“Too frail to get out of bed”: Elton John shares Freddie Mercury’s last days before passing away
Sir Elton John has shared on Queen legend Freddie Mercury’s final days before he passed away of AIDS at the age of 45.
John explained in his new book Me: Elton John that Mercury kept his illness a secret from him.
"I visited him a lot when he was dying, although I could never stay for much longer than an hour,” John remembered.
"It was too upsetting – I didn’t think he wanted me to see him like that."
He also detailed Mercury’s appearance.
"He was too frail to get out of bed, he was losing his sight, his body was covered in Kaposi's sarcoma lesions, and yet he was still definitely Freddie, gossiping away, completely outrageous.
"I couldn’t work out whether he didn’t realise how close to death he was or if he knew perfectly well but was determined not to let what was happening to him stop him being himself."
John discusses how Mercury also helped him get sober, as they pointedly told John he was overdoing it on cocaine at the height of his addiction in the 1980s.
He has now been clean for nearly three decades.