This biography of Elton John, the man who single-handedly accounts for some ten per cent of international music sales, is a mixture of personal experience, rock history and social comment that traces his life between the late 1970s and the 1990s. The book tells the turbulent tale of high times on the rock-star circuit, and the extravagant and extraordinary event of his own life: the drugs, the guys and the entourage, the battles and the bravado, as well as his sudden and traumatic marriage with Renate Blauel, a German tape operator. It also reveals the softer side of Elton, the strong relationship he has with his mother and especially his triumph over drug excesses.