Having raised over £100,000 for the Elton John AIDS Foundation since the first UK-produced Winq was released two years ago, the gay magazine thought it was high-time they caught up with Elton and David for a chat about family life, the ongoing fight against HIV/AIDS and that conversation with the real Vladimir Putin.

Elton’s 33rd album, "Wonderful Crazy Life", is due out February 5, 2016, but his music output is just a small part of something nothing less than an empire, which includes ventures such as a talent agency, sports management agency, and TV and theatre production businesses. Since meeting Elton in the 1980s, David has become his partner in life and business, and is now the brain behind Brand Elton.

Pick up or download Winq February/March 2016 now to read the full 10-page feature with Elton and David, and check out the highlights below…

On the Catholic Church:
In September, Pope Francis described the type of programmes that the Foundation is involved in as being part of a process of “ideological colonisation”, where acceptance of HIV drugs is almost conditional upon accepting the existence of homosexuality.

“I’m very pro-Pope Francis in a lot of the things he’s said and done so far,” says Furnish. “The Catholic Church’s track record on this issue is appalling. John Paul II said – he actually put out an official message – condoms spread AIDS. In my opinion, that’s genocide.”

On fighting HIV/AIDS:
Fighting HIV and AIDS is something they have always taken seriously. It was fear of the disease that got Elton sober 25 years ago, prompting him to set up the foundation, which began by taking meals to dying AIDS victims who lived near his home in Atlanta, Georgia. “By all rights, I shouldn’t be here. I should be dead, six feet under in a wooden box,” Elton told me later. “I should have contracted HIV in the 1980s and died in the 1990s, just like Freddie Mercury. Or like Rock Hudson.”

On finding the right work/family life balance:
“I’m actually very grateful that I’ve come to parenting when I’ve come to parenting,” he says. “Nothing prepares you for the responsibility and the changes in life. I look at my parents and marvel that, in their 20s, they were starting careers, paying a mortgage, buying a house, starting a family – all at the same time. I feel much more comfortable in my skin professionally than I’d have felt 20 years ago. Financially, our life is in a solid place. In terms of being able to give the children as much focus as you possibly can, those things aren’t distractions now. And now, where work is concerned, it’s really, really easy. Either it’s really good for our business and we want to do it, or we turn it down because it means taking time away from the children. That’s an easy decision to make.”

The full interview can be seen in the February/March issue of Winq, the world’s largest gay magazine. Buy yours now in a super-luxe, three-paper print edition, or download it for free on iOS and Android devices.

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