Sir Elton John calls David Furnish "Yoko" because he's so "unpopular".

He said: "I call him Yoko now because a lot of people don't like what he's doing. David has taken over the complete reins. We're a family business now and we're trying to get rid of people we really don't need. We just changed some assistants. It's very unfortunate and I'm very sad about it but we're trying to run a tight ship.

"I want to have a business that I can pass on to my boys. Not that they're going to be musicians but I wanted to make sure I'm going to leave them something really worthwhile. And when you do that, you've got to become unpopular. David is Mr Unpopular but he's making the decisions that have to be made."

And the 69-year-old singer admits he can "go to the dark side very quickly" when he feels tired or overworked but is glad he has his husband and their two sons, Elijah, three and Zachary, five, to keep him positive.

He said: "I go to the dark side very quickly. That old thing on my shoulder can push me back there. It's usually caused by tiredness, overwork and sometimes by frustration that I'm missing my boys when I'm away.

"I was in South Korea in November and I'd never felt so far away from them. I was really down and then I just FaceTimed my boys. They went, 'I love you, Daddy, where are you?' and everything felt better. Artists tend to be self-destructive. I don't know why it is. No pain, no gain, as they say. I don't like the dark side very much and it doesn't happen very often."

Elton is incredibly happy at the moment and says it is all down to his boys.

He told The Sun newspaper: "Ninety nine per cent of the reason is the boys. My life is pretty wonderful anyway but when you do get things that go wrong and then spend one second with them, everything goes back to normal.

"They have this amazing quality of making things that are a pain in the ar*e disappear very quickly. I spent the morning with Elijah before I came up here. He's not in school today and he's just amazing. He's only just three and he's having incredible conversations. It's just joyous."