Welcome to The Deep Dive, the show that's all
about giving you the shortcut to being genuinely
well -informed. We dive into the source material,
the biographies, the deep musical analyses, the
market data, and we pull out the most essential,
most fascinating nuggets of knowledge for you.
And today we are taking on a truly massive subject.
A huge one. We are charting the astonishing decades
-long journey of a figure who is, I mean, he's
more than just a musician. He's a complete force
of nature. Sir Elton Hercules John. Indeed. When
we talk about Elton John, who was, of course,
born Reginald Kenneth Dwight, we are talking
about a global phenomenon, a man who has sold
over 300 million records worldwide. That number
is just staggering. It is. And he's a cultural
icon whose impact goes so far beyond the billboard
charts. It reaches deep into advocacy, into philanthropy.
And his status was, you know, really cemented
just this year, 2024, when he finally completed
the EJOT. The big one. Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and
Tony. Exactly. Confirming his total dominance.
across the entire American entertainment spectrum
And what makes this deep dive so compelling,
I think, is that his entire success story is
built on one of the most unlikely and, frankly,
one of the most long -lasting creative partnerships
in all of music history. With Bernie Taupin,
his lyricist. Right. It's a partnership that
completely redefined how you could even create
music. It sustained for over 50 years and resulted
in just an industrial -level output of classic
songs. So our mission today is really to peel
back the spectacle, the feathers, the glasses,
and unpack. the core of that genius. We're going
to trace the steps from a restrictive childhood
and a gifted young piano prodigy named Reggie.
And analyze how his unique musical background
basically created the sound of the 70s. Exactly.
Through the glam rock peaks, the commercial dominance,
the personal struggles with addiction, and crucially,
the profound transformative impact of his later
work, especially the Elton John AIDS Foundation.
Just to give you the listener a sense of the
scale here, here's the hook. Elton John recently
became the first solo artist to get UK top 10
singles in six different decades. Six decades.
A streak that started in the 70s and thanks to
all these modern collaborations is still going
strong today. But the emotional and commercial
high point, it has to be singular. Oh, absolutely.
His tribute to Diana, Princess of Wales, Candle
in the Wind, 1997. It is the best selling chart
single of all time. We're talking over 33 million
copies. Okay, let's unpack this transition then.
How does a quiet boy from Penner, Middlesex become
the, you know... flamboyant diamond spectacled
powerhouse that we all know. Well, it really
started with this intense psychological contrast
in his childhood. His early life was really dominated
by his father, Stanley Dwight. An RAF squadron
leader. Right. And Stanley Dwight was just he
was defined by that classic post -war British
reserve. The sources paint him as highly restrictive,
totally uninterested in his son's music. He was
actively pushing him towards a more normal career,
right? Like banking. Exactly. Banking. The picture
you get is of a childhood that while not poor,
was emotionally very stifling. There was just
no artistic encouragement from that primary male
figure in his life. But thankfully, Reginald
had a counterbalance. A huge one. His outgoing
mother, Sheila Eileen, and especially his very
supportive maternal grandparents. And this created
the space, you know, the necessary room for his
truly astonishing musical precociousness to actually
emerge. So he starts messing around on his grandmother's
piano, which is, you know, a fairly common start
for a musician. But within a year, his mother
hears him do something. Well, something extraordinary.
Yes. At about four or five years old, she over...
hears him picking out the very complex triple
time rhythm of Emil Waldteufel's The Skater's
Waltz. Entirely by ear. Entirely by ear. This
is not a simple nursery rhyme. It's a really
challenging classical waltz. And that moment
for her just solidified his status as this raw,
natural talent, a child prodigy whose gifts just
had to be nurtured. And those gifts get him into
the absolute highest echelon of musical education.
At age 11, he wins a junior scholarship to the
Royal Academy of Music in London. And he attended
Saturday classes there for five years. But here's
the contradiction, right? This incredibly rigorous
classical training, it sets the foundation for
his entire sound. He hated it. He admitted to
resenting the routine. And what's fascinating
here is this collision of genius and rebellion.
His technical skill was just undeniable. There's
that great story from one of his instructors.
Right. The instructor at the RAM noted that after
hearing a four -page handle piece just one time,
young Reg Dwight could play it back instantly.
He compared his recall to a gramophone record.
That's just pure musical intellect at work. It
is. But despite that, he admitted he was the
kind of student who was so naturally gifted he
could just coast by. He didn't practice. He'd
often skip the lessons entirely. And what would
he do instead? He'd just ride the London Underground.
He just found it more interesting. That is such
a revealing detail. I mean, he had the ability
to master the structure of classical music, which
you can hear later in his complex chord changes,
the arpeggios, but he completely rejected the
discipline of it. That restlessness, that refusal
to be conventional. It's exactly what explodes
later as that wild stage persona. The spectacle,
the feathers, the giant glasses. It was the eruption
of an energy that had been suppressed by a restrictive
father and this really rigid music education.
But before the spectacle... You know, he had
to pay his dues. He had to pay the bills. So
by age 15, he's working as Reggie, the resident
pianist at the Northwood Hills Hotel Pub. Right,
just playing popular standards. And that experience,
playing to a live, non -academic audience, that
was the other half of his musical education,
the practical, populous side. Which leads him
to his first professional band in 1962, Bluesology.
Yes. And they eventually got big enough to back...
touring American R &B artists, people like Patti
LaBelle and the Bluebells. This exposure, this
immersion in American R &B, soul, gospel music,
that, alongside his classical training, is the
core creative fusion that defines Elton John.
Absolutely. You just have to think about that
combination. The structural complexity of Bach
and Handel layered over the driving, passionate
rhythm of someone like Little Richard and gospel
music. That is the engine of the Rocketman sound
right there. But the true genesis of the global
icon. That happened in 1967 when that engine
finally found its fuel. It's lyricist. Bernie
Taupin. And the beginning of the John Taupin
partnership is genuinely bizarre. I mean, it's
so strange. John answered an ad in the paper
from Liberty Records looking for new musical
talent. Completely separately, Bernie Taupin
answers the exact same ad, but as a lyricist.
So when John arrives at the record company, he's
apparently almost mute from nervousness. He can't
even articulate what it is he does. So what happens?
The A &R manager, a guy named Ray Williams, he
just, he simply hands John an unopened envelope
full of Taupin's poems and lyrics. They had never
met. They hadn't spoken. Not at all. John just
takes the lyrics home, puts music to them, sends
them back to Taupin. And that was the start.
And that immediately established their, I mean,
revolutionary, totally non -confrontational and
astonishingly efficient writing method. A method
that's lasted over five decades. They work entirely
separately. Taupin writes the lyrics, sometimes
in less than an hour, focusing on narratives
and characters. He gives them to John. Who then
sets the music. And John often takes less than
half an hour to write the entire melody and arrangement.
It's just, it's incredible. It is. But wait.
50 years and not a single professional argument.
That sounds almost too good to be true for a
creative relationship. Was there ever a concern
that this physical and creative separation meant
they missed out on that spark, that competitive
collaboration that fueled partnerships like,
say, Lennon and McCartney? That's a great point.
But the separation is precisely why it works
so well. They understood their distinct roles
perfectly. Toppin provides the emotional core,
the story. And John provides the harmonic and
melodic complexity. Exactly. They never argue
because John receives the lyrics as a finished
product. It's a prompt for his musical genius.
He's famously said that if he couldn't come up
with music for a set of lyrics quickly, he'd
just toss them and move on. So the process was
rapid, instinctive, not labored over. Right.
This separation just removed all that competitive
argumentative friction that so often derails
creative partnerships. It created this, well,
this industrial level output that was incredibly
harmonious. It sounds less like two musicians
collaborating and more like a high performing
creative supply chain. But before that supply
chain could fully kick into gear, original Dwight
needed an image to match the magnitude of the
songs. And so the transformation was literal.
Reginald Kenneth Twight officially became Elton
John, a name he chose as a homage to two of his
bluesology bandmates. Saxophonist Elton Dean
and vocalist Long John Baldry. That's them. The
name change was legally cemented in 1972, but
he added a middle name that is, well, it's maybe
the most hilariously anti -spectacle reference
possible. Hercules. Hercules. And it's not named
after the Greek hero. No, it's after a horse
in the popular British sitcom Steptoe and Son.
It is for a future knight and companion of honor
who would perform for presidents and royalty.
That origin story is wonderfully, almost comically
mundane. It just anchors the whole superstar
persona in this very British working class sense
of humor. The moment that partnership really
found its footing, the commercial output just
became an avalanche. Their first album, Empty
Sky, came out in 1969, but the blueprint for
global dominance. That was established with the
self -titled album Elton John in 1970. That album
is absolutely pivotal. It introduced the enduring
formula, blending the power of these gospel -chorded
mid -tempo rockers with the poignancy of deeply
emotional piano -driven ballads. And it gave
the world his first major hit single, the classic
Your Song. Your Song. is the perfect illustration
of that dual heritage we were just talking about.
Taupin's lyrics are so simple, honest, direct.
How wonderful life is while you're in the world.
But John's musical setting just elevates it far
beyond a simple ballad. The sophisticated sweeping
chord changes, the elegant piano runs, you can
hear his classical training all over it. It transforms
a simple love song into something truly transcendent.
And the crucial element that launched his career
globally was the American debut. In August 1970,
he performed a now legendary concert at the Troubadour
in Los Angeles. The critical buzz around that
show was just immediate and overwhelming. It
captivated the U .S. market instantly. And it
wasn't just critical praise. The commercial momentum
was relentless. When Honky Chateau was released
in 1972, featuring classics like Rocketman and
Honky Kat, it became his first U .S. number one
album. And this wasn't a fluke. This was the
start of an unprecedented, almost unbelievable
statistical streak. Yes, that album began an
incredible run of seven consecutive U .S. number
one albums, a feat that just firmly established
him as the commercially dominant force in the
1970s rock landscape. Seven in a row. Seven.
And to put that in perspective, six of the albums
he released in that short period were listed
on Rolling Stone's 2003 list of the 500 greatest
albums of all time. The quality was absolutely
matching the quantity. The hits just came so
fast, it's almost hard to keep track. Don't shoot
me, I'm boy. Only the piano player in 73 gave
us Crocodile Rock, his first U .S. Billboard
Hot 100 No. 1. But the album that truly codified
his artistry and his whole image was the double
album, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, later that
year. Ah, goodbye. Yellow Brick Road, that cemented
his status as a full -blown glam rock icon. It
was a stylistic and thematic triumph featuring
huge singles like Benny and the Jets and, of
course, the original version of Candle in the
Wind. It was the perfect marriage of his musical
complexity with the whole theatrical zeitgeist
of the early 70s and the visuals. The visuals
were inseparable from the sound. Oh, absolutely.
When we talk about glam rock, we're talking about
more than just clothing. It was performance art.
A statement. And John's stage persona was just
elaborate, over the top, and constantly evolved.
This was the era of the peacock. Exactly. He
was so heavily influenced by the genre's focus
on costuming and theatricality. We see the famously
outrageous spectacles, including that legendary
pair that reportedly cost $5 ,000 and spelled
out his name in lights. And the costumes. Everything
from the Statue of Liberty to the iconic Donald
Duck outfit. It was his outlet. It was the complete
and total rejection of the restrictive life he'd
grown up in. The shy boy from Pinner was now
demanding that the world look at him, literally
shining a spotlight on his own name. That success,
of course, translated into power and money, and
John leveraged it brilliantly. In 1974, he formed
his own label, the Rocket Record Company. Signing
acts like Neil Sedaka and Kiki D. But the biggest
financial move was his own personal recording
contract. A huge deal with MCA Records that year.
An astonishing $8 million contract. And to underline
just how massive that valuation was for the mid
-70s, MCA reportedly took out a staggering $25
million insurance policy on his life. Wow. That
kind of action shows you the label viewed him
not just as an artist, but as an irreplaceable,
highly valued asset. His sudden absence would
have been a catastrophic financial loss for them.
It fundamentally shifted the power dynamic between
a major label and a star artist. That financial
and creative stature also opened the door to
some, you know, once -in -a -lifetime collaborations.
In 1974, he worked with John Lennon covering
Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. And Lennon made
a bet with him. Right. Lennon promised he'd perform
live with John's band if their collaboration
helped Lennon's own song, Whatever Gets You Through
the Night, hit number one. It did. So Lennon
kept his promise. He joined John on stage at
Madison Square Garden in November 1974. And this
performance is so historically significant because
it turned out to be John Lennon's last major
live public appearance before he died. Just incredible.
And the cinematic spectacle continued with the
rock opera Tommy in 1975. Pete Townsend recruited
him to play the local lad. And he performed this
blistering piano rock version of Pinball Wizard,
which became a huge charting success in its own
right, especially in the UK. But the capstone
of this golden era was probably his most critically
revered work, Captain Fantastic and The Brown
Dirt Cowboy in 1975. A deeply autobiographical
album, it charts the early days of his struggle
and the partnership with Taupin. It contained
Someone Saved My Life Tonight. which chronicled
a very dark, early personal crisis for him. And
crucially, the album made history. It did. It
was the first album ever to debut at number one
in the U .S., and it held that position for seven
weeks. That feat alone just demonstrates the
unparalleled commercial machine he'd become.
But that level of intense, high -octane creative
and commercial output is almost impossible to
sustain. And as the critics noted, that intensity
eventually led to a pretty critical psychological
and professional crash. And that crash really
manifested in the late 70s. The pressure cooker
just led to burnout, and in November 1977, John
announced a temporary retirement from performing.
He scaled back his collaboration with Taupin,
right? He did. He briefly worked with lyricist
Gary Osborne on the album A Single Man in 78,
which gave him the modest UK hit Song for Guy.
But this whole period was a significant deceleration
after that seven -year sprint of just total dominance.
Even during this professional scaling back, though,
he remained a cultural pioneer. In 1979, he became
one of the first major Western artists to tour
the Soviet Union and Israel. Accompanied by percussionist
Ray Cooper. And that wasn't just a concert tour.
It was a major cultural and diplomatic moment.
It was breaking down borders during the Cold
War through the power of rock and roll. The 1980s
saw him begin a professional resurgence, though.
He went back to his roots, reunited with Bernie
Taupin, and the result was the 1983 album Too
Low for Zero. And this album was a massive return
to form. It delivered these enduring hits like
the defiant anthem I'm Still Standing. And I
guess that's why they call it the blues, which
featured a beautiful contribution from Stevie
Wonder on harmonica. And the live shows returned
to that colossal, almost overwhelming scale.
In 1980, he performed a free concert for an estimated
400 ,000 fans in Central Park. And yes, the Donald
Duck costume made a return appearance. The spectacle
was officially back. He also became inextricably
linked to the rising awareness of the AIDS crisis.
At Live Aid in 1985, he was a central figure,
performing a duet with Kiki D, introducing George
Michael to sing Don't Let the Sun Go Down on
Me. But the crucial, tangible contribution came
in 1986. Yes, when he co -recorded the highest
charting single of the decade with Dionne Warwick,
Gladys Knight and Stevie Wonder. That's what
friends are for. And that track was explicitly
dedicated to raising funds for HIV AIDS research.
OK, here's where it gets really interesting and
where the sources reveal the true depth of the
struggle that was paralleling all his public
success. Throughout the late 70s and all through
the 80s, John was struggling profoundly with
severe drug and alcohol addiction, as well as
bulimia. It was a period of intense crisis, a
spiral, he's described himself. The sources say
the turning point came through his exposure to
profound human struggle outside of his own famous
bubble. Right. He credits his relationship with
the family of Ryan White, the teenage AIDS victim
who so bravely advocated for greater public awareness.
He credits that relationship with helping him
recognize the severity of his own situation and
forcing him toward recovery. And thankfully,
he has been clean and sober since 1990. That
journey toward sobriety then profoundly impacted
his next creative chapter. His 1992 album, The
One, was the first he recorded entirely sober.
He spoke really openly about how difficult that
transition was. He admitted he was so used to
the haze of alcohol or drugs defining his creative
process. So making The One was really an act
of sheer creative grit. He was proving to himself
and to the world that the genius wasn't dependent
on the addiction. Exactly. And this album marks
a real thematic shift toward clarity and deeper
emotional honesty, which really paved the way
for his work in musical theater. And what a shift
that was. His transition into musical theater
in the mid -90s was effectively the beginning
of a second, massively successful career for
him. In 1994, he partnered with lyricist Tim
Rice for the music of the Disney animated film
The Lion King. That partnership was just pure
gold. He won an Academy Award for Can You Feel
the Love Tonight, which became this timeless
standard. And the soundtrack itself was a commercial
monster. certified diamond by 1999 for selling
15 million copies. And he didn't just write pop
songs for a movie. He wrote these enduring theatrical
anthems that adapted beautifully for the stage
production. He immediately followed that success
into the pure Broadway sphere with Ada in 1999,
again with Tim Rice. And that resulted in him
winning the Tony Award for Best Original Score
and a Grammy for Best Musical Show Album. He
was now fully established as a theatrical heavyweight.
But perhaps his most personally resonant theatrical
success was Billy Elliot the Musical in 2005.
He said he was moved to write the music for that
story after identifying so deeply with the main
character, a sensitive boy from a challenging
non -artistic background, fighting to pursue
his passion. That show was an international sensation.
It ran for 4 ,566 performances in London and
generated over $800 million globally. It just
proved his theatrical appeal extended way beyond
the Disney brand. As the 90s wore on, however...
Another tragedy struck, bringing his professional
and personal life into this really painful focus.
The death of his friend, designer Gianni Versace,
followed just weeks later by the death of Diana,
Princess of Wales, in August 1997. The collective
grief was just immense, and John, who was a close
friend of Diana's, knew he needed to contribute
something meaningful. So he asked Bernie Taubman
to revise the lyrics of their 1973 track, Candle
in the Wind. Which was originally about Marilyn
Monroe. Right, and Taupin completely reworked
the lyrics to reflect the England's Rose narrative.
And the result was just. It was a piece of cultural
history. He performed the rewritten version Candle
in the Wind 1997 only once, live at Diana's funeral
in Westminster Abbey. And that singular performance
was the catalyst for the single becoming the
best -selling chart single of all time. We have
to reiterate those staggering figures because
they're more than just sales data. Over 33 million
copies sold globally. And every single penny
of the proceeds, about 55 million pounds, was
donated directly to Diana's various charities.
It stands as perhaps the most potent example
of an artist leveraging their fame for massive,
immediate philanthropic impact. We really haven't
seen a single song achieve that kind of cultural
weight since. As he moved toward the 2000s, John
adopted a new model for live performance. He
semi -retired from the punishing global tours
and settled into these monumental Las Vegas residencies.
He started with the red piano from 2004 to 2009,
and later the million -dollar piano from 2011
to 2018 at Caesars Palace. It was a stage he
occasionally shared with Celine Dion. And this
period really illustrates his strategic business
mind. Absolutely. The residencies are financially
rewarding. They're much less punishing on the
physical body. And they allow the artist to control
the entire environment completely, creating this
massive sustained revenue stream without constant
global travel. The narrative of the global superstar
began to shift back to global touring in 2018,
though, when Elton John launched the enormous
Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour. And this wasn't
just a final tour. It was a monumental global
epic. initially planned for over 300 concerts
worldwide. And the reason for the retirement
was very clear and very family -focused. Yes,
he wanted to prioritize spending time with his
children and his husband. He made it very clear
he was retiring from the touring lifestyle, not
from music. He emphasized he would still do The
Odd Show and possibly record another album. It
signals this remarkable humanizing shift, choosing
domestic life over the endless road, especially
after decades of intense travel that was, for
a time, fueled by addiction. The tour, which
was delayed by the COVID pandemic and some of
his own health issues, finally concluded in Stockholm
in July 2023. At the time it ended, it had shattered
records. It became the highest grossing tour
ever, solidifying his commercial legacy one last
time, though that record was pretty swiftly surpassed
by Taylor Swift's Erez tour. The timing of the
tour also allowed for some major retrospective
moments. The 2019 biopic Rocketman, starring
Taron Egerton, was released to huge critical
acclaim. And John and Tappan proved they still
had the fire. They won their second Academy Award,
this time for the new song written for the film,
I'm Gonna Love Me Again. And that was followed
by the release of his brutally honest autobiography,
Me, later that same year. Now, if we connect
this to the bigger picture, one of the most remarkable
creative pivots of his entire career happened
during the pandemic lockdown. Instead of just
retreating, he released the 2021 album The Lockdown
Sessions. This was such a deliberate, strategic
and profoundly insightful move. He basically
embraced his earliest roots as a session musician,
a skill set he'd honed long before he was a star.
And he worked remotely with this breathtaking
array of modern artists. And in doing so, he
proved his relevance by submitting his foundational
style to contemporary production methods. The
list of collaborators is just proof of his creative
agility. Dua Lipa, Lil Nas X, Miley Cyrus, Gorillaz,
Nicki Minaj, and even a return collaboration
with Stevie Wonder. He said about the process,
I realized there was something weirdly familiar
about working like this. I'd come full circle.
I was a session musician again. And it was still
a blast. And that pivot immediately created history.
The collaboration with Dua Lipa, Cold Heart,
the now remixed hit number one in the UK. And
that single officially made him the first solo
artist to land UK top 10 singles in six different
decades. It directly connected his 70s hits to
the modern era of electronic pop. He also became
the oldest artist at 74 to top the charts in
Australia. He didn't just maintain relevance,
he became a chart -topping kingmaker for others.
He had two number one Christmas hits with Ed
Sheeran. Merry Christmas and the comedy version,
Sausage Rolls for Everyone. And critically, in
2022, he helped launch Britney Spears' return
to music with Hold Me Closer, which was her triumphant
first release after the termination of her conservatorship.
His enduring appeal culminated in his headline
performance at the Glastonbury Festival in June
2023. And that performance drew the festival's
largest ever TV audience in the UK. Just monumental.
And in a great nod to his career, he performed
Pinball Wizard live for the first time in over
10 years during that set. Now, before we move
on to the man behind the spectacle, we have to
mention the recent very somber news regarding
his health. Health has been a factor for him
in recent years. Yeah, he required hip surgery
in 2021. He battled walking pneumonia in 2020.
But in September 2024, he revealed that a severe
eye infection he contracted in July tragically
resulted in him being left blind in his right
eye and with only limited vision in his left.
This is a severe health setback for an artist
whose entire life revolves around reading music
and engaging visually with his audience. Moving
beyond the music, John's biography is just characterized
by these deeply public moments of vulnerability
and advocacy, especially around his identity
and his relationships. His personal life saw
several key and sometimes contradictory relationships
in his early career. He was briefly engaged to
his first lover, a secretary named Linda Woodrow.
She's the one immortalized in the song Someone
Saved My Life Tonight. Exactly. The song recounts
that painful realization that he needed to end
the relationship just two weeks before the wedding.
Fifty years later, he quietly provided her with
financial assistance for medical fees, showing
that complicated history still mattered to him.
His first significant gay relationship began
after his American debut in 1970 with his manager,
John Reed. Reed managed his career until 1998,
but the personal relationship ended after five
years. Then, in a moment he later described as
living a lie, he had a brief marriage to a German
recording engineer, René Blau, from 1984 to 1988.
That marriage ended in divorce, and the details
surrounding their relationship later led to Blau
suing him over passages in his autobiography,
Me, though that case was settled in 2020. John
came out as bisexual in 1976, but later publicly
identified as gay in 1992. And his defining relationship
began in 1993 with the Canadian filmmaker David
Furnish. And they were groundbreaking advocates
for marriage equality in the UK. They were among
the very first couples to form a civil partnership
on the day the act came into force in 2005. And
they subsequently married in 2014 when same -sex
marriage was legalized in England and Wales.
They now have two sons born via surrogacy, Zachary
born in 2010 and Elijah in 2013. And John has
been a very vocal supporter of full same -sex
marriage rights. He often emphasizes that he
prefers the term husband over the more ambiguous
partner. Right. He famously said partner is a
word best preserved for someone you play tennis
with. His experience has profoundly influenced
his often controversial views on religion. He
has characterized the Roman Catholic Church's
views on homosexuality as just ignorance. He
once stated that religion has always tried to
turn hatred toward gay people and even declared
he would ban religion completely because of its
capacity to turn people into hateful lemmings.
It's a fierce advocacy driven by his personal
journey toward acceptance. And this raises a
really important question. How does an artist
translate that immense personal struggle and
passion into a global life -saving organization?
For Elton John, the answer is the Elton John
AIDS Foundation or EJ. which has become a core
element of his identity, really beyond the music.
The foundation was founded in 1992, directly
following the tragic deaths of two close friends.
The Youth Aid spokesman Ryan White in 1990 and
his fellow music titan Freddie Mercury in 1991.
Those losses provided the profound emotional
focus he needed to channel his immense energy
and influence into advocacy. It connected his
own recovery from addiction to a larger, life
-saving mission. The scale of EJF's impact is
just staggering. Since its inception, the foundation
has raised over $600 million for HIV -related
programs in 55 countries. It funds prevention,
works to eliminate prejudice, and provides essential
services. And his ability to leverage his celebrity
for fundraising is just unparalleled. His annual
Academy Awards party has become one of the highest
profile Oscars events in Hollywood. It's raised
over $200 million alone since it began. And his
annual white tie and tiara ball has consistently
raised millions more. It demonstrates a level
of sustained fundraising power that very few
other celebrities can match. Even just recently,
in 2023, EJF donated $125 ,000 via United24 to
purchase vital biochemistry analyzers for Ukrainians
living with HIV. And beyond philanthropy and
music, we can't overlook his other great passion,
football. John's long -term association with
Watford Football Club provided this grounding
local element to his celebrity. He became chairman
and director in 1976. investing large sums of
his own money to help the club rise three divisions
into the English First Division. And while he
stepped down as chairman in 2002, he's still
the honorary life president. They even named
the Sir Elton John stand at Vicarage Road in
his honor. A tribute he called one of the greatest
days of my life. which suggests that local communal
recognition meant just as much to him as the
global stardom. Financially, his success has
resulted in an estimated fortune of around 320
million as of 2019. This wealth supported some
famously extravagant tastes. The sources note
he admitted to spending a truly mind boggling
two hundred and ninety three thousand pounds
on flowers alone in a 20 month period. Flower
flowers. He is also a very serious patron of
the arts. He owns one of the world's largest
and most significant private photography collections.
His political engagement has been consistent,
though sometimes bipartisan in its effect. While
he generally identifies as Labor Democrat and
supported Hillary Clinton, he's been very critical
of Brexit's impact on touring musicians. And
interestingly. Despite once calling President
George W. Bush the worst thing that ever happened
to America, he later praised Bush as the president
who had done the most globally to combat AIDS.
It demonstrates his ability to separate the political
platform from the humanitarian action. Absolutely.
Yeah. And that work earned him the National Humanities
Medal from President Joe Biden in 2022. Finally,
John is still completely unafraid to stake out
controversial public positions, even now. In
December 2024, he went public with his strong
opposition to cannabis legalization. Calling
it one of the greatest mistakes of our time and
citing his own past struggles with drug addiction
as the reason he felt compelled to speak out
on it. And illustrating his stance against modern
media chaos in December 2022, he publicly left
Twitter or X over concerns that the platform
was allowing misinformation to flourish unchecked.
He remains a person who is willing to take a
public stand on issues that affect him personally,
whether it's AIDS, same sex rights or drug policy.
So what does this all mean when we look at the
sweep of this incredible career? Our deep dive
really reveals a journey that's defined by spectacular
transformation and duality. We saw the transition
from the quiet, classically trained Reginald
Dwight, whose abilities were restricted by his
surroundings, to Sir Elton Hercules John, a global
icon defined by unparalleled commercial success
across six decades. And that foundational analysis
of his sound, that unique synthesis of rigorous
classical training and the visceral energy of
American rock and roll and gospel music, that's
what made him so distinctive. That musical intellect
supported Bernie Taupin's populist lyrics perfectly.
It resulted in a 50 -year partnership that was
harmonious precisely because they worked in such
productive isolation. And all of that achievement
is underscored by his profound, multimillion
-dollar commitment to philanthropy, catalyzed
by personal recovery and the fight against AIDS.
It's just an incredible body of work built on
endurance, reinvention and personal growth. But
it's his late career strategic genius that is
perhaps the most illuminating thing for me. Indeed.
John has managed to stay utterly relevant well
into his 70s, not by trying to mimic youth culture,
but by actively seeking out and embracing collaboration
with younger artists like Dua Lipa and Lil Nas
X. This process, as he described it, was simply
returning to his original job. the session musician.
He became the musical chameleon who could pivot
from writing Tony Award winning Broadway scores
to topping the charts by submitting his foundational
piano and voice to contemporary electronic and
rap production. So what does his deliberate ability
to return to that simple foundational session
musician mode late in his career tell us about
the true nature of creative genius and endurance?
Well, it tells us that true creative genius isn't
about being irreplaceable, but about being utterly
adaptable. He proved that sometimes the greatest
act of power is the humility of going back to
the beginning, back to the bench, where that
spark of creation first ignited in order to conquer
the future. It's just a remarkable model for
sustained. artistic relevance.