The Grammy-, Oscar- and Tony-winning singer-songwriter highlighted the occasion on his social media platforms Wednesday. In a series of photos, he shared the cards he received from loved ones, a festive cake and his 30-year sobriety chip. 

In a tweet accompanying the images, John noted that he’d just wrapped up a “most magical day” of celebration with his husband, David Furnish, and sons Elijah, 7, and Zachary, 9. 

“I’m truly a blessed man,” he wrote. “If I hadn’t finally taken the big step of asking for help 30 years ago, I’d be dead.” 

In recent years, John has been candid about his early struggles with addiction. Both his 2019 memoir, “Me,” and the musical biopic “Rocketman” detailed drug and alcohol binges that would last for days. 

“The life I was leading, flying on the Starship [his private plane], living in beautiful houses, buying things left, right and center — it was not a normal life, not the sort of life I came from anyway,” he told Variety last year. “I lost complete touch with that. I vowed when I did change my life that that would never happen again.”

John famously credited his friendship with Ryan White, an Indiana boy who died of an AIDS-related illness in 1990 at age 18, for motivating him to get sober that same year. 

“After he died, I realized that I only had two choices,” John recalled for NPR in 2012. “I was either going to die or I was going to live, and which one did I want to do? And then I said those words, ‘I’ll get help,’ or ‘I need help. I’ll get help.’ And my life turned around.” 

These days, John is looking forward to getting back on stage. Before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down performance venues around the world, he’d been in the midst of a multiyear Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour, now slated to resume in 2021. 

He’s also written the music for a stage adaptation of “The Devil Wears Prada,” scheduled to open in Chicago next year before moving to Broadway.