For Elton John, the fight against AIDS is personal. And infuriating.
Announcing new initiatives Tuesday to halt the spread of HIV, the immune system-wrecking virus that causes AIDS, the singer remembered loved ones among 35 million people lost to the epidemic to date.
“I lost so many friends to AIDS in the 1980s when it was the most horrific death possible and there was no cure and no compassion and nobody seemed to care,” the megastar performer told AFP at the 22nd International AIDS Conference in Amsterdam.
He regrets having done “very little” at the time, and said he wants to make up for that.
“At that time I took a lot of drugs. I had a problem. And you know when you take drugs you don’t see the situation very clearly.”
Not content with having given “a couple of concerts” and making a record (“That’s what friends are for”) to raise money for AIDS charity, John said “I felt so guilty that I hadn’t done enough.”
Looking forward to the anniversary of his 28th year sober, he insisted he “wanted to do something that I felt I should do… to make up for lost time, and that was to do something for people with HIV/AIDS.”
Dressed in typically flamboyant fashion in a lilac suit and bold flowered shirt, orange-striped socks and an AIDS ribbon pinned to his lapel, the artist railed against persistent homophobia. (AFP)
