Elton John: `Elizabeth Taylor had a cackle of a laugh`

The Rocket Man's comments appear in the latest issue of Entertainment Weekly, in which the US magazine reflects on 2011.

John, 64, was a good friend of the fellow AIDS awareness campaigner who died in March at the age of 79.

'We used to insult each other and send each other up,' the singer says in a revealing insight into their relationship.

'I miss talking to her on the phone and hearing that wicked laugh of hers.

'She had a cackle of a laugh.

'I miss dishing the dirt with her. And I miss her compassion most of all.'

The British singer also praises Taylor’s beauty, saying: 'From her very first big role in National Velvet, Elizabeth was the most beautiful-looking girl, and then the most beautiful-looking woman.

John says Taylor was 'a really fantastic actress.'

He says: 'She had an aura and a mystique around her.

'She was without doubt the most glamorous movie star that ever existed.'

But John also champions Taylor's work as an activist who raised money for AIDS charities.

'She spoke out about HIV at a time when it was incredibly unfashionable.

'And it came from a woman, which was great because everyone was calling AIDS a gay male disease. She was fearless in what she said.'