It's a real pleasure to,
obviously... I have gotta say,
it's a real pleasure
to talk to you.
It's not a difficult thing
at all.
I regard you
as a great friend, and it's like...
It doesn't feel
like an interview,
though I am sitting here
with a pad and pen, you know?
One
of my best friends, right?
- And that's how it should be.
- Brilliant.
- That's fantastic.
- Thank you so much.
You're kidding me.
No. Thank you.
Okay.
Right.
Where are we now, my love?
We are, um, '70s today.
Elton! Elton!
Elton! Elton! Elton!
It's getting late
Have you seen my mates?
Ma, tell me
when the boys get here
It's seven o'clock
and I wanna rock
Wanna get
a belly full of beer
My old man's drunker
than a barrel full of monkeys
And my old lady
she don't care
My sister looks cute
in her braces and boots
A handful of grease
in her hair
Oh, don't give us none
of your aggravation
We had it
with your discipline
Oh, Saturday night's all right
for fighting
Get a little action in
Get about as oiled
as a diesel train
Gonna set this dance alight
'Cause Saturday night's
the night I like
Saturday night's all right
all right, all right
Ooh
Let's talk about
this period in the mid-70s.
You're the most famous popstar
in the world.
There's been an ascent,
an ascent, and ascent
- and ascent...
- Yeah.
And it reached its pinnacle
at the Dodger Stadium.
The biggest gig of my life.
I knew it couldn't get
any bigger.
I was justified
when I was five...
Once-in-a-lifetime concert event,
Elton John live...
Tickets are sold out,
as Elton John is set
to play at Dodger Stadium
in front of 110,000.
Elton making history once again.
No solo artist has ever put on
a live stadium show.
I was nervous
about Dodger Stadium.
I've never played
to that many people before.
...that's all right
I even like steak
on a Saturday night...
Bob Mackie, who makes
all of Elton's clothes,
made this one out.
Just like a Dodgers suit,
only it's all...
- sequined up.
- Quite fitting.
Yeah.
And then he's got this hat.
I quite like that.
...I'm a b*tch, I'm a b*tch
oh, the b*tch is back
Stone cold sober...
I've always been able
to pull off the big occasions,
but it's a big occasion,
so you get worked up about it.
...better than you
It's the way that I move
The things that I do, oh
Everyone thought
my life was so perfect.
You can see,
you're... you're really charming
and you're funny
and all that kind of thing.
But you can see
there's something
there's...
You look quite out of it.
Yeah.
There was an emptiness
within me.
I could have great fun,
but when I went home at night,
it didn't really satisfy me.
The only thing in my life
at that point was work.
I couldn't have anything apart
from my success and my drugs.
My soul had gone dark.
I had gone dark.
I wasn't a joy to be around.
I desperately didn't want to be
the Elton that I had become.
I wanted to be the person
that I was before that.
Oh-oh-oh-oh
Oh-oh-oh-oh
Oh-oh-oh-oh
Oh-oh-oh-oh
Oh-oh-oh-oh
Levon wears his w*r wound
like a crown
Calls his child Jesus...
The Queen isn't waving,
by the way.
Should she be?
No. She should be, yeah.
All right. There you go.
I wonder what's gonna happen
to all this stuff when I finish.
- I know, right?
- Well...
This is the latter time
in my life.
I don't know how much time
I have left.
And you think about that more
when you get to my age,
you think about, um,
life and, uh...
and death.
And you think, well...
I just want to be
where I want to be now.
I don't have to work
after this tour.
I don't wanna do anything.
I'll be working doing records
and putting radio shows together
and doing other things,
but travelling takes it
so much out of you.
Um... It's very tiring.
I'm used to it,
and I'm a veteran at it.
And I'd...
You know, I'm enjoying it
so far on this tour,
which is good.
But this is where you start
to think about mortality.
And kids make
you think about mortality too.
- I find.
- Yeah.
- Right?
- Yeah.
They think about my mortality.
They worry about my mortality,
because they know how old I am.
Not so much David but me.
Yeah, they love their daddy,
so they want me
to be around forever.
Um... And I would love
to be around forever.
I wanna see them have children
and get married
and... But I don't think
I'm gonna be around for that.
Who knows? You never know.
Um, so that's why
I wanna weigh the best time,
best... best of my time
while I'm around for them
Time together is so wonderful
and so precious.
Let's just sort of begin
at the beginning,
with your childhood.
Winifred Atwell.
Of course it is.
As a child, I used to watch
Winifred Atwell on television.
She just was my hero,
and she had two pianos.
She would play grand piano,
and that she would say,
"I'm going over to my other piano now,"
which was an upright
h*nky-tonk piano.
It's your own piano.
Your special one, what are
you gonna play first on that?
Well, I thought the kids
would like Poor People Paris.
I loved her.
She loved what she did.
And I think,
I took a lot of that with me
when I became Elton John.
She was my first big influence,
without question.
I remember starting to play
the piano when I was very young.
We had an upright piano
at the house.
My father and mother,
I don't know if they were ever
in love with each other.
There were lots of arguments.
Both of them,
I was frightened of.
They were a*usive.
They were violent.
They were physically violent.
- I used to walk on eggshells...
- Yeah.
In case I did anything wrong.
My mother,
when I was a year old,
she beat me till I bled
with a wire brush
to make me potty trained.
My dad,
when I was playing football
and the ball went on the garden
instead of on the grass,
there was hell to pay.
My mom said,
"It never did you any harm,"
and I said,
"God, you have no idea."
To be reprimanded,
walloped on the street
in front of people,
it stays with you.
My whole childhood
was full of fear.
I was Reg.
I hadn't become Elton.
I hated being called Reg
so much.
I always hated the name.
I spend a lot
of my time in fantasy land
while my parents were arguing.
I cherish the things that I had.
You have this record collection.
Yeah.
It was a pristine
record collection.
Initially 78s,
then of course 45s.
I used to hold them,
caress them.
Look at them, study them.
Playing the piano,
I got approval.
That was my way of getting
into the good books.
If I heard something
on the radio,
I could go to the piano
and play it verbatim.
It gave me a sense of pride.
Social occasions
or such was like,
I was kind of wheeled out.
People loved it.
Um, I went to the Royal Academy
from the age of 11 to 15
every Saturday morning.
I really enjoyed playing Mozart,
and Bach, and Beethoven,
all the melodic stuff.
When it got to things
like Bartk,
I didn't know whether I was playing
the wrong thing or the right thing.
I just couldn't tell.
I didn't have the hands for it.
I didn't have
the technical ability
to be a classical pianist.
I wanted to play
a different kind of music.
If anyone should see me
making it down the highway
Breaking all the laws
of the land...
I was 15
and started playing in the pub.
I used to get a pound a night.
I saved up, and I got
a microphone and an amplifier.
Well, that's my rock and roll
Madonna...
My father hated rock 'n' roll.
Hated it.
You cannot be involved
with... Look at this.
You know, the way they dress,
the way they act.
He instilled in me,
the desire to prove that
rock 'n' roll wasn't a sh*t.
But the freeway
is the only way she knows
And you went down
well in this environment?
- I mean, you...
- Yeah. Like a storm.
I mean, if you can play there,
you can play anywhere.
Come back, baby
Come back to me, yeah...
I was beginning
to get a band together.
We did a tour
with the Ink Spots.
We backed them.
The Drifters, the Temptations,
Patti LaBelle.
It was a great learning curve.
My life was all consumed
by music. It was my sex.
All I cared about was playing.
When you changed
your name, did that change you?
Yes, without question.
Kind of shedding my skin.
It made me feel
as if I could make it.
Reg was never gonna make it.
"Here he is, Reg Dwight."
Like, boring!
But Elton John?
- Yeah.
- That's different.
I just wanted
to become a songwriter.
And that's when I went
and answered
- the Liberty advert.
- Sure.
That advert, I thought,
"Wow, songwriters wanted."
"Well, maybe I can...
I've written two songs,"
"but they... the lyrics
weren't very good."
"But maybe I can get
a lyric writer."
I cannot believe
I had the courage to answer it.
But I did. And I did it
without telling anybody.
And I was shaking
when I went into the office.
I said, "I've written
my lyrics and I don't like it."
"They're not very good,
but I love writing melodies."
It ended up by him giving me
an envelope
with Bernie's lyrics.
He hadn't even
looked at the lyrics.
Right.
- It boggles the mind.
- It really does.
My life wouldn't be
the same. If I hadn't had that,
we wouldn't be sitting here
talking about it.
No, no, no, absolutely not, no.
It was the biggest piece
of serendipity
that I could possibly have.
Bernie was the... He was the link
to what was gonna happen,
whatever was gonna happen.
- Hello, Olly.
- Hey, Elton.
Do you play guitar?
No, I tried to learn
the guitar when I was younger.
- It's so difficult.
- I... Yeah,
I couldn't get my head
around it.
I just... I just can't
wrap my head around it.
Plus my hands are so small.
I just can't...
But that help... I think that
helps you stylistically, though.
'Cause when your hands
bounce around the piano,
- it's mesmerizing.
- Right.
Well, it's such
a different instrument,
it's such
a percussive instrument,
the piano rather
than the guitar.
It's... You write simpler things
on a guitar,
- which I'd love to do.
- Yeah.
The piano, because of the way
it's structured,
you write more
complicated chord structures.
- Yeah, it's nice.
- Um, which I don't mind,
but it would be nice to be able
to play another instrument
so you can get another crack
- at writing in a different way.
- Yeah.
Do you... Do you
write lyrics first and then...
I don't... No,
I don't write lyrics at all.
- I just write to lyrics.
- Just write to lyrics.
Yeah. Soon as I see
the written word,
I can visualize the whole thing.
- You can see it.
- Like a film or a movie.
- Am I on?
- Oh, yeah, you are.
My intuitiveness
about not being able
to write lyrics was right
on the money.
I wanted to be part of a team.
And I thought I need
to have someone to write with,
'cause I can't do it on my own.
It was I on my own
with no need to belong
And I wanted to die
That's when you came along...
There was a magic that happened
when I saw Bernie's lyrics,
that made me write the songs.
I knew that
I was getting somewhere.
I have to have the kickstart
and the inspiration
of the written word.
I'm hopeless without it.
Bernie was just
as enthusiastic as I was.
When I played him some
of the songs,
he loved them,
and we got on straight away.
I had someone to go
to films with,
to go to the pub with,
to lie on the floor
and listen to the records with.
I'd never really had
a best friend,
and it was really,
really great for me.
It's hard to say what I feel
when I'm by your side
You're there when...
We just moved into the...
My bedroom in Pinner,
which was minuscule,
that had double bunk beds,
one on the top,
one on the bottom.
And one night, I told him
that I loved him...
when he was on the top bunk
and I was on the bottom bunk
at my parents' apartment.
And he said, "Well, I think
you should see a doctor."
But I never meant it physically.
I felt really rejected,
but I didn't have
the wherewithal
to tell him that it wasn't
that kind of love,
you know, I just...
And I did love him,
I loved him so much,
but it wasn't, you know,
I couldn't be without him
'cause he was my other half.
But I... It wasn't sexual.
I was still very naive.
I didn't know I was g*y.
I didn't know I was anything.
I hadn't had sex with anybody.
We had two, I think two years
of where we didn't
really get anywhere.
We were more or less bludgeoned
into writing very commercial,
uh, ballads for la Engelbert Humperdinck
and Tom Jones.
And it just wasn't
our sort of field, um...
We were asked to write those
sort of songs,
and at the time
we were very certainly novices
and we were green. And, um...
that's what we thought
we had to do to be successful
until, um...
certain people came along
and said, "Look, if you're going"
"to be successful,
you should be writing"
"the sort of material
that you enjoy writing."
Just remember that Steve Brown
joined as a pro...
New promotion man, as a plugger.
I'd heard him do
some other things
that he'd written more recently.
Things that he enjoyed doing
but hadn't recorded
because he didn't think
they were commercial.
And I suggested that he should
continue writing in that vein,
rather than just trying
to write top 20 hits.
So that's why we sort
of took a turn
and started writing
for ourselves.
Turn me loose
from your hands
Let me fly to distant lands
When you make
Empty Sky, it comes out
and very little kind of happens.
Empty Sky paved the way
for the next set of songs,
which was so much more cohesive
and just a whole
different league.
Steve Brown produced Empty Sky.
He said, "Right. Next album,
you need a good producer."
"What record do you like?"
And I said,
"Well, the best record"
"I've heard is
David Bowie's 'Space Oddity.'"
"Whoever did that."
We had a meeting
with Gus Dudgeon
and Paul Buckmaster,
one of the most innovative
arrangers that ever was.
Gus and Paul
were just fantastic.
It was planned
to record it live.
Four sessions,
three songs a session,
like an army procedure,
that album,
live with the orchestra.
- The only thing I did on it I...
- f*cking hell.
Now I was sh1tting myself.
I bet, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I had never played
with an orchestra before.
It was like the first experience
in my life that I really
had to step up to the plate
and make sure I did it.
The energy and the fact
that I had to play live
sparked something in me.
Through a glass eye
your throne
Is the one danger zone
Take me to the pilot
for control
Something magical
happened in those sessions.
Nobody had really recorded
an album of funky
kind of or... orchestral stuff
with that kind of
arrangement before.
Where you live
to be whipped and be tamed
For I've never loved
in a cage
Or talked to a friend
or just waved
No man's a jester
playing Shakespeare
Round your throne room floor
While the juggler's act
is danced upon
The crown that you once wore
I'm a light world away
From the people
who make me stay
Sitting on the bad side
of the moon
The magic of Gus's production
and Paul Buckmaster's
revolutionary arrangement,
the beginning of the '60s,
when the strings are making
that funny noise,
- like a swarm of bees.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
He turned
to the string players and said,
"I don't know how
to describe this."
But I want you to make
a sound the equivalent of...
And that's
what they did. Wasn't written.
We edited that
onto the beginning,
when the harp comes on.
Sure, sure, sure.
I didn't realize it,
but it was all my years
at the academy,
learning classical, that came
through in the song writing.
It was the fruition
of everything I'd done,
since I'd left school,
had come together on that album.
Did you know
that you'd nailed it?
Yeah.
What was the big break then?
Uh, well, the thing
that really happened for us,
we sort of... things
happened gradually
until we went to America
for the first time.
And we played
the Troubadour Club
in Los Angeles and...
Which held to 250 people.
You've hung up your great coat
and you've laid down your g*n
You know the w*r you fought
in wasn't too much fun
And the future you're giving me
holds nothing for a g*n
I've no wish
to be living sixty years on
It's just happened
on the first night
and next day
we got incredible press reviews
and it just spread
across America
and the album went soaring up
into the charts.
I wasn't ready for it.
I mean, I thought
we might be quite successful
in America,
but never as successful as that.
This is our 329th episode
coming up.
- Come on.
- Yes.
You're ready to go?
Yeah.
Hi, I'm Elton John.
This is my Rocket Hour
on Apple Music.
Here are The Beaches
and The Lights.
I'm just a girl
Who used to loaf
at a Toronto art school
You just sneaked it in there.
The Linda Linda's
are an all-girl punk group
from Los Angeles.
They are Lucia, age 15,
Eloise, 14, Bela, age 17,
and Mila, age 11.
- Hi.
- Hi.
Welcome to the Rocket Hour.
You are such great fun,
and we love you so much.
I just... I'm blown away
by your talent
at such a young age.
It's quite remarkable.
And Mila is the drummer.
How old are you?
I'm 11.
And she is absolutely incredible
as are all the other girls.
But listen, I just think
you're amazing.
- Oh, thank you.
- Thank you.
We never expected
to be here talking to you,
but we're really excited
that we are, though.
We're gonna play your
new single, "Talking to Myself."
We hope you have a great day
at school.
Thank you for joining us.
Thank you so much.
Bye.
When I talk to myself
I think about the things
that no one ever talks about
Like how life
just keeps on givin'
Despite all
my bad decisions...
I mean, I am 64 years older
than the drummer
from the Linda Lindas.
Allison Ponthier
is an exciting singer
and songwriter
who I first started playing
on the Rocket Hour last year.
She's a pioneering
q*eer country star
and so let's give her
a call right now.
I don't like the word "q*eer."
- It's the...
- It's what they...
- most politically correct.
- Yeah? Okay.
Well, I mean,
you and I grew up with it,
it was a derogatory term,
but now people...
- Is that off now?
- Really embrace it. No.
Hi, Allison.
You are a very
interesting woman.
Not only do you write
your own songs and sing,
but you make sculptures
with little alien people.
- And you love...
- Yeah, I do.
And you love trashy movies.
Welcome to the club.
Thank you, thank you.
I cannot believe how, like,
I don't know, like emotionally
touched I am right now.
I knew I'd be very excited
to talk to you today.
But I feel, like, I don't know.
Very, very lucky and very
grateful to be here. Um...
One of my first, like, records
that I really loved, my mom had
two of your greatest hits
records.
So, I feel very, very happy
to be here. Thank you.
I'm happy to be here
because that's an old record.
Allison, you're...
you're an LGBT artist
um, and so we are both
on the... in the same game here.
And you've done a lot of stuff
for LGBTQ folk,
homeless youths in Dallas.
Um, and I applaud you for that.
You have a new EP coming out,
and we're gonna play
"Autopilot," which is the first track.
Thank you so much
for joining us.
We are so thrilled
to have you on the show.
Keep doing what you're doing
and bravo for all the work
you do for LGBTQ people.
Thank you. It's a true honor.
I'm so happy to be here.
And this is, like,
one of the highlights
of my life.
So thank you for what you do.
Love you. Take care.
Autopilot, autopilot...
Okay. That ends Elton's
interview with Allison Ponthier.
- What a great girl.
- She's lovely.
- I loved her.
- I know, I loved her energy.
I don't wanna say
why do it but why do it?
Why do it?
I love it and if I don't do it,
then who's gonna be playing
this music,
you know, for...
for the acts that, you know,
that never got a chance
on formulaic radio.
Um, the stuff that I'm playing
should be on radio.
Should be on radio.
It should be, you know...
But they just play pap
most of the time.
Right now, I'm gonna play you
the record of the '60s.
And no, it's not The Beatles,
it's not The Rolling Stones,
it's not The Beach Boys.
Gary Brooker was a hero of mine.
I... He used to be in a band
called the Paramounts,
and I used to go
and see them, locally.
Um, and he was the first guy
I ever saw play
an electric piano.
And then
the Paramounts broke up,
and they formed
a group called Procol Harum.
And Gary recently passed away,
which is such a tragedy
because he was a great singer,
a great writer,
and a great keyboard player.
Um, but his life and his songs
and his voice lives on
in this incredible record,
"A Whiter Shade of Pale."
We skipped
the light fandango
Turned cartwheels
'cross the floor...
It's a little bit funny
This feeling inside
I'm not one of those
who can easily hide
I don't have much money
but boy if I did
I'd buy a big house
where we both could live...
That's Elton John
and "Your Song."
Pete Fornatale,
WNEW-FM in New York.
It is a pleasure
to welcome Elton John
- and Bernie Taupin.
- Good morning.
We're just starting this weekend
on our massive campaign
to capture the hearts
of the American youth, folks.
Which will take you all over...
All over, mate, yeah.
This album literally,
literally came out of nowhere.
Yeah.
It had tremendous
impact in this country.
I can't understand it.
I really can't.
Because it wasn't a hit album.
It got to 45 in England,
which is nothing.
I can't believe
it is where it is.
And I'm knocked out,
you know, and...
Now it is probably
the most successful...
- Yeah, mate.
- album of its kind.
Like the king bee
misses honey
And when it rains
the rain falls down
Washing out the cattle town
And she's far away somewhere
in her eiderdown
And she dreams
of crystal streams
Of days gone by
when we would lean
Laughing, fit to burst
on each other
And when it rains
the rain falls down...
I was exposed
to a brand-new world.
The side of me
that had been closed up
for years came out.
And I was just having fun.
I was really having fun.
Lately, I've been thinking
how much I miss my lady
Amoreena's in the cornfield
brightening the daybreak
Living like a lusty flower
Running through
the grass for hours
Rolling through the hay
Oh, like a puppy
Like a puppy child
At that time,
frontmen were so fascinating.
There's a part of me that wanted
to be the frontman,
but, uh, I wasn't David Bowie.
I wasn't Mick.
I wasn't a sex symbol.
Yeah!
Come on, now
Wanna take a high dive
- High dive
- High dive
High dive
- High dive
- High dive
High dive
Little Richard
and Jerry Lee Lewis
visualize the piano.
They made the piano
a visual object,
whereas before, it was just...
I call it the nine-foot plank.
- High dive
- High dive
- High dive
- High dive
High dive
Wanna take a high dive
Wanna take a high dive
Wanna take a high dive
One, two, three
I took Winifred
Atwell's bonhomie,
I took Little Richard's
aggression
and Jerry Lee Lewis's
outrageousness
in my style of playing,
forging myself
into being a personality
like nobody else.
Yeah!
I can't believe it.
Four albums in one year.
God knows how I fitted it in.
But it was just
a fantastic era of creativity.
Nigel and Dee and I
were becoming
one of the best live bands
in the world.
There was
a certain rawness to us.
And there was nobody doing
what we were doing.
There was no piano, bass
and drums. We were unique.
And, we were just,
you know, giving it sh*t.
The acclaim grew
and the audiences grew.
It's manna from heaven
for an artist.
Once you find your groove,
and beginning
to find a little bit of success
and acceptance,
it just gives you
so much confidence.
How did John Reid
come into the frame?
Well, I knew him.
He was a plugger for Motown.
He was very young
and very confident
and very funny
and very attractive.
And very good at his job.
I got to know him
and a couple of his friends,
and, um, I liked his personality
and I certainly liked the fact
that he liked music.
We'd hang out together,
but we didn't do anything.
We didn't go even
on a date or anything
until I was due
to go to San Francisco
and play
the Troubadour Club there.
And funnily enough,
John Reid was there
at a Motown convention.
And I thought, "Oh."
And that's when it happened.
I was very naive,
I'd never experimented,
and I had never had sex.
It was my first... first love.
Being g*y in 1970,
it's still kind of
an underground thing.
Oh, yeah.
People were still...
If they were g*y,
they were in the closet.
We moved in together
very quickly.
So, the relationship happened
before the managerial position
was taken?
Yeah. John was very
clued in musically.
He was like me.
He had just a love of records.
And I thought, "He'll be good."
Um, he's got experience.
And it was fantastic,
'cause I had someone
who was managing me,
interested in me.
He loved my music. He loved me.
And it seemed like
a match made in heaven.
Which it was.
Aw, it's my boy.
- Hi.
- Hi, darling, how did it go?
- Great.
- Did you do well?
Yeah.
- You remember all your lines?
- Yeah.
You're a clever sausage.
So proud of you.
- Thanks.
- Were you Jack what?
I was Silver.
You were...
Long John Silver. That's it.
I bet you're having
a peanut butter
- and jelly sandwich, right?
- Honey.
Peanut butter and honey. Okay.
Now you're sweet as honey.
I love you so, eh?
- I love you so much.
- Aw, I love you, too.
Did Elijah go, too?
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
Hello, gorgeous boy.
- Hello.
- Hi, gorgeous.
How are you?
How was your day at school?
Was it good?
Stop it, stop it!
- You've just eaten out of that!
- Don't, don't.
- How was your day? Was it good?
- Yup.
Zachary, leave him alone.
How was Zachary in his play?
- He was cool.
- He was really good.
Oh, great.
Mr. Reckless.
I love that T-shirt.
- Thanks.
- Aw.
I miss you.
Yeah, we miss you too.
Bless you.
I love you so much.
- All right, love you.
- Love you both so much.
- Bye. Love you, Daddy.
- Have a great night's sleep.
And well done, okay?
- Thank you. Bye.
- Bye.
Bless him.
All right, you got
something to play for us?
Where's the verse?
Here? Okay. Zoom it in.
What's in here?
I saw you dancin'
out the ocean
Runnin' fast along the sand
A spirit born
of earth and water
"A spirit born."
Fire flying from your hands
The "spirit born."
Hold me closer...
Sounds amazing.
That's your original
master vocal.
- Yeah.
- That's your vocal.
I just put them...
I just re-did them...
Yeah. I think they sound great.
- Yeah.
- They sound really unusual.
I just want to do one thing.
So, the part from
"Don't go breaking my heart..."
Yeah.
It comes on the one
of the second.
A cue should go...
- Not.
- Yeah.
You go.
Lay me down
in sheets of linen
Yeah.
You had a busy day today
That's so they can do
the high and do the low.
Hold me closer
Maybe there's piano here.
Hold me closer
All right, drop me in there.
- Perfect.
- Yeah?
That was...
Elton John recently returned
from his second major tour
of the United States,
where at one time
he had four different LPs
in the top 50,
all in the same week, actually.
And that must put him
on a par with The Beatles,
prompting American as well
as British critics to suggest
that Elton John
and his lyric-writing partner,
Bernie Taupin,
could well be the most inventive
and original team of songwriters
since Lennon and McCartney.
The way we write
is much stranger
than the majority
of people write.
We don't write together.
I write what I write first
and I send it to him
and he goes away
and there's a chance
that I won't even hear it
till it's recorded.
That's all lyrics here and I...
You know, I just sit through
and there's one here
that I've sort of done
the other day
called "Tiny Dancer,"
which is about
Bernie's girlfriend.
Uh...
I guess he just was...
Just sort of felt like...
I looked at all the lyrics,
and that was the one
I fancied writing,
mainly because I knew Bernie
would like me to do this one.
You look at it, the words
"Blue Jean Baby, L.A. Lady,
seamstress of the band."
"Pretty-eyed, pirate smile,
you'll marry a music man."
"Ballerina" as soon as he gets
to the word ballerina,
you know,
it's not gonna be fast.
It's got to be sort of gentle
and sort of quite slow.
So, I mean, like, the way
it's written here is a verse
and it's a chorus
or a middle eight and a chorus,
then another verse.
I just sort of ran it through
the two verses together,
then a middle eight,
then a chorus,
and then back to the sort
of verse sort of thing.
It's a very...
It happens very quickly.
It sounds long,
but it's sort of starts off...
Blue jean baby, L.A. lady
Seamstress for the band
Pirate smile
Pretty eyed
You'll marry a music man
Ballerina...
As a three-piece,
we'd gone as far as we could.
I wanted to add a guitarist
and I introduced Davey
into the band.
I liked the fact
that he was a folk banjo player.
He never ever had played
electric guitar
till he played on h*nky Chteau.
Just had a feeling
he'd be great.
And he could sing.
We went off to the chteau,
which was the first time
that we'd ever gone away
and recorded,
and the whole scenario changed.
Now I know
Spanish Harlem are not just
pretty words to say...
The equipment was in the studio,
but we also set up
an electric piano,
drum kit, bass guitar,
guitar amplifier,
and mics in the breakfast room,
'cause I used to get up early
and while I'm having breakfast
just stroll over to the piano
and look at the lyrics
and start writing the songs.
The band would drift down,
have their breakfast
and join in.
Until you've seen this trash-can
dream come true...
The original band
with Nigel and Dee,
they instinctively knew
where I was gonna go.
When Davey came,
it didn't make any difference.
They were in tune
to exactly what I was doing
and they were very, very quick.
There's people out there
like you...
You hear things like
"Rocket Man" coming into being
and "h*nky Cat,"
"Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters."
They formed a shape
before we went into the studio.
While Mona Lisas
and mad hatters
Sons of bankers
sons of lawyers
Turn around and say
good morning to the night
I was spreading my wings
and it just was the right fit.
For unless they see the sky
But they can't
and that is why
They know not if it's dark outside
or light...
It was an era
that produced
a lot of magic for me.
But it also
was a pretty horrible time.
I was afraid of John.
He had violence in him.
A few drinks too many.
If you crossed him,
he'd punch you
or he'd break a glass
and put it in your face.
I can see a lot
of my father's behavior.
I was a young,
first-time-in-love person.
I still wanted to be together.
She packed my bags
last night, pre-flight...
We just made
a new album in France,
so we're gonna play you
eight new songs
that you've never,
ever heard before.
This is called "Rocket Man,"
and it'll be released
as a single, I hope,
on March 3rd.
I miss the Earth so much
I miss my wife
It's lonely out in space
On such a timeless flight
And I think it's gonna be
a long, long time
'Til touchdown brings me
'round again to find
I'm not the man
they think I am at home
Oh, no, no, no
I'm a rocket man
Rocket man
Burning out his fuse
up here alone...
After "Rocket Man"
is a big single,
you get Beatlemania,
- you get screaming fans.
- Yeah.
I never thought of myself
as a pop artist,
and that was the first pop hit.
After "Your Song,"
that was really
the first hit I had.
I'm a rocket man
Rocket man
Burning out his fuse
up here alone...
I stumbled
on commerciality really
when I added David to the band.
I'd never set out to write
commercial songs,
but it just made it easier,
because I was writing
for a guitarist, as well.
And suddenly, I become
this big singles artist
who had hit after hit
after hit after hit.
And root toot sh**t
myself to fame
Every kid alive
gonna know my name
An overnight phenomenon
like there's never been
A motivated supersonic
king of the scene
I'll be a teenage idol
Just give me a break...
The clothes thing,
it's a reaction
against everything
that I wasn't allowed to do
when I was a child.
"You cannot wear this.
You cannot do this."
"You cannot...
You can't wear those glasses."
There are no rules in life.
I'm everything that
a rock-'n'-roll star
isn't supposed to be.
I'm not the best-looking person
in the world, et cetera.
And so, I think a lot of people
identify with me as sort of,
"Well, if he can do it,
then I might be able to."
I always believed that
if you have got enough ambition,
no matter what you look like,
no matter what you sound like,
you can make it anyway.
And I am ambitious.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Elton John.
I remember
when rock was young
Me and Susie had so much fun
Holding hands
and skimming stones
Had an old gold Chevy
and a place of my own
But the biggest kick
I ever got
Was doing a thing
called the Crocodile Rock
While the other kids
were rocking 'round the clock
We were hopping and bopping
to the Crocodile Rock...
I love performing,
I've just felt different
to when I was off stage.
It's electric, fulfilling,
an out-of-body experience
really.
Oh, lawdy mama
Those Friday nights
When Susie wore
her dresses tight...
You just feel free as a bird,
and you can do
anything you want.
It's just kind of addictive.
La, la-la-la-la-la
La-la-la-la-la
La-la-la-la-la
But the years went by
and the rock just died
Susie went and left us
for some foreign guy...
At this time, you are a star,
unequivocally successful.
Was your dad pleased for you?
My dad never saw me.
He never saw you live at all?
No.
It's really sad.
Yeah. I wish it had been
much different.
God, I wish
it had been different.
When your feet
just can't keep still
I never knew me a better time
and I guess I never will
Oh, lawdy mama
Those Friday nights
When Susie
wore her dresses tight...
Huh? Well, I don't think so.
- Yeah.
- Yeah?
- Um, sneakers.
- Okay.
I have never in my whole career,
in my whole career,
done shows
that have been so good.
I mean, astonishingly good.
Um, I'm not bullshitting.
You guys are amazing.
Everything you play every night,
it's the standard
of professionalism
and dedication
and playing is off the charts.
You guys are just
absolutely phenomenal.
I wanted to go out on a high,
and it's not a high,
it's even better than a high.
Yay!
You should be proud
of yourself. I'm so proud.
I'm privileged to play
with you guys.
- Thank you, Elton. We are.
- Yeah.
Goodbye, Norma Jeane
Though
I never knew you at all
You had the grace
to hold yourself
While those
around you crawled
Goodbye, Norma Jeane
From the young man
in the twenty-second row
Who sees you as
something more than sexual
More than just
our Marilyn Monroe
And it seems to me
you lived your life
Like a candle in the wind
Never knowing
who to cling to...
Were you aware
when you wrote things,
like "Candle in the Wind,"
that this is one for the ages?
That really is happenstance.
It is quite a somber album,
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road,
for all it's held up
as your great pop moment.
It's...
Relationships collapsing.
- Yeah.
- When I wrote those songs,
I was miserably unhappy.
That kind of came
through in the songwriting
and it was very,
very moving for me
and it was very, very cathartic.
What do you think
influenced your writing?
It was the same time
John Reid broke my heart.
My relationship with him
wasn't all it was meant to be.
I was very naive.
I didn't know that.
He was having sex outside...
the relationship.
When I found out about it,
I was crushed.
He was very, you know,
very rough.
I had a party at the house
and we had a fight
and he's smacked me in the face
and made my nose bleed,
cut my face.
I loved John very much.
But, you know, I'd say, "I can't
go through this anymore."
And then when that fell apart,
I kind of fell apart.
John left an emptiness
within me.
Yeah.
I thought being alone
was a sense of failure.
Why isn't someone with me?
You're not good enough.
I chased relationships,
I chased love.
Always looking for love
all the time.
And what's your next ambition?
Funny that it may seem,
I don't really have
any ambitions left anymore.
Not a concrete ambition.
And my one concrete ambition
was always to make it.
I don't really have
one set ambition now.
I'm sustaining my level
of popularity.
But that... Again, that's sort of
a secondary importance.
I really don't know.
I've sort of...
I haven't got any.
It sounds really strange,
but I just do not have
any ambitions now.
I'm sort of plodding on
at the moment.
I can see by your eyes
you must be lying
When you think
I don't have a clue
Baby, you're crazy
If you think
that you can fool me
Because I've seen
that movie too
The one where the players
are acting surprised
Saying love's
just a four-letter word...
After Yellow Brick Road,
we made Caribou,
the first record
we ever made in America.
And that was the first time
we'd been to Colorado
on the road.
Ray Cooper comes
into the picture.
Yeah.
He was at that session.
He was a percussion player
who could also play
xylophone and keyboards
and just do something daring.
It's also during
the sessions of Caribou
that you take coke
for the first time.
- Yes.
- So who was doing it?
- The rest of the band was doing it?
- John Reid.
- John Reid was doing it.
- Yeah.
He obviously remains
in your life
as your manager.
Unfortunately,
I broke up with him
and stayed with him in business,
because I was frightened
of confrontation.
But he was a ballsy,
fiery manager.
At that time,
my career was more important
than anything.
I walked in the room,
there was like little
white lines and a straw.
And I said, "What's that?"
And they said, "It's cocaine."
I said, "What does that do?"
He said,
"It just makes you feel good."
I didn't know what it was.
"Well, I'll try some of that."
Did you like it straightaway?
Not really,
because it made me feel sick.
So, I thought,
"I don't like this."
But it didn't stop me going back
for another line.
Yeah. So,
that was the first time.
Cocaine opened me up,
and I became social.
It gave me confidence.
I suddenly found I could talk.
I wasn't intimidated to be
in a room full of strangers.
I quite liked that, 'cause
I always found it difficult
to, you know, to sit down
and open up.
I never thought
it was a hard drug.
I thought, "I'm not an addict."
"I'm okay on cocaine
or smoking a joint."
"That's fine. I'm in control."
This is a widely held fact
that if you make records
on cocaine,
it makes them worse.
Oh, absolutely.
It affects everything.
You cannot think in a sane
and proper way.
I was exhausted.
I was exhausted creatively
and exhausted from touring
and exhausted... No, I used
to stay up every night.
And then,
when the album came out,
people didn't like it.
Remember Mama said
Ticking, ticking
Grow up straight
and true blue
Run along to bed
Hear it, hear it
Ticking, ticking
I haven't got any illusions
that I'm gonna stay
at the top forever.
How long
do you think you've got?
I don't know. Every year
I think, "This is it," you know?
Uh, so I... You can't predict it.
That's what's so much fun
about this business.
You just can't predict.
My debauchery came.
I was desperately
wanting happiness...
and going completely
the wrong way about it.
I've had quite a lot
of lonely periods in my life.
You know...
the bubble thing.
Right.
Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley,
there's a danger
that people live in that bubble
and they become
sequestered away.
I'd like nothing more than
to shut my bedroom door
and then go and do
a two, three-day binge...
on my own in my hotel suite,
just watching porno,
smoking dope, whiskey.
Running away
was what I did in my childhood.
I've shut the door.
- I've been running away...
- Yeah.
Ever since
I was four or five years old,
shutting the door
when my parents were rowing.
Cocaine doesn't help.
This is the most special place.
It's the best gig in the world,
because of the history
involved in everything
that's gone on here, you know?
It's just an exciting place.
All the wonderful artists
that have played here
over the years.
It's a piece of magic
and they don't...
There's not many venues
that are magical like this.
Not... I can't think of any,
actually,
after Madison Square Garden.
It's just, you know,
when they say,
"Where do you like to play?"
it's a no-brainer.
Madison Square Garden.
It's always been special.
John Lennon came onstage here
Thanksgiving,
and, um, you know,
you don't forget things
like that.
- Rolling?
- Still rolling.
Speed.
Okay,
here we go. Stand by.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Her Royal Highness the Queen.
Good evening.
I've been asked to do
this commercial.
It relates
to a gramophone record...
Called Mind Games
by John Lennon.
You knew
John Lennon through Tony?
Yes.
I met him through Tony.
- Okay.
- I met him on the set.
Where John was doing a video
and Tony was actually dressed up
as the Queen of England.
Fred Astaire and ginger beer.
I was obviously
very intimidated
and very excited.
Tony had told me
that he was really nice
and good fun and everything,
and it was like I'd met someone
I'd known all my life.
We started to hang out together.
We went out a lot,
had a lot of fun.
This man was in The Beatles,
and he still wants
to make music.
He still wants
to be politically involved.
He still has a purpose
in his life.
And I love people like that.
I love people who think
about tomorrow
rather than yesterday.
Life is the real one...
We just hung out
and just had a great time.
We just laughed and laughed
and laughed,
and we did a lot of drugs.
I heard a fantastic story
that you and him were
in a hotel room
in New York somewhere.
Yes. It was like 2:00
in the morning.
Mountains of coke coming out.
I thought,
"Is that the police?"
And so, being so paranoid,
it took me about five minutes
to walk across to the peephole.
And I saw it was Andy Warhol.
I went to John.
"Andy!"
And John went, "No way."
So, he kept ringing
the bell and we just...
You hid from Andy Warhol?
He carried
the camera everywhere,
the Polaroid.
Like, "No, thanks."
That was the fun part
of the cocaine.
If anyone can cry
then so can I
I read books
and draw life...
You did spend quite a lot of time
in LA last year, didn't you?
Yeah, yeah. I was sort of,
you know, avoiding reality.
You seem o have really enjoyed
the things you did with Elton.
- Oh, yeah, yeah.
- Yeah.
Well, Elton and I
are very close.
Whatever gets you
thru the night
He played me
some rough cassettes
of Walls and Bridges, you know,
just the rough tracks.
We immediately flashed
on Whatever Gets You Thru the Night.
So, he asked me to...
Would I come down to the studio
and do some backing vocals?
So I said, "Yeah."
I... We listened to the track
back on the big speakers
and I said, "Could do with a bit
of piano on it, actually."
So he said,
"All right. Go ahead."
And then he said,
"Well, why don't you, you know,
let's sing it as a duet."
Come on listen to me
I won't do you no harm...
I was very nervous.
But for me,
it was a dream come true.
I could have died
and gone to heaven.
You know, I cycled to Hatch End
to get The Beatles album
and here I am,
playing on his record,
um, and having the greatest time
and having the best fun
with him.
And I said, "Listen." I said,
"This is a number-one record."
And he went, "No, no."
And I said, "Listen,
if it gets to number one",
"you've got to come on stage
with me."
And he never thought
in a million years
it would get to number one.
And then,
when it got to number one,
he didn't just try
and shirk out of it.
And he certainly
hadn't played onstage
- in New York since Shea Stadium.
- Yeah.
We went up to Boston
to see Elton in concert
so that John could get an idea
of what it was like.
And he hadn't been to a show
in a long, long time
and didn't realize how much more
sophisticated it had got.
The b*tch, the b*tch, oh
The b*tch is back
And especially Elton was
state-of-the-art at that time.
You know, his sound system,
his touring entourage
was very lavish, you know?
And John had come
from the four amps.
And, you know,
The Beatles' last show
had been 1966,
in Candlestick Park.
I think he sat there
with his mouth open
at my outfits
and what was going on.
He was like, "Oh, this is what
it's like now, is it?"
People knew something
was in the air.
There was a definite buzz,
there was gonna
be something special.
John and Yoko had been split up
for a couple of years,
and Yoko called me
and says she would like to come
to the show.
But she said,
"John mustn't know I'm there."
So, I got her a seat
11 rows back,
'cause John's so shortsighted
he couldn't see her.
We're backstage, getting ready
and two gardenias arrive.
John said,
"I bet they're from Yoko."
"You know, I couldn't do it
if I knew she was here."
We said nothing.
He was terrified.
I mean, I can absolutely
tell you he was terrified.
And I can tell you
that he was physically sick
before the show,
absolutely physically sick.
Thank you, New York City!
Thank you!
Seeing it's Thanksgiving,
we thought we'd make tonight
a little bit
of a joyous occasion,
by inviting someone up
with us onto the stage.
And...
I'm sure he will be no stranger
to anybody in the audience
when I say
it's our great privilege
to see and hear Mr. John Lennon.
The reception that he got,
I've never heard a noise,
a roar like it.
No, I think everybody
was just knocked sideways
by the volume of the ovation.
And John turned around
and looked at the band
as though to say,
"What the... that?"
And a lot of us cried
and, you know,
there were tears running down
our faces.
Here we go, then.
A-one, two...
A-one, two, three, four.
Whatever gets you
thru the night
It's all right
It's all right
It's your money or your life
It's all right
It's all right
Don't need a sword
to cut thru flower
Oh no, oh no
Whatever gets
you thru your life
It's all right
It's all right
Do it wrong or do it right
It's all right
It's all right
Don't need a watch
to waste your time
Oh no, oh no
Hold me, darlin'
Come on listen to me
I won't do you no harm
Trust me, darlin'
Come on, listen to me
Come on, listen to me
Come on, listen, listen
I'd like to thank Elton
and the boys
for having me on tonight.
We're trying to think
of a number
to finish off with
so that I can get out of here
and be sick.
And we thought we'd do another
a number of an older,
strange fianc of mine
called Paul.
This is one I never sang.
It's an old Beatle number,
and we just about know it.
Here we are.
Well, she was just seventeen
You know what I mean...
When John came offstage,
he got in the back of the limo
and he looked at me and he said,
"That was... great!"
We went back
to the Sherry-Netherland
and Elton
was in the bathroom crying.
And John said to me,
"Where's Elton? Where's Elton?"
I said, "He's in the bathroom,
John. He's crying."
So, John said,
"What's he crying about?"
I said, "Because of the...
What has happened."
"He's so over the moon about it,
he's c... he's in tears."
So, John said, "Oh, my God."
He said, "Should I go in?"
And I said, "Yeah."
They ended up sitting
in the bloody lavatory
at the hotel together.
We were all enjoying
it as a very joyous event,
not as John's swan song,
which it turned out to be.
But none of us realized that
that was gonna be
the last show
that he would ever do.
I was probably
the catalyst of Yoko and John
getting back together again.
If I hadn't played on
"Whatever Gets You Thru the Night,"
if I hadn't told him
he had to do the show,
maybe he would never
have met Yoko again.
Of course,
they did get back together.
And they had Sean.
- And you're his godfather?
- Yeah.
- He became in love again.
- Oh.
And so, his wildness,
it kinda stopped the drugs.
Stopped the craziness.
Which was great,
I was very happy for him.
- Didn't stop my craziness.
- Were you...
Levon sells
cartoon balloons in town
His family business thrives
Jesus blows up
balloons all day
Sits on the porch swing
watching them fly
And Jesus
He wants to go to Venus
Leave Levon far behind
Take a balloon
and go sailing
While Levon
Levon slowly dies
He was born a pauper
to a pawn on a Christmas Day
When the New York Times said
"God is dead"
And the w*r's begun
Oh, Alvin Tostig
has a son today
And he shall be Levon
And he shall be a good man
And he shall be Levon
In tradition
with the family plan
And he shall be Levon
And he shall be a good man
And he shall be Levon
And he shall be Levon
And he shall be a good man
And he shall be Levon
In tradition
with the family plan
And he shall be Levon
And he shall be a good man
And he shall be Levon
He shall be Levon, yeah
What key is
"Don't Go Breaking My Heart" in?
- F? D?
- D.
I can't remember it.
Too long ago, 1976.
- That's a while back.
- Don't remember back that far.
Can't even remember what I had
for breakfast this morning.
I've got dementia
I think I've got dementia.
I can't remember.
Is Dua here or not?
- Here she comes. Hey, baby.
- There she is. Hello!
I am so excited to be here.
- Hello, lovely.
- Hello, hello, hello.
Hi, gorgeous.
I haven't seen you...
- In so long.
- Been so long.
Think it's gonna be
a long, long time
Till touchdown brings me
'round again to find
I'm not the man they think
I am at home
Oh no, no, no
And this is what
I should have said
Cold heart
Well, I thought it, but...
- This is it.
- Tiny.
I thought it was bigger
than this.
Do you remember it
as being bigger?
Everything from the past
is always bigger in your memory.
And this is tiny.
I mean, it's absolutely tiny,
but it's got great atmosphere.
I mean, look at the floor space.
I was this close to Leon Russell
and people like that...
when I'm playing here,
so I could see them perfectly.
Look at it.
It's got something about it.
It's got an atmosphere
and an aura about.
That's the new cover, folks.
Took me six years
to crochet that.
What can we expect
on that album?
Filth.
No. Seriously,
it's a story-type album.
It's the first story album
that Bernie
and I have ever written.
It's basically about us two.
All the experiences
that we had trying to make it
before we made
the Empty Sky album,
like, the disappointments
about the songs being refused
and all the people trying
to sign you up for life
and things like that.
Captain Fantastic
was the first album
to enter the Billboard charts
at number one ever,
so it shows you where
we'd come to in our career.
We've just arrived
in Los Angeles
with Elton John's mother
and stepfather
and their next-door neighbors
and several of Elton's
aunts and uncles
to see Elton perform live
at the huge Dodger Stadium.
And why did you want
all these people?
L.A. was the place
I'd made it in America.
So, it seemed
a natural homecoming.
I wanted them to feel proud.
And so, yeah,
I wanted people to see it.
We want Elton!
We want Elton!
I now want to present
a proclamation
which declares
this week Elton John Week.
At that time,
there was the excitement
of these big events,
but there was
a lot of emotional stuff
going on with Elton
behind the scenes...
and cocaine was a big part
of what was going on.
And I could see the...
the downward spiral
that he was going through,
physically and mentally.
How would you define
the state you were in?
I was either
really fun or very miserable.
Why were you so unhappy?
My career was k*lling me.
All I lived for
was my chart position and...
sex and cocaine.
I mean,
I felt there must be something
more to my life than this.
But I was
the worst kind of person
to take drugs,
because I couldn't have a line
- and then put it away.
- Right.
I'd just have to finish it off,
and then I'd want more.
When you drink that much
and you do that amount of drugs,
it's like I was dead
and looking at it from up
in heaven thinking,
"Who the... are you?
What have you become?"
I just wanted someone
to put their arm around me.
I was nervous about my family
seeing what kind of state I was in.
The day before the show,
we were having lunch
at my house in Beverly Hills...
I took a bunch
of sleeping tablets.
I took them, came up
to the swimming pool, said,
"I'm gonna...
I've taken a bunch of tablets."
"I'm gonna k*ll my...
I'm gonna drown."
I was outside,
sitting with his mum
and his stepdad and his nan,
and we pulled him out.
I called the doctor.
I believe the doctor
pumped his stomach
and put him to bed.
And I just sat
by his bed all night
as he went in and out
of consciousness.
And then, in the morning,
he came to.
How did your parents take it?
My mother and my stepfather
and my grandmother
were worried about me.
Were you then in bed
for a couple of days
- after that or...
- No.
So, you were right as rain?
Well, I had the show
to do, so I had to be as right as rain.
There was never any question
of canceling the show?
No.
I've never taken my personal life
on stage with me.
- Okay.
- For those two hours
or two-and-a-half hours,
it's an escape from turmoil.
And that comes all the way back
and the only time I felt
really included sometimes,
was when I was playing the piano
in front of people.
Ever since I was a young boy
I played the silver ball
From Soho down to Brighton
I must've played them all
But I ain't seen nothin'
like him in any amusement hall
That deaf, dumb, and blind kid
sure plays a mean pinball
He stands like a statue
becomes part of the machine
Feeling all the bumpers
always playing clean
He plays by intuition
the digit counters fall
That deaf, dumb, and blind kid
sure plays a mean pinball
He's a pinball wizard
He scores a trillion more
A pinball wizard
The world's new pinball lord
He's scoring more
He's scoring more
All right!
Thank you! "Pinball Wizard!"
Thank you, Los Angeles!
Thank you, the Dodgers!
I was communicating
and having great success
in front of all these thousands
and thousands of people,
and I was very good at it.
That's what kept me going.
I mean, that love of the music.
But that wasn't how you cope
with normal life.
That's fantasy land.
And I had all the success,
I had all of the trappings,
and I loved that and everything,
but they really...
They didn't make me happy.
And I knew that I could not stay
so unhappy and so miserable.
18 August 1976.
Speaking with Elton John.
For the time.
This is a very
important time in your life.
A lot of changes going on.
Yeah. I mean,
I feel very strange
at this particular moment.
You've had five years
at the top.
You're in a rank of stardom
that's almost incomparable.
You've got everything
a person could have.
But what about old Elton,
when he, uh,
goes home at night?
Do you have love and affection?
Not really.
I do have a certain amount
of sex and that's it.
I would desperately like
to be loved,
but that isn't part of my life
that's come together yet.
Can you be relaxed
at all about the kind of person
you'd really like
to fall in love with?
I'm a bit of a coward
when it comes to that.
I tend to get scared.
As soon as somebody tries
to get to know me deeply,
I sort of clam up and turn off.
I just won't let people near me.
I just hurt so much as a kid,
I don't want it to happen again.
I haven't met anybody
that I would really like
to settle down of either sex.
Do you think
it would be devastating
for your music
or your sales that is...
If you were to take
the bisexual posture?
I think I've got
to the point in my life
where I have to do
what is honest.
Basically, I would like
to get married eventually
and have kids,
'cause I love kids.
I have to have a personal life
and I have to have
some peace of mind
and someone to share it with.
I've had no one
to share this with.
And it's a little...
It can get to you.
I'm getting tired
of being on my own.
If it came to pass
that they should ask
What could I tell them?
Would they criticize
behind my back?
Maybe I should let them
Oh, if only then
and only then
They would understand
They'd turn
a full-blooded city boy
Into a full-blooded
city man...
Was there any reaction
to it within the music business?
People around me were nervous,
the record company in America.
There was a knee-jerk reaction
amongst some radio stations
in America who burnt my records
and stuff like that.
There's no hiding the truth,
it did hurt my career.
Was it a liberating thing?
- Was it a...
- Oh, totally.
To finally be able to be
who I was.
You've no idea.
It took me years and years
to be honest.
And then it took me
from that time
to when I got sober
when I was 43
to get as honest
as I possibly could.
Oh, my soul
Oh, my soul
Oh, my soul
It's not until
I got sober in 1990
that everything changed.
Oh, my soul
Oh, my soul
Oh, my soul
Oh, my soul...
It did take me 43 years
to learn how to function
as a human being,
rather than as a rock star.
...Oh, my soul
Oh, my soul
Oh, my soul
Oh, my soul
Oh, my soul
Oh, my soul
Oh, my soul
Oh, my soul
Oh, my soul
Oh, my soul
Oh, my soul
Oh, my soul
Oh, my soul
Oh, my soul
Oh, my soul
Oh, my soul
Oh, my soul
Oh, my soul
Oh, my soul
Oh, my soul
Oh, my soul
When I think
of those East End lights
Muggy nights
the curtains drawn
In the little room
downstairs
Prima donna Lord you really
should have been there
Sittin' like a princess
perched in her electric chair
And it's one more beer
And I don't hear you anymore
We've all gone crazy lately
My friend's out there rolling
'round the basement floor
Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh
And someone saved
my life tonight
- Sugar bear
- Sugar bear
You almost had
your hooks in me
Didn't you dear
You nearly had me
roped and tied
Altar bound hypnotized
Sweet freedom
Whispered in my ear
You're a butterfly
And butterflies
are free to fly
Fly away
High away
Bye bye
Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh
This is a very special night
for me,
a very emotional night for me.
And...
It's been a long journey. And...
I first came here,
to America, in 1970,
to the City of Angels,
Los Angeles.
And I played a club called
the Troubadour Club,
which thankfully is still there.
It's been 50 years of touring
in the United States
across all 50 states.
So, thank you for all the years
of love and generosity
and loyalty.
You just fade away
Don't you know
I'm still standin'
Better than I ever did?
Lookin' like a true survivor
Feelin' like a little kid
I'm still standin'
after all this time
Pickin' up the pieces
of my life
Without you on my mind
I'm still standin'
Yeah, yeah, yeah
I'm still standin'
Yeah, yeah, yeah
Once I never
coulda hoped to win
You're startin' down the road
leavin' me again
The threats you made
were meant to cut me down
And if our love
was just a circus
You'd be a clown by now
You know I'm still standin'
better than I ever did
Lookin' like a true survivor
Feelin' like a little kid
I'm still standin'
after all this time
Pickin' up the pieces
of my life
Without you on my mind
I'm still standin'
Yeah, yeah, yeah
I'm still standin'
Yeah, yeah, yeah
I'm still standin'
Yeah, yeah, yeah
I'm still standin'
Yeah, yeah, yeah
It's a little bit funny
This feelin' inside
I'm not one of those
who can easily hide
I don't have much money
But boy if I did
I'd buy a big house
where we both could live
If I was a sculptor
But then again, no or a man
Who makes potions
in a travelin' show
I know it's not much
But it's the best I can do
My gift is my song
And this one's for you
And you can tell everybody
This is your song
It may be quite simple
But now that it's done
I hope you don't mind
I hope you don't mind
That I put down in words
How wonderful life is
While you're in the world
I would like
to introduce somebody who,
if it wasn't for him,
I wouldn't be sitting here
right now.
Come on, Mr. Bernie Taupin.
I sat on the roof
And kicked off the moss
Well, a few of the verses
Well
They've got me quite cross
But the sun's
been quite kind
Bernie Taupin!
While I wrote this song...
And as you know,
I am stopping touring,
and this would mean
my last concert in America.
It's 'cause I wanna spend time
with my family.
So, I wanna bring them out
and show you why I am retiring.
David, Zachary, and Elijah.
Anyway the thing is
What I really mean
Yours are the sweetest eyes
I've ever seen
And you can tell everybody
this is your song
It may be quite simple
But now that it's done
I hope you don't mind
I hope you don't mind
that I put down in words
How wonderful life is
While you're in the world
I hope you don't mind
I hope you don't mind
that I put down in words
How wonderful life is
While you're in the world
It's never too late
For a wide-open slate
A kiss from a stranger
A thousand first dates
You're a diamond, baby
To hell with heaven's gate
There's not a moment
too soon
If it's never too
never too late
Well, it's never too late
To go sh**t out the moon
We'll go dancing in graveyards
You can keep your balloons
Be a runaway bride
Trading gifts is the groom
If it's never too late
For a moment too soon
Time, don't bore me
With the same old tired story
What's new in the news?
Who's hot?
Where's the glory?
How we dwell in the past
For laughing at time
Don't the years make jokes
of all of us?
Let the whole
Let the whole century slide
There's a last time
for everything
But we won't ever know
It's a slow dance
on a carousel
A walk in the snow
Don't let it cross your mind
Keep a smile upon your lips
Let's spin 'round the sun
like the veil never slips
Time, don't bore me
With the same old
tired story
What's new in the news?
Who's hot?
Where's the glory?
How we dwell in the past
For laughing at time
Don't the years make jokes
of all of us?
- Let the whole
- Let the whole
- Century slide
- Century slide
Slide
Oh, it's never too late
For a wide-open slate
A kiss from a stranger
A thousand first dates
You're a diamond, baby
To hell with heaven's gate
There's not a moment
too soon
If it's never too
never too late
Oh, no
There's not a moment
too soon
If it's never too
never too late
There's not a moment too soon
If it's never too late
Welcome to our World! Where we serve you cookies to ensure you get the best viewing experience on our site.
Did you know that you can remove censorship board-wide, use our advanced search functions, be notified when new content is posted, join our memberships, set episodes to show in any order you want & more if you are logged into your account?
Register or sign in here: ucp.php?mode=register
Did you know that you can remove censorship board-wide, use our advanced search functions, be notified when new content is posted, join our memberships, set episodes to show in any order you want & more if you are logged into your account?
Register or sign in here: ucp.php?mode=register
Elton John: Never Too Late (2024)
Moderators: Maskath3, GabrielAlejo2341, sidolanters, Maskath3, sidolanters, GabrielAlejo2341