"I wasted a huge part of my life," says Elton John

In an interview, singer regretted having surrendered to the drugs in the past

Elton John admitted that he had wasted much of his life using drugs.

The star, 65, who battled addictions to alcohol and cocaine until 1990, said he wanted to have overcome that phase sooner, which would have allowed to enjoy the beginning of his career.

"I wasted a huge part of my life. I was a drug addict and was concentrating on my own thoughts," Elton said to Matt Lauer, Today's U.S. program.

"You know, I saw people dying on my right to my left, my friends. And yet, I did not stop with that life, which is the terrible part of the addiction. It is thus a very bad disease."

The singer, who suffered a drug overdose in 1975, has previously revealed the talk show Life Stories, Piers Morgan, which turned blue after the attacks caused by the use of cocaine and returned to inhale the substance so regaining consciousness.

"I never considered myself a drug addict," said Elton in December 2010. "I thought that addicts were people who poked needles in their arms - and I was the biggest junkie there was. I came very close to death, had convulsions and turned blue. So people I met on the floor and put me in bed. 40 minutes then I smelled it again. "

The Briton said he was still alone in the light of the drug that he thought would be the solution to your life: "It was fun at first because I thought, being shy, that cocaine, which made ​​me say, the output was: 'Now I can talk, can I join the group, I can fit. "I lost all my friends and people I loved did not recognize me. My mother left the country."