Sir Elton John had to "learn to walk again" after falling ill two years ago.
The 72-year-old singer suffered a major infection after undergoing prostate cancer surgery and admitted it left him "24 hours from snuffing it" and feeling "lucky" to have survived.
He said: "I literally had to learn to walk again. I was extremely sick.
"I said: ‘Don’t let me die, I want to see my children grow up.’
" Luckily I survived it. Now I am fine."
Elton – who has sons Zachary, eight, and Elijah, six, with husband David Furnish – recalled how he carried on performing even when very ill.
He said: "I was on stage in Vegas in a lot of pain, fluid had built up under my colon.
"I did the show and was wearing nappies shortly after the operation. I thought ‘If only they knew right now that I’m pissing myself’.
And the ‘Crocodile Rock’ singer joked he is "like the Bionic Woman" as there are "very few bits" of him left following various operations over the years.
Speaking to Graham Norton for the upcoming BBC One show ‘Elton John: Uncensored’, he said: "There are very few bits of me left!
"There is no hair, a pacemaker, there is no tonsils, there is no prostate, there is no appendix. I have had kidney stones. I am like the Bionic Woman. I am like Lyndsay Wagner or Steve Austin. Whichever one you want to call it."
But the ‘Philadelphia Freedom’ singer admitted he is "very happy" with his hairpiece after admitting some of his earlier toupees looked as though he was wearing a "dead mole" on his head.
He said: "I pray to it every night. I’m very happy with it now.
"I am very happy with it on. I do not like being bald."
Sir Elton John had to learn to walk again
