Elton John: I found love when I was sober

Sir Elton John says he would never have found love if he hadn`t given up drugs.

The 63-year-old singer has battled an addiction to alcohol and cocaine in the past, but is now clean. He says straightening out his life is his single greatest achievement, as it allowed him to start living his life the way he had always wanted to.

Elton met David Furnish in 1993, and they entered into a civil partnership in 2005. The star insists that would never have happened if he hadn`t conquered his demons. "My greatest achievement in life was getting sober and clean because I was a real mess. That happened in 1990. It wasn`t hard once I made up my mind but it changed the way I live and I think," he told British newspaper The Daily Mirror. "It paved the way for me to have a relationship with a person I love because I`d never have been able to have one in that state of mind and being so immature.

"A lot of things in my life have been incredible and amazing things happened to me. But that one changed my attitude and made me a better person."

Elton is continually amazed by how seriously some of the young stars of today take their health. He wishes he had been more like them in their youth, and hadn`t taken so long to realise he needed to kick his habit.

"I don`t know how I kept my career going with my drug consumption but I did because I loved to work. If I hadn`t worked I`d probably be dead," he said. "Jack Osbourne, a friend, has been sober since he was 18. I spent time with Gaga and she said, `I got my cocaine over with by the time I was 20.` I didn`t get mine over till I was 43!"

sections: Celebrities