The singer spent years battling drink and drug demons and endured numerous stints in clinics as he attempted to kick his addictions.
The Rocket Man admits he can empathise with Lohan, who has spent this year (10) in and out of prison and rehab as she tries to get sober, but fears she may be taking the wrong approach to her treatment.
Lohan is currently a patient at the Betty Ford clinic in California, but John is urging her to ditch rehab centres with "televisions and swimming pools" for a strict regime at the tough Hazelden clinic in Minnesota, where stars including Ozzy Osbourne, Eric Clapton, Liza Minnelli and Melanie Griffith have all received treatment.
He says, "Lindsay needs to go away somewhere to somewhere like Hazelden in Minnesota which is a kind of boot camp. But to get well you don't go to treatment centres which have televisions and swimming pools. That's not the way you do it. That's pampering."
And the star also wants Lohan to cut ties with her troubled family, as her relatives may be fuelling her drug addiction.
He adds, "You have to ask for help. And you have to be ready for it, you have to surrender to it and ask for help and accept help and get rid of the people who are around you. That's the worst. And by that I mean her family too, they're enablers."