Elton John Slams Madonna In Memoir For Being ‘Ungracious And Nasty’ To Lady Gaga

Elton John does not hold back in his new memoir Me, and he reserves some harsh criticism for fellow pop icon Madonna.

As Yahoo! Entertainment reports, the 72-year-old rocker takes Madonna, 61, to task for being “nasty” and “ungracious” to Lady Gaga when she dissed Gaga over similarities between “Born This Way” and her own “Express Yourself”.

While Sir Elton conceded the two songs “definitely sounded familiar,” he explained that he “couldn’t see why [Madonna] was so ungracious and nasty about it — particularly when she claims to be a champion for women.”

He added: “I think it’s just wrong — an established artist shouldn’t kick down a younger artist right at the start of their career.”

John is referring to a 2012 interview that Madonna gave to ABC News, saying Gaga’s song felt “reductive” when compared to her song.

John admitted his response to Madonna’s remarks about Gaga — a close friend and godmother to his sons with husband David Furnish — may have been a bit vicious, especially when he described her as a “fairground stripper.”

“I was furious and I said some pretty horrible things about her to a TV interviewer in Australia, a guy I’d known since the ‘70s called Molly Meldrum,” he writes in Me.

“You can tell from the footage that it wasn’t part of the interview, that I was just sounding off to an old friend between takes,” he said, revealing he didn’t think those particular comments would be part of the interview.

“They broadcast it anyway, which brought that particular old friendship to a very swift conclusion,” he writes. “Still, I shouldn’t have said it. I apologized.”

Madonna isn’t the only ’80s pop icon he discusses in Me, and also shares some less-than-flattering recollections of the late Michael Jackson.

“God knows what was going on in his head, and God knows what prescription drugs he was being pumped full of, but every time I saw him in his later years I came away thinking the poor guy had totally lost his marbles,” he writes. “I don’t mean that in the lighthearted way. He was genuinely mentally ill.”