Elton John had to learn to walk again after cancer surgery

"I literally had to learn how to walk again. I was extremely sick."

Elton John has said he had to learn to walk again after contracting a serious infection following surgery for prostate cancer surgery.

The music icon previously revealed how he underwent the successful operation two years ago, but came close to death after falling ill on tour in South America.

He said he was “24 hours from snuffing it” in 2017 and was rushed back to the UK to be treated in intensive care.

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Speaking to Graham Norton for new BBC programme Elton John: Uncensored, he revealed: “I had to learn to walk again. I was extremely sick.”

Elton also explained how a show in Las Vegas after the operation saw him being forced to wear nappies.

“I was on stage in Vegas in a lot of pain, fluid had built up under my colon. I did the show and was wearing nappies shortly after the operation. I thought ‘If only they knew right now that I’m pissing myself’.”

Elton John

He joked that he was “like the Bionic Woman” as he has had his tonsils, colon and appendix removed.

He said: “I literally had to learn how to walk again. I was extremely sick. All I could think about when I was lying in my hospital bed was ‘please don’t let me die, I want to see my children’, and luckily I survived it.

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“Now I’m fine but there’s very few bits of me left. There’s no hair, there’s a pacemaker, there’s no tonsils, there’s no prostate, there’s no appendix, I’ve had kidney stones. I like the Bionic Woman.”

This comes after Elton discussed his battles with drugs and alcohol in recent memoir ‘Me’. The book sees him recalling the time he hijacked a Rolling Stones show while high on cocaine, as well as the moment when he mistook Bob Dylan for his gardener while high – describing him as “scruffy”.

He also discussed his fears that he would not be able to perform sober after undergoing treatment for addiction issues. 

Last month, it was seemingly confirmed that Elton will not play Glastonbury next year, after newly announced farewell tour dates in the US seemingly clashed with the Worthy Farm festival.

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