Sickly Elton's AIDS Heartbreak

Battling a potentially fatal mystery bug has reminded Elton John of his heartbreaking regret —

he shamefully failed to do his all for dying friends when they were stricken with deadly AIDS!

The 70-year-old Rocket Man’s ­current health crisis, a ­puzzling “bacterial infection” that’s forced him to cancel his shows at Las Vegas’ Caesars ­Palace,

has made him recall how he narrowly escaped contracting the killer AIDS virus —

while ignoring calls to help in the fight against the disease once known as “the gay plague.”

“Elton knows how fortunate he is to be alive,” says a source.

“And his awful illness has reminded him of the reckless way he lived his life years ago.

“I’m deeply ashamed that I did not do more about AIDS back then when my friends, including Ryan, were dying all around me,”

Elton wrote years ago. “I just did not have the strength or sobriety to do anything about it.

“I would go to funerals, I would cry, I would mourn, sometimes for weeks. And my behavior got worse.

I was sleeping around without protection and it is a small miracle that I never contracted HIV myself.”