Sir Elton John believes ''homophobia'' may be the reason why his father never came to see him perform.

The 68-year-old star has opened up about his involvement in the musical 'Billy Elliot' and confessed seeing the main character's dad finally accept his desire to become a ballet dancer is bitter-sweet for him because he doesn't think his own dad Stanley Dwight ever came to terms with his sexuality, hence why he ignored his successful music career.

He explained: ''My father lived to know about some of my success, but he never came to see a single one of my shows. The moment when Billy's dad sees him perform, and sees the beating heart of his son for the first time, and understands what his son will achieve, never came for me. My father was sealed off from my talent and I never knew why. Was it homophobia? Was it fear?

''That was a painful loss for me. But it was also a painful loss, I think, for my dad. That's what prejudice does to people. It cuts them off from sources of joy - from friendship and kindness and love. It even cuts off fathers from their sons. It makes the whole world a little colder.''

The 'Tiny Dancer' hitmaker also confessed it was terrifying growing up in a society where being gay was a crime, because he had to hide his true self in the 60s and 70s when he was finding chart success.

Elton was married on two occasions to women but after claiming he was bisexual in a 1976 interview with Rolling Stone magazine he told the same publication he was ''comfortable'' being gay shortly his divorce from second spouse Renate Blauel was finalised in 1988.

Discussing the 'Billy Elliot' stage production with The Times newspaper, he said: ''It's strange for me to be a part of a show like this, because you have to remember when I was a kid growing up in the 1950s, slowly realising I was gay, it was literally a crime. A show like this would have been regarded as 'perverted' and censored off the stage.''

However, Elton is thrilled he and his partner David Furnish's children Zachary and Elijah won't have to witness such extreme prejudice.

He added: ''The days of homophobia in Britain are ending, because so many people fought against it and so many decent people opened their hearts for us.''