Elton John wants the stars of today to learn from his mistakes and to get rid of their drug-using ways while they are young.

The Grammy-winning singer says that getting sober and clean at the age of 43 is his greatest achievement. But if he could turn back time, he would've done it when he was 20 years younger.

"If you can do it, and everyone's going to do it I think because they want to try it, then try and get it over with as quickly as possible, because it's a f***ing waste of time," Sir Elton told media in London.

"Jared Leto is a great actor and he's also in a band called 30 Seconds To Mars, and I think ... he'd been a crack addict since he was 14 and he'd been sober since 17.

"Jack Osbourne, a friend of mine, he's been sober since he was 18.

"I spent time with (Lady) GaGa last week, and she said, 'You know I got my cocaine over with by the time I was 20'.

"Thank god. I didn't get mine over with until I was 43."

Meanwhile, Sir Elton recently launched his new album The Union, which is a collaboration with legendary singer-songwriter Leon Russell.

According to him, the album was a change of direction for him. He glides away from pop music and moves towards a more mature type of music.

"I can't make pop records anymore. I'm 63, I'm never going to be on Top of the Pops - I hate videos, I f***ing hate them," he said.

"I don't think I'm going to be doing Crocodile Rock anymore or anything like that.

"I just want to make records like this one, like Bob Dylan does. Bob Dylan makes great records, Neil Young makes great records, I'm that age group and I just need to go back and make those kinds of records that fit the piano-playing style I have."

But Sir Elton hasn't totally left pop music and plans to work on side projects.

"I love doing things like writing for the Scissor Sisters, being on the Tupac record," he said.

"Those sorts of side projects are fantastic - you know the Ironik (version of) Tiny Dancer - they're the little icing on the cake.

"I love things like Hot Chip and Royksopp and electronic music like Robyn and people like that, but if I made a record like that I wouldn't be true to myself, and I wouldn't know how to make it."

However, if there was one thing that Sir Elton refuses to do, that would be making a Christmas album.

"There was a time when my record company wanted me to do a Motown record and a Christmas record. I just said f*** off," he said.