Elton John gives health update on his vision loss, says he’s not ‘giving up hope’

WASHINGTON — Elton John opened up about his experience with vision loss. 

In a new interview with Variety, the “Benny and the Jets” singer said he’s not “giving up hope” after losing sight in his right eye following an eye infection last year. 

“It’s been devastating,” he told Variety. “Because I lost my right eye and my left eye’s not so good, the last 15 months have been challenging for me because I haven’t been able to see anything, watch anything, read anything.”

“I’ve had the most incredible life, and there is hope,” he added. “I’ve just got to be patient that someday science will help me with this one. Once they help me with this one, I’ll be fine. It’s exactly like the AIDS situation. You mustn’t give up hope, you must be stoic, you must be strong and you must always try and batter the door down to try and improve things.”

John first got the eye infection last year while vacationing in France. While both eyes were affected, he lost sight in his right eye. 

His longtime partner, David Furnish, said the singer has seen some improvements in his left eye with some treatments. 

“We’re continuing to explore and getting a lot of outreach from a lot of doctors who want to help and support. Because there’s damage to the retina in his right eye, retinas don’t heal naturally, so it’s an area of emerging science. But things are changing really quickly,” Furnish said. “What AI is doing for medicine and science alone is astonishing. And there’s all kinds of interesting new theories and breakthroughs, and they can process the data and do the trials a lot more quickly than they could before.”

John expressed gratitude for still being able to play and sing amid his health issues. 

“I mean, you just have to grin and bear it. It does get me down sometimes. But on the whole, I’ve got a wonderful family; I have two great kids; I have [Furnish],” he told Variety.

The “Tiny Dancer” singer also shared how his famous friends have helped him during this time. 

“Paul McCartney FaceTimes me to see how I’m doing. It’s really beautiful. The love I’ve received from him and from Pete Townshend and Mick Jagger and people like that have been amazing,” he said. “Or you get an email from Keith Richards saying, ‘Hello, darling, how you doing? You know we love you,’ and that’s it, but it just makes my day.”