Elton John Contemplates His Own Mortality

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Elton John has revealed that he’s become extremely emotional about his own mortality, especially regarding how much time he has left with his husband and young kids.

The music icon confessed to getting weepy about aging during a bonus episode of the podcast Smartless, which was released to subscribers on Tuesday, March 25 — John’s 78th birthday. During the interview, he described a sad realization that came to him in the music studio as he was recording his new album, Who Believes In Angels?, out April 4.

“I wrote a song at the end of the album and I just get the lyrics, Bernie Taupin’s lyrics, called ‘When This Old World Is Done With Me.’ And so I’m writing the verse, like, ‘Oh, this is really pretty.’ And then I get to the chorus and of course it’s about my death. And when you get to my age, which is near 100, you think, ‘How much time have I got left?'”

The “Rocket Man” singer’s thoughts then turned to husband David Furnish — who at 62 is 16 years younger than John — and their two sons, Zachary, 13, and Elijah, 11.

“And you’ve got children, you’ve got a wonderful husband, you just think about mortality,” John said. “And so when I got to the chorus, I just broke down for 45 minutes and it’s all on film.”

The “film” refers to his documentary that was released last fall, Elton John: Never Too Late, during which he talks about some of the harsh realities about first becoming a father at 63.

“They think about my mortality; they worry about my mortality,” he said of his sons. “Not so much David, but me.”

The two boys “love their daddy, so they want me to be around forever,” John continued. “I would love to be around forever.”

“I want to see them have children and get married,” he finished. “I don’t think I’m going to be around for that. Who knows? You never know.”