Freddie Mercury: Why Elton John REFUSES to watch Bohemian Rhapsody

Elton is currently promoting his new autobiography, out this week. Called simply ‘Me’ it is a powerful and unvarnished look at the life of one of our greatest stars. It comes hot on the heels of the biog screen biopic Rocketman, starring Taron Egerton. Naturally, huge comparisons were made with Bohemian Rhapsody which swept the Oscars and banked a record-breaking $904million. Rocketman took a rather more modest $195million, despite garnering rather more critical acclaim.

Bohemian Rhapsody disappointed some fans and critics, who accused it of glossing over the more extreme aspects of Freddie’s life.

Elton was asked if he had been under any pressure to take out any of the ‘drug misuse, sex and very strong language’ to earn Rocketman a lower rating.

He said: “I have to say, Paramount was incredibly on our side. There was talk about the PG thing, but I said I can’t tell my life like that. What Bohemian Rhapsody did was to prolong Queen’s career and it worked in a brilliant way because their catalogue is flying.”

This could be seen as a sideways dig, that Bohemian Rhapsody sacrificed some truths for a more commercial cinema release. However, this is not why Elton doesn’t want to see it.

FREDDIE MERCURY AND ELTON JOHN KEPT THE SAME SHOCKING THINGS ‘UNDER THE BED’

Elton told GQ he had avoided watching the Queen biopic for a more personal reason.

He said: “I couldn’t see it. I couldn’t watch it because I’m so close to Freddie. I’ve seen snippets of it and I thought that Rami Malek was fantastic, but being Freddie’s dearest friend, I couldn’t watch it.”

Their friendship stretched all the way back to the 1970s and included some crazy nights with fellow pop star Rod Stewart.

FREDDIE MERCURY WANTED TO DO THIS WITH WITH ELTON JOHN AND ROD STEWART

Elton was much more blunt when he talked about his unhappiness with the recent Lion King remake.

Elton said: “The new version of The Lion King was a huge disappointment to me, because I believe they messed the music up.

“Music was so much a part of the original and the music in the current film didn’t have the same impact. The magic and joy were lost. The soundtrack hasn’t had nearly the same impact in the charts that it had 25 years ago, when it was the bestselling album of the year. The new soundtrack fell out of the charts so quickly, despite the massive box-office success.

“I wish I’d been invited to the party more, but the creative vision for the film and its music was different this time around and I wasn’t really welcomed or treated with the same level of respect. That makes me extremely sad. I’m so happy that the right spirit for the music lives on with the Lion King stage musical.”

FULL ELTON JOHN INTERVIEW IN THE LATEST GQ