(Photo by Steve Morley/Redferns)

Elton John explained why he had refused Yoko Ono’s request to complete John Lennon’s unfinished songs after he passed.

In John’s upcoming memoir, Me, he writes, “Our plane had just landed in Melbourne when a stewardess’s voice came over the [loudspeaker], saying that the Elton John party couldn’t disembark; we had to stay on board. It’s strange, the moment they said it, my heart sank; I just knew it meant someone was dead.”

A few years later, Ono called John to say she needed to see him. He went on to tell of a call he received from Ono a few years later. “She told me she’d found a load of tapes with unfinished songs John had been working on just before he died. She asked me if I would complete them, so they could be released.”

Although John was flattered, he “absolutely didn’t want to,” saying it was “too soon” after Lennon’s death. “Actually, I didn’t think the time would ever be right,” he admitted.

Read the full story on Ultimate Classic Rock.