Sir Elton John came about this close to borrowing some words from another famous set of Brits when he explained his vision for ending AIDS — all you need is love. “Maybe you think I’m naive, maybe you think I’m off my rocker, well here I am, telling an audience of 7,000 global health experts that we can end AIDS with love,” John said Monday afternoon at the International AIDS Conference being held this week at the Washington Convention Center.
John, sporting a festive set of bright pink spectacles, began his presentation by describing how his own actions, drug and alcohol abuse, along with unprotected sex, put him at very high risk for contracting HIV when he was younger. “I shouldn’t be here today, I should be dead, six feet under in a wooden box,” he said. “I should have contracted HIV in the 1980s, and died in the 1990s, just like Freddie Mercury, just like Rock Hudson, just like so many friends and loved ones of yours and mine.”
He praised former President George W. Bush for his work with the disease. “We’ve seen George W. Bush and conservative American politicians pledge tens of billions to save the lives of Africans with HIV — think of all the love, think of where we’d be without it,” John said.
Though he also discussed the need for more role models. “We haven’t had one since Magic Johnson,” he said, comparing the impact, to what has happened once prominent Americans came out for gay marriage. “Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made the most amazing speech, and then the vice president made a speech. And then the president endorsed gay marriage. And then Jay-Z, who is one of the most respected artists in his field in the world … Three days later the NAACP said yes, then Colin Powell said yes, and then Frank Ocean the hip-hop singer said yes. It’s like the domino effect,” he said. “It would be great if HIV-positive people would stand up and be counted.”
