I like Elton Johns frank ways, BUT this is not a friend talking about another friend in a desperate situation. Saying: "if I would've been innocent I would't settle" kind of indicates that he thinks MJ might not be. At the same time he's saying MJ was in a very bad state, which for me sounds like a reason why he didn't have the strength to fight the allegations or was even able to make a decision about it. Also calling him a zombie is not only indiscrete but also disrespectful. Even talking about it is a no go, especially while MJ was alive. As an ex addict he should know better (aa, na = anonymity). On the other hand maybe MJ's camp wanted him to confirm it, because some believed it was all a scam on MJ's part.
Well, specifically Elton was of course comparing Michael's situation to his own, when the tabloid
The Sun infamously claimed that Elton was in a vice boys scandal, which was provably false because "This was someone I never met claiming I had an orgy at a place I'd never been, when I knew on that date I was in New York talking to Bob Mackie." So he filed writ after writ against them, despite the advice of people like Mick Jagger telling Elton "don't do anything, you'll only make it worse." And Elton said, "You can say whatever you want about me, but you can't lie."
Of course, Elton also admitted he didn't know all the details about Michael's situation, and apparently, all these years later, he still doesn't. That's his choice, of course. But if he'd known that Michael and his lawyers wanted to get the civil case settled so as not to give away the defense strategy in a criminal proceeding, which Michael desperately wanted to exonerate himself, and that between that and his Demerol addiction needing to be taken care of, that he was in an extremely vulnerable position, maybe Elton would've been fully in his corner. Let's also remember that at this very time, Elton was beginning his relationship with David Furnish, and Elton talks, rather unsympathetically, in his book of doing a dinner meeting with David in tow, and Elton's grouchy mother also there. So it was already gonna be awkward, but Michael's fragility made it more so. Yet Michael always considered Elton a friend, the same way he personally thought the same of Paul McCartney, even if they didn't fully reciprocate anymore. It says volumes about Michael and his character.
www.forbes.com
