Elton John Struggles to Read His Own Memoir in Outtake From Audiobook Recording

The typically unflappable Elton John released an endearing video of him struggling to get through a sentence while narrating the new chapter he wrote for the paperback edition of his autobiography, Me.

The chapter finds John recounting the past few years of his life, covering his biopic Rocketman and massive farewell tour. The snippet he reads in the blooper clip appears to be a dispatch from that trek: When a January 2019 concert in Australia was suddenly called off due to heavy rain, which was actually a blessing of sorts for a country that had just been devastated by bushfires.

“Rain was still viewed as Australia’s savior,” John recalls. “A ruined evening was a small price to pay for the good it had done. In the dressing room, I sat in my underpants — they were soaking, too — and started laughing.” At this point, the reading goes off the rails as John continues, “It wasn’t just the sheer preposterousness,” but struggles to clear the hurdle that is “preposterousness.”

A minute or so of the musician struggling to get out the five-syllable word follows, peppered with plenty of swearing. Even when John does nail it about half way through, the sudden appearance of the meager “precedent” a few words later is enough to completely throw him off again.

“I’d love to say I read it all in one take, but even I don’t always get it right first time!” John tweeted along with the clip.

The paperback version of Me will be released Tuesday, October 13th. John contributed some narration to the original audiobook version, which was primarily read by Rocketman star Taron Egerton.