Elton John spills on his furious row with Tina Turner

Elton John has opened up about a furious row he had with another singer in which he told her to “shove her song up her a**e”.

Elton John has revealed he told Tina Turner to “shove her song up her f***ing arse” during a furious row.

The legends united in 1997 for a joint tour but tensions rose quickly when the pair clashed in the planning stage, The Sun reports.

Elton alleges Tina called him up to say how “awful” he was, with suggestions of how he could change.

Tina Turner and Elton John perform at the VH1 Fashion and Music Awards in 1995.

She wanted him to swap his Versace for Armani outfits so he would look “less fat”, change the colour of his piano and update his hairdo.

In an extract from his new autobiography, which has been serialised in the Daily Mail, Elton said: “I got off the phone and burst into tears: ‘She sounded like my f***ing mother,’ I wailed at David.”

Their relationship didn’t improve in rehearsals when they rowed over how to play a song and Tina was apparently rude to the band members.

“The subsequent debate about whether I knew how to play Proud Mary became quite heated, before I brought it to a conclusion by telling Tina Turner to stick her f*****g song up her a**e and stormed off,” Elton added.

“I’ve thrown plenty of tantrums in my time, but there are limits: there’s an unspoken rule that musicians don’t treat their fellow musicians like s***.

Elton John is currently touring in Ireland. Picture: AFP

“Maybe it was insecurity on her part. She’d been treated appallingly earlier in her career, suffered years and years of being ripped off, beaten up and pushed around. Maybe that had an effect on how she behaved towards people.”

Later, when Elton had calmed down, he went to her dressing-room and apologised.

After talking it through they realised they were fundamentally different performers. Elton liked to improvise, while Tina had to rehearse every detail.

The tour was cancelled, but the pair eventually kissed and made up over dinner at Elton’s home.

Tina Turner performing at the Australian Grand Prix concert in Adelaide in 1993.

This article originally appeared on The Sun and was reproduced with permission

Originally published as Elton John spills on his furious row with Tina Turner