Elton John — he of the bedazzled spectacles and dazzling spectaculars — has been “quietly” spending his summer recovering from a “severe eye infection” that has affected his vision.
The “Crocodile Rock” and “Bennie and the Jets” singer shared the health update Tuesday, explaining his subdued presence on social media over the past few months.
“Over the summer, I’ve been dealing with a severe eye infection that has unfortunately left me with only limited vision in one eye,” the EGOT winner said in a statement on Instagram. “I am healing, but it’s an extremely slow process and it will take some time before sight returns to the impacted eye.”
The 77-year-old rocker said that his doctors, nurses and family have been taking care of him over the last several weeks and that he’s been “quietly spending the summer recuperating at home.”
“[I] am feeling positive about the progress I have made in my healing and recovery thus far,” he added. John, who was born Reginald Kenneth Dwight, did not further elaborate on the condition or what caused it.
Representatives for John did not immediately respond Wednesday to The Times’ requests for comment.
The legendary singer-songwriter has been dogged by health issues over the past few years.
John — who retired from touring last year — was briefly hospitalized last summer after falling at his home on the French Riviera, where he had been spending his summer with husband David Furnish and their children since wrapping his record-breaking Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour that July.
Photos of the “Rocket Man” crooner in a wheelchair also alarmed fans in 2022, but John later explained on Instagram that he was using the chair to rest his hip after a “blockbuster show” in Bern and while being transported through the Leipzig/Halle Airport in Germany. In 2021, he underwent hip surgery after he “fell awkwardly on a hard surface,” and his recovery postponed several of his tour dates.
The British superstar was also among the many musicians whose live performances were scuttled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In January 2022, just after re-launching his farewell tour and despite being vaccinated and boosted, he had to cancel shows in Dallas after experiencing “mild symptoms” when he contracted COVID-19.
