MUMBAI: Legendary singer Elton John recently released memoir Me has stunned readers with a no-holds-barred account of his hedonistic lifestyle at the height of his fame.

He says he was consumed by addiction for years and would binge on cocaine "until I was absolutely certain there was no cocaine anywhere in the vicinity."

Before acknowledging that drug abuse was slowly killing him, John says he looked to cocaine to fuel his insatiable sexual appetite, reports mirror.co.uk.

"I found it was an aphrodisiac, which is strange, because for most people it kills the erection side of things completely," he writes.

"Never a problem for me, I'm afraid. Quite the opposite. If I took enough coke I could stay hard for days," he added.

The "Rocketman" singer said the drug opened his mind to new sexual experimentation.

"It takes all the inhibitions out of people. Even straight guys sometimes," he recalls.

John said that the Hollywood mansion he purchased in 1975 became the backdrop for many of his sex parties.

"I mostly used the snooker room to seduce guys. Strip snooker! It usually seemed to do the trick, especially after a couple of lines of coke," he says.

He added that sometimes he wouldn't take part and would sit and observe other men instead: "I just watched, took Polaroids, organised things."

A now 72-year-old John says he believes that not being that interested in having sex himself saved his life with multiple ex-partners of his becoming HIV - positive.

"If I had been (having sex), I'd almost certainly, be dead," he said.

His musician pals, including Freddie Mercury and George Harrison urged him for years to check into rehab and kick his cocaine habit.

But the singer always refused. It wasn't until his boyfriend Hugh Williams sought help that Elton decided to join him in the 1990s and managed to get clean.

Despite giving up drugs and booze a long time ago, John said he still has recurring nightmares about his former addiction.

"When I wake up, I can almost feel the numbing sensation of the coke sliding down the back of my throat - always the part of doing it that I hated - and I just think ‘thank God that's over.'"

(Source: IANS)