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Elton John: Cyrus ‘a meltdown waiting to happen’

Elton John, pictured on Sept. 16, 2013. Getty Images

TORONTO — Miley Cyrus is “a meltdown waiting to happen,” according to music veteran Elton John.

“And she’s so young,” he added. “But she’s got two records in the Top 20, so who is going to stop her?”

Cyrus has made headlines for her sexually-charged performance last month on the MTV Video Music Awards and for baring a lot of skin in photos and new videos.

In an interview with The Australian, John said Cyrus, and other young stars, need to stop and listen.

“When your persona begins to take over your music and becomes more important, you enter a dangerous place,” he said. “Once you have people around you who don’t question you, you’re in a dangerous place.

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“You need people who are willing to tell you the truth, whether you like it or not.”

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The “Rocket Man” singer cited troubled actress Lindsay Lohan as an example.

“There was someone with a successful career and her parents completely f***ed her up. The dad was in jail and the mum was doing coke with her. Great!”

John said he also predicted things wouldn’t turn out well for Michael Jackson.

“I was in my dressing room in Las Vegas when they announced that Michael Jackson was playing 50 dates [in the UK]. I turned to my agent and said: ‘He won’t do a single one of those,'” John said.

“I could tell you he was going to die. He’d been doing drugs for so long, he’d been a mess for so long – and I’ve known Michael since he was 12 or 13 – that it was never going to happen. Everyone was saying it was going to be great and I was saying: ‘Hello? Are you looking at the real thing here?'”

John said the internet is partly to blame for celebrity woes.

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“The secret of success is: don’t let everyone know everything. Keep some of it to yourself,” he told the newspaper. “There should be some privacy, some mystique left.”

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