Um, I want to paint a picture for you today.
Okay. Imagine you were standing right in the
middle of Central Park. Oh, I like where this
is going. Right. It is the fall of 1980. The
energy in the air is just, it's absolutely electric.
You are surrounded by this massive sea of people.
Yeah. An estimated 400 ,000 fans packed onto
the Great Lawn. Exactly. 400 ,000. And they are
all gathered there to see one of the most culturally
dominant forces on the planet. I mean, this is
an artist who, over the course of his life, will
sell more than 300 million records. Which is
a staggering number to even try and wrap your
head around. It really is. And he'll eventually
become the 19th person in human history to achieve
EGOTY status, you know, sweeping the Emmys, the
Grammys, Oscars, Tonys. He is a literal living
legend. A titan of the industry. Right. So the
crowd is roaring. They're waiting for this musical
genius to take the stage. And when he finally
does... What is he wearing? What is his grand
sartorial statement to half a million adoring
New Yorkers? He comes out dressed in a giant,
cumbersome, incredibly ridiculous Donald Duck
costume. complete with the bill and the tail.
It is so absurd. It's one of the most delightfully
surreal images in the history of rock and roll.
And honestly, it is the perfect visual metaphor
for the man we are talking about today. It really
is. Because you have this juxtaposition, right?
The staggering world historic musical genius
wrapped inside the most absurd, colorful, cartoonish
exterior imaginable. Exactly. And that contrast
is exactly our mission on this deep dive today.
We aren't here to just you know, read you a Wikipedia
page or rattle off a list of chart positions.
Right, anyone can look that up. Exactly. We're
going on a deep dive to uncover the hidden, often
contradictory mechanics of a career that has
spanned over six decades. We really want to understand
how a shy, incredibly anxious, classically trained
kid from a highly restrictive household somehow
turns into a global icon pounding the piano in
a duck suit. Yeah, the journey from point A to
point B is wild. And we are going to explore
how answering a random, almost blind date -style
newspaper ad led to a 50 -year songwriting partnership
that supposedly never had a single argument.
Which, honestly, in the music industry might
be the single most unbelievable fact of all.
Truly. My role today is to really dig into that.
I want to try and connect these wild, larger
-than -life anecdotes to the broader psychological
and cultural picture. We want to explore not
just what this artist did, but why it happened
the way it did and why his journey actually matters
to you. And I am here to make sure we stay completely
out of the dense musical jargon. Thank goodness
for that. Yeah, we're going to keep this approachable.
We're going to keep it moving, and we are going
to have some fun. OK, let's unpack this. Before
the knighthood, for the massive Oscar parties,
before the glasses that lit up with his name,
we have to travel back in time. Way back. We
are going back to post -war Britain. Specifically,
a council house in Penner, Middlesex in the early
1950s. Right. And for our global listeners, it's
important to understand what a council house
implies in the UK. Yeah, set the scene for us.
It is public housing. We are talking about modest
working class beginnings, often with tight quarters
and thin walls. In 1947, a boy named Reginald
Kenneth Dwight is born into this environment.
And if you want to understand the flamboyant
superstar he later becomes, you absolutely have
to understand the pressure cooker that was Reggie
Dwight's childhood. Pressure cooker seems like
the perfect term. The picture the sources paint
of his family life is. Um, it's incredibly tense.
Extremely tense. He was raised by his father,
Stanley, and his mother, Sheila. Stanley was
actually a trumpet player for the Royal Air Force.
Which you would think is a good thing. You'd
think a professional musician would be thrilled
to have an incredibly musically gifted son. But
paradoxically, Stanley wanted Reginald to go
into a very conventional, secure career. He kept
pushing him toward banking, right? Yes, banking.
Wait, really? A literal trumpet player is telling
his kid, no, put down— the sheet music go be
a banker that has to mess with the kids head.
It absolutely did. The household was strict and
his parents had vehement explosive arguments.
Stanley was largely disapproving of Reginald
and he was often physically absent due to his
military postings. That sounds incredibly isolating.
It was but even amidst all this domestic tension
all this arguing and rigidity there was this
absurd undeniable natural talent bubbling up
in young Reggie. And when we say absurd we mean
prodigy level absurd. I read that when he was
just a little boy, within a year of simply messing
around on his grandmother's piano, he was able
to pick out the melody to the skater's waltz.
Just by listening to it. Just entirely by ear.
That auditory processing ability is something
you simply cannot teach, and it only compounded
as he grew. By the time he was 11 years old,
he won a junior scholarship to the Royal Academy
of Music in London. Which is no small feat. No,
it is one of the most prestigious musical institutions
in the world. And there's a specific anecdote
from his time there that really illustrates his
terrifying level of talent. I love this story.
One of his instructors recalled a moment where
he asked Reginald to play back a four page piece
by Handel. And keep in mind, a four page classical
piece is a massive amount of complex musical
data. Exactly. It's not just a melody. It is
the underlying harmonic structure, the rhythm,
the dynamics. The instructor played it once,
just once. Unbelievable. Reginald sat down and
played it back flawlessly. The instructor later
described him doing it like a gramophone record.
Oh. It was essentially a photographic memory,
but for sound. OK, so he's a Mozart -level prodigy.
You would just assume he's locked in a room practicing
scales for eight hours a day, right? driven by
this strict father in this prestigious academy.
That is the logical assumption, but no. The sources
describe him as a bit of a slacker during this
period. Really? Yeah. He openly admitted later
that he resented going to the academy. He would
literally skip his Saturday classes just to ride
around aimlessly on the London Underground. Just
ride in the tube instead of going to class. Exactly.
He was scraping through his grades without even
bothering to practice. Which is infuriating for
any of us who had to take piano lessons and struggled
with chopsticks, but it points to a really interesting
clash of cultures in his life. at that moment.
It really does. What's fascinating here is the
deep duality of his musical education. Tell me
more about that. On one hand, you have the highly
rigid, heavily structured, traditional classical
environment of the Royal Academy. It's all about
playing the notes exactly as written on the page.
Right, very disciplined. But on the other hand,
you have his intuitive, highly rebellious nature.
At home, his parents were keen record buyers.
So while he's being steeped in Bach and Chopin
at school, at home he is listening to Elvis Presley,
Bill Haley, and most importantly, Little Richard
and Jerry Lewis. Oh, you can completely see the
through line there. Little Richard pounding the
keys, standing up, screaming into the microphone.
It's the exact antithesis of the Royal Academy.
Precisely. He is absorbing this wild, pounding,
sweat -drenched rock and roll entirely by ear.
learning two completely different languages of
music simultaneously. And while he's absorbing
all this, the domestic situation finally fractures.
When Reginald is 14, his parents divorce, his
mom eventually marries a local painter named
Fred Fairbrother, and Reggie affectionately calls
him Durf, which is just Fred spelled backwards.
That's a great detail. And this is a huge turning
point, isn't it? Because Durf and his mom actually
support his musical ambitions. They don't just
support him in theory, they actively facilitate
his career. They help him get a gig playing piano
at a nearby pub called the Northwood Hills Hotel
when he is only 15 years old. I love this image
so much. You have a 15 -year -old Reggie Dwight
playing Thursday to Sunday nights at a local
English pub pounding out covers of Ray Charles
and Jim Reeves. It's a great visual. But here's
the best detail. He's wearing horn -rimmed glasses
while he plays. but he doesn't actually need
them. Right. He had perfect 2020 vision as a
teenager. He is wearing them specifically to
imitate his idol, Buddy Holly. Which is incredibly
revealing. He's already trying on different personas.
He is literally putting on a mask. Those non
-prescription glasses were the very first step
in creating a character that was larger, braver,
and much more extroverted than the shy, anxious
boy from the council house in Pinner. That makes
total sense. If we look at that deeply, it raises
a compelling point of speculation. You have this
tense, restrictive childhood with a disapproving
father pushing him toward banking. Then you have
this incredible release valve of pub performing
nurtured by a supportive stepfather. Right. When
this artist later emerges with the most outrageous,
flamboyant stage personas imaginable. The duck
suits, the Statue of Liberty costumes, you have
to ask, was the sheer outrageousness of his later
career a direct delayed rebellion against the
restrictive high pressure environment of Reginald
White? I mean, he's basically said as much, hasn't
he? He later stated that the wild costumes were
his way of finally letting go after that restrictive
childhood. He couldn't be wild at home. He couldn't
be wild at the Royal Academy. So he saved all
that pent -up wildness for the stage. Exactly.
The stage became his safe space to be entirely
uninhibited. But raw talent and a desire to rebel
are only part of the equation. You need the songs.
You need a vehicle for that talent. Right. How
does the pub player, Reggie Gwight, actually
transform into the global superstar? Because
you can play the best Ray Charles cover in the
world, but that doesn't sell 300 million records.
It does not. That brings us to the origin of
not just his legendary stage name, but his ultimate
creative partnership. The major turning point
happens in 1967. Reginald is out of school. By
day, he is working a completely unglamorous job
running errands for a music publishing company.
Paying his dues. Exactly. By night, he is playing
in a blues band called Bluesology. He is desperately
looking for a way to break out as a songwriter.
So he answers an advertisement in the British
music paper, the New Musical Express. OK, let
me jump in real quick. For those who might not
know the industry terms, an AANR manager stands
for artist in repertoire. Basically, it's the
person at a record label whose entire job is
to scout new talent and oversee the artistic
development. So answering this ad is Reggie's
Hail Mary Pass to get noticed by the industry.
The ad was placed by Ray Williams, who was an
A &R manager for Liberty Records. Exactly. So
Reginald goes into the audition, but he has a
problem. He can write incredible melodies, but
he admits he is terrible at writing lyrics. You
just can't do the words. Right. So Ray Williams,
the A &R guy, just reaches onto his desk, grabs
an unopened envelope of lyrics that had been
mailed in by someone else, and hands it to Reginald.
He says, here, see what you can do with these.
And the person who mailed in that envelope, another
totally unknown kid who would answer the exact
same newspaper ad, a lyricist named Bernie Taupin.
The butterfly effect of that single random unopened
envelope is absolutely staggering. It's crazy
to think about. Reginald takes the lyrics home,
writes music to them, sends the tape to Taupen,
and they begin a partnership that is still going
strong today. They didn't even meet in person
right away. They started their collaboration
entirely through the mail. It is the ultimate
musical blind date. And it's right around this
time, about six months after that fateful meeting,
that Reginald Dwight decides he needs a name
that sounds like a rock star. Reggie Dwight just
wasn't going to cut it. No. So he takes the names
of two of his bandmates in bluesology. He takes
Elton from the saxophonist Elton Dean and John
from the vocalist Long John Baldry. he becomes
Elton John. And he actually legally changed his
name to Elton Hercules John a few years later
in 1972. And I always assumed Hercules was some
grand statement about mythological strength,
you know, maybe reflection of his growing ego,
but no. No, not at all. He took the name Hercules
from a horse in the British sitcom Steptoe and
Son. Yeah. He was just a massive fan of this
gritty, working -class television comedy. I think
that detail is brilliant because it highlights
his innate sense of humor and his deep affection
for British pop culture. Even as he was becoming
this glamorous, untouchable superstar, he was
anchoring his legal name to a gag from a local
sitcom. That's so true. It shows he never completely
severed ties with his roots. That's a really
great point. But let's get back to the partnership
with Bernie Taupin, because this is where the
story gets really, really weird. We know they
wrote some of the greatest songs of the 20th
century, but it's how they wrote them. that is
so mind -blowing. What's fascinating here is
the unique mechanics of their collaborative process.
It defies almost every single convention of songwriting
you can think of. Right, because when I picture
legendary songwriting duos, Lennon and McCartney,
Jagger and Richards, I picture them huddled over
a single piano in a smoky room. Yeah, fighting
over a melody. Exactly. Arguing over a chord
change, hashing out the lyrics line by line,
intensely collaborating in real time. But Elton
and Bernie, they are literally never in the same
room when they write. Never. The process, as
detailed extensively in our sources, is incredibly
segmented. Think of it less like a traditional
kitchen where two chefs are bumping elbows and
fighting over the seasoning, and more like a
highly efficient, perfectly oiled assembly line.
An assembly line of hits. Exactly. Bernie Taupin
writes a batch of lyrics entirely on his own.
He writes incredibly fast, often finishing a
complete lyric in under an hour. Wow. He then
hands those lyrics to Elton. Elton goes into
a room, sits at the piano completely alone, looks
at the words and writes the music in about 30
minutes. 30 minutes? That is insane. And if he
can't come up with something within that half
hour window, he doesn't agonize over it. He doesn't
go back to Bernie and ask him to change a verse
or tweak a chorus. What does he do? He physically
throws the lyrics in the bin and moves on to
the next sheet of paper. Wait, I have to push
back on this. You're telling me that for 50 years,
with hundreds of millions of dollars on the line,
massive egos, the pressure of record labels,
they never once argued about a song. No passive
aggressive notes, no studio blow ups. According
to both of them, no. As Elton stated in a 2017
interview, they have never had a professional
or personal argument in over 50 years of collaboration.
That is just baffling to me. And when you analyze
their process, you understand why. By completely
separating the lyric writing from the music writing,
they effectively removed ego and immediate creative
friction from the equation. Ah, I see. Bernie
has total undisputed autonomy over the words.
Elton has total undisputed autonomy over the
music. They never step on each other's toes because
they are never standing in the same room. I want
you, the listener, to just think about that for
a second. Think about any group project you've
ever been part of at school or at work. Now imagine
doing that exact project for 50 years under the
intense scrutiny of the global media and never
having a single argument. It's unheard of. It's
a complete anomaly in human behavior, let alone
in the music industry. It invites some really
interesting speculation, too. Would this partnership
have survived if they had been forced into that
traditional model? Probably not. If an A &R executive
had locked them in a studio and said, OK, boys,
jam together until you have a hit, would they
have killed each other? Almost certainly. The
volatility of the music business tears bands
apart every single day over the smallest creative
differences. By giving each other that absolute
freedom and distance, they created an impenetrable,
argument -free workflow. And man did that workflow
produce results. Although it wasn't instant magic.
In 1968, they started out as staff songwriters.
for DJM Records. Right. They were basically functioning
as a factory churning out easy listening tunes
for other artists. They even wrote a song for
the Scottish singer Lulu called I Can't Go On
Living Without You. It was submitted to be the
UK entry for the Eurovision Song Contest in 1969.
I love this piece of trivia. And it came in dead
last out of six songs. Which is a comforting
thought, isn't it? It just goes to show that
finding your artistic voice takes time. Even
for undeniable geniuses, writing generic pop
for other people wasn't utilizing their true
potential. They needed to pivot. They had to
start writing for themselves. Yes. They needed
to start writing more complex, deeply personal
material that Elton himself could perform. And
that pivot resulted in his debut album, Empty
Sky, in 1969. It didn't make massive waves, but
it set the stage. Then came the self -titled
Elton John album in 1970. That was the breakthrough.
That album gave the world your song, his first
major hit single. And that single kicked off
a level of output and dominance in the 1970s
that is almost mathematically hard to comprehend
today. The sheer stamina required for what followed
is staggering. Between 1972 and 1975, Elton John
achieved seven consecutive number one albums
in the United States. Seven in a row. Seven.
That was an entirely unprecedented feat at the
time. To put that in perspective, he released
albums like Honky Chateau, Don't Shoot Me, I'm
Only the Piano Player, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road,
Caribou, Captain Fantastic, and the Brown Dirt
Cowboy, and Rock of the Westies, all number one.
That's an unbelievable run. He was essentially
releasing a genre defining culturally massive
album every six to nine months. That volume is
just insane. In today's industry, an artist might
take three to five years between major album
cycles. Elton and Bernie were writing and recording
these masterworks in a matter of days or weeks,
often while actively touring. They were machines.
And to illustrate just how big he was during
this era, I want to bring up his collaboration
with John Lennon. Oh, this is a phenomenal story.
He really is. Milton played piano and provided
backing vocals on John Lennon's solo track, Whatever
Gets You Through the Night. While they were recording,
Elton boldly bet Lennon that the song would hit
number one on the charts. And Lennon didn't believe
him. Not at all. Lennon, who was a bit insecure
about his commercial viability at the time, thought
there was no way. So he promised Elton that if
the song actually hit number one, he would join
Elton on stage for a live performance. And you
have to understand, by 1974, John Lennon was
terrified of playing live. He had largely retreated
from the stage after the Beatles broke up. Right.
But the song did hit number one. And, true to
his word, Lennon showed up. He joined Elton on
stage at Madison Square Garden on Thanksgiving
night in November of 1974. I can only imagine
the energy in that room. The crowd went absolutely
ballistic. They performed that track, plus Lucy
in the sky with diamonds and the early Beatles
hit. I saw her standing there. But what makes
that specific anecdote so incredibly poignant
is looking back at it with historical hindsight.
Yes, because that night at Madison Square Garden
turned out to be John Lennon's final major live
performance before his tragic death in 1980.
Elton John's sheer gravitational pull, his massive
popularity, and his sheer enthusiasm were the
exact forces needed to coax the next Beatle back
out onto the stage one last time. Here's where
it gets really interesting, though. We've talked
about the musical triumphs, the unbreakable songwriting
formula, the historic chart dominance. The bright
side of the fame. Exactly. But as the 1970s wore
on, the pressure of that exact dominance began
to crack the foundation. The fame started to
manifest physically. The costumes got wildly
out of control, and behind the scenes, his personal
life was plunging into absolute chaos. We had
touched on this idea earlier how the stage persona
was initially a joyful release from his strict
childhood, but by the mid -1970s it had mutated.
Mutated how? It escalated from a fun performance
choice into a desperate form of psychological
armor. The sage wardrobe wasn't just a pair of
quirky Buddy Holly glasses anymore. He was wearing
massive headdresses of ostrich feathers. Right,
the extravagant outfits. He wore $5 ,000 spectacles
that literally spelled his name in flashing lights.
He wore towering platform boots that made it
difficult to walk. He performed entire sets dressed
as the Statue of Liberty or as Wolfgang Amadeus
Mozart, complete with the powdered wig. And it
wasn't just a fashion statement, was it? No,
it was a barricade. He was constructing these
massive, distracting visual edifices. so that
the audience wouldn't look too closely at the
man underneath. That's incredibly sad. He was
living at the absolute extremes of the human
experience. On one side of the curtain, he is
arguably the single biggest pop star on the planet,
radiating joy and energy. But behind closed doors,
he was struggling with life -threatening addictions
and profound insecurity. The sources are really
stark about this period. By 1975, the immense
pressures of his relentless touring and recording
schedule were taking a severe undeniable toll.
during a period that the media dubbed Elton Week
in Los Angeles in 1975. which culminated in two
massive sold -out shows at Dodger Stadium, he
suffered a severe cocaine overdose. The fuel
required to maintain the Elton John machine was
increasingly chemical, and it wasn't just narcotics.
He developed a severe alcohol addiction. He also
battled bulimia for years. That specific detail
about the bulimia is heartbreaking, especially
when you consider who he eventually confided
in. In a deeply candid interview with Larry King
in 2002, Elton discussed his battle with the
eating disorder. He revealed that he and Princess
Diana actually shared that exact same struggle.
Oh, really? Yes. They confided in each other.
Two of the most famous, most photographed people
in the world, both quietly suffering from the
same brutal disorder while constantly in the
public eye. It highlights the extreme isolation
of that level of fame. When you are that famous,
your peer group of people who actually understand
your day -to -day reality shrinks to almost zero.
And yet, he kept performing. Which brings us
back to that 1980 concert in Central Park. Let's
look at that Donald Duck costume again with this
new context. It changes everything. It really
does. Imagine the sheer dark surrealism of that
moment. You have half a million people cheering
with pure joy for a man dressed as a cartoon
duck playing classical infused rock piano while
the man inside the suit is actively dying from
addiction and eating decorders. It is a devastating
image when you strip away the bright colors and
he lived in that dangerous chaotic space for
a long time. He didn't achieve sustained sobriety
until 1990. A full decade later, how did he finally
break out of it? Because so many legacy artists
from that era sadly never made it out. The catalysts
for his survival are incredibly poignant and
they speak to his underlying deep empathy. He
attributes his ultimate wake -up call to spending
time with the family of Ryan White. For our younger
listeners who might not know, who was Ryan White?
Ryan White was a teenage boy from Indiana who
became a national poster child for the HIV's
crisis in the United States during the 1980s.
He was a hemophiliac who tragically contracted
HIV through a contaminated blood treatment. At
the time, there was immense paralyzing stigma
and fear surrounding the disease. Ryan was actually
expelled from his middle school because of his
diagnosis. That's awful. Elton John befriended
Ryan and his family, and he was deeply moved
by how they handled this horrific injustice.
Elton later said that seeing the grace, the dignity
and the sheer courage of the White family made
him look at his own life in the mirror. He realized
that while this family was fighting for their
son's life with such nobility, his own lifestyle
was, in his words, crazy and out of order. He
was complaining about hotel rooms while this
kid was fighting a terminal illness. That perspective
shift was vital. He also credited a specific
piece of music as a catalyst. Which song? He
cited the 1986 song Don't Give Up by Kate Bush
and Peter Gabriel as playing a significant part
in his rebirth. Specifically, the lyrics about
resting your head and not worrying too much.
The concept that it is okay to admit defeat,
ask for help and start over. But getting clean
isn't just about stopping the substance abuse.
For an artist, it brings up a terrifying creative
challenge. How do you maintain your creative
identity when the substances you've relied on
for decades to fuel your art are suddenly removed?
That is the great hurdle for so many artists
who get sober They are terrified that the magic
was in the drugs not in themselves Elton faced
this head -on with his 1992 album the one he
admitted very openly that it was his first album
recorded 100 % sober and he didn't sugarcoat
it He said the process was tough. He was completely
unmoored because he was so used to making records
writing melody and performing under the heavy
haze of alcohol or drugs. You essentially have
to relearn how to walk. You have to learn how
to trust your own raw instincts without the chemical
crutch you've used your entire adult life. If
we connect this to the bigger picture, the release
of the one in his newfound sobriety represent
a massive tectonic shift in his life. In what
way? Getting clean didn't just save his physical
life. It unlocked a completely new era of his
cultural impact. He didn't just survive the 80s.
He transformed into a figure of incredible philanthropy
and statesmanship in the 1990s. He weaponized
his fame and his vast wealth for profound social
good. Weaponized is the perfect word because
the 1990s started with immense tragedy for him.
He lost Ryan White in 1990. And then just a year
later in 1991, he lost his very close friend,
Freddie Mercury, the legendary front man of Queen,
also to AIDS. The compounded grief of losing
those two vital people catalyzed him into action.
In 1992, he founded the Elton John AIDS Foundation.
And what's remarkable is that he didn't just
quietly donate a chunk of his royalties and slap
his name on a letterhead. He actively used his
status as this glamorous high society fixture
to force people to pay attention and open their
wallets. Exactly. He leveraged the very things
that made him famous, the excess, the parties,
the celebrity connections to fund the foundation.
The sources mentioned these massive lavish events
he would host. He started his annual Academy
Awards party in 1993, which instantly became
and still remains one of the most exclusive and
lucrative events in Hollywood. Definitely. He
also hosted the white tie and tiara ball at his
massive estate in Old Windsor. He would essentially
trap billionaires and Hollywood elites in a room,
feed them absurdly opulent food and extract millions
of dollars from them for charity. I read about
one specific menu from these balls that featured
a delicate truffle souffle followed by a massive
surf and turf and for dessert, a giant Knickerbocker
glory. Which is such a brilliant and very British
touch. Tell us about that. For those unfamiliar,
a Knickerbocker Glory is essentially a massive
layered ice cream sundae served in a tall glass,
very popular in British seaside towns. Serving
that at a high society, White Tie Gala is a very
cheeky, very Elton way of cutting through the
pretension. But the results were incredibly serious.
To date, the foundation has raised over $600
million globally to combat the disease. And it
wasn't just the money, was it? No, it was the
visibility. It's vital to recognize the cultural
context of the early 1990s. He was fundamentally
shifting societal awareness of HIV and AIDS during
an era where it was still highly stigmatized,
often ignored by governments, and deeply misunderstood
by the public. He used his massive mainstream
platform to force conversations that polite society
was actively trying to avoid. That cultural gravity
he carried, his ability to unite the world through
music in times of crisis, was never more apparent
than in the of 1997. A truly devastating year
for him personally and for the world globally.
In the span of just a few weeks he lost two extremely
close friends to horrific sudden tragedies. In
July the iconic fashion designer Gianni Versace
was murdered outside his home in Miami. Elton
was devastated and then at the end of August
Princess Diana died in a horrific car crash in
Paris. The world was in an absolute state of
shock. There was this unprecedented outpouring
of public grief, and the British royal family
was facing immense public scrutiny over their
handling of the tragedy. They needed a moment
of tatharsis. Right. Elton John was asked to
perform at Diana's funeral, which was to be held
at Westminster Abbey, and broadcast to an estimated
2 .5 billion people worldwide. Imagine the pressure
of that moment. He reaches out to Bernie Taupin.
He asked Bernie to revise the lyrics of their
classic 1973 song, Candle in the Wind. Now, the
original song was written as a tribute to Marilyn
Monroe. Elton asked Bernie to adapt it to honor
Diana. And Toppin agreed, and he rewrote the
lyrics, changing the opening line from Goodbye
Norma Jean to Goodbye England's Rose. And Elton
performed Candle in the Wind 1997 live at the
funeral. And he stated he would only ever play
that specific version once, and he caped his
word. It was a singular moment in history. I
remember vividly watching that broadcast, the
absolute silence in the abbey, the raw grief
on his face as he played, the collective emotion
of the entire globe was focused on him at that
piano. And the impact of that specific recording
is almost impossible to overstate. It broke every
record. It sold over 33 million copies globally.
It is officially verified by Guinness World Records
as the best -selling chart single since the modern
charts began in the 1950s, and he donated the
proceeds which amounted to roughly 55 million
pounds entirely to Diana's charities. It transcended
being a pop song. It became a global moment of
shared mourning and healing. It was a remarkable,
unprecedented demonstration of how deeply embedded
his music was in the global consciousness. He
wasn't just a pop star anymore. He was a cultural
pillar. Absolutely. And what is so fascinating
about his career trajectory is that having reached
that absolute pinnacle, having literally conquered
the pop charts, rock arenas and global philanthropy
as the 90s ended and the 2000s began, He didn't
rest. He sought out entirely new creative mountains
to climb. He turned his sights to Broadway. And
honestly, he completely took over the world of
musical theater. He did. He teamed up with the
legendary lyricist Tim Rice for Disney's animated
film The Lion King in 1994. That project won
him an Academy Award for Can You Feel the Love
Tonight? Such a classic. Then they adapted it
for Broadway in 1997. And the stage version eventually
became the top running title in box office history
for both stage and film. And he didn't stop there.
He wrote the music for Aida, which won him a
Tony Award for Best Original Score in 2000. Then
he wrote Billy Elliot the Musical in 2005, which
was another massive multi -award -winning global
smash. I have to ask, though, from a psychological
perspective, what drives an artist who has already
achieved literally everything to tackle musical
theater? It's a notoriously difficult, collaborative,
exhausting medium. I would speculate that for
Elton John, musical theater represents the ultimate
test of a melodist. Think about it. When you
write and perform a pop song, you are relying
heavily on your own larger -than -life persona,
your voice, and your stage presence to sell it
to the audience. Right. In musical theater, your
music has to stand completely on its own. The
composer is largely invisible. Your melodies
have to tell a cohesive narrative, convey highly
specific complex character emotions, and move
an audience without Elton John physically sitting
on the stage to deliver it. Wow. It's proof that
the underlying musical architecture he creates
is bulletproof. It works whether he's singing
it or whether a kid playing Billy Elliot is singing
it. So what does this all mean for his legacy
as he moves into his later decades? As he becomes
this literal fixture of the British establishment,
he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1998,
becoming Sir Elton John. You would expect him
to just rest on his laurels, play the old hits,
and coast into retirement. But that is exactly
what he refused to do. And that refusal is a
crucial part of his extraordinary longevity.
Unlike so many legacy acts who dismiss modern
music, complain about the current state of the
industry, or retreat entirely into pure nostalgia
tours, Elton John actively, hungrily seeks out
the new. He champions young artists. His list
of modern collaborations is staggering, and it
spans literally every single genre. One of the
most shocking was at the 2001 Grammys. Eminem
was facing intense public backlash and protests
over controversial lyrics that were widely condemned
as homophobic. Who steps out onto the Grammy
stage to perform the chorus of Eminem's hit song,
Stand, with him? Elton John. A huge cultural
moment. It completely defied expectations and
forced everyone to reevaluate the cultural conversation.
Then in 2013, he is playing piano and singing
backing vocals for the heavy desert rock bands
Queens of the Stone Age. He just refuses to be
boxed in. And that collaborative spirit was incredibly
evident during the COVID -19 pandemic. While
the entire music industry was shut down, he created
an entire album called The Lockdown Sessions,
released in 2021. He collaborated over Zoom and
in highly restricted studio sessions with artists
ranging from Lil Nas X to Miley Cyrus to Dua
Lipa. I read an interview where he explained
that making the lockdown sessions actually reminded
him of his roots in the late 1960s. Before he
was Elton John, he was just the humble session
musician showing up to play piano on other people's
tracks. Right, coming full circle. He loved returning
to that role. He wasn't the star, he was just
the piano player helping a younger artist realize
their vision. He genuinely loves being a fan
of music. He hosts an Apple Music radio show
called Rocket Hour, where his primary goal is
to interview and showcase brand new artists.
He has stated repeatedly that listening to new
music, discovering 15 year old artists who are
just starting out is what keeps him inspired,
animated and young. He refuses to let his musical
curiosity stagnate. And that curiosity pays off
in tangible, historic ways. His collaboration
with Dua Lipa, the Cold Heart Now remix, hit
number one in the UK in 2021. With that single
hit, Elton John broke another record. He became
the first solo artist in history to have UK top
10 hits across six different decades. Six decades.
The 1970s, 80s, 90s, 2000s, 2010s, and 2020s.
Six decades of being at the bleeding edge of
pop culture. It is an unparalleled chart run.
And interestingly, that massive late career resurgence
ran parallel to his monumental farewell to the
stage. He announced the Farewell Yellow Brick
Road Tour back in 2018. He cited a profound desire
to finally step away from the grueling touring
lifestyle and prioritize spending time with his
husband and their two young sons. And typical
for Elton, his farewell wasn't just a quick lap
around the globe. The tour spanned over 300 concerts
worldwide, wrapping up in Stockholm in July 2023.
At the time it concluded, it was officially the
highest grossing concert tour in history, a victory
lap unlike any other. But the magnetic pull of
the stage just keeps calling him back even when
his health throws massive unexpected curveballs.
Right. The sources note a very recent development.
In the summer of 2024, he suffered a severe eye
infection. It left him completely blind in his
right eye and with very limited vision in his
left. He publicly revealed this incredibly personal
struggle in December 2024. And yet, despite the
significant vision loss and despite being officially
retired from touring, what did he do? He returned
to the stage to perform for 70 ,000 people at
the Singapore Grand Prix in October 2025. I have
to ask you, why do that? Think about it. You
have hundreds of millions of dollars. You have
your egotie. You have your loving family. You
have secured your legacy tenfold. And you have
tragically lost your vision. Why put yourself
through the physical stress of traveling to Singapore
to get back in front of 70 ,000 people? I speculate
that for Reginald Dwight, the quiet boy who hid
behind the piano and the oversized fake Buddy
Holly glasses to escape the unbearable tension
of his childhood, the stage isn't just a job.
It is his ultimate home. It's the place where
he is most fully unapologetically himself. The
sheer energy exchange with a massive audience
isn't just an ego boost, it is a fundamental
part of his life force. You don't just turn off
a source of energy that has sustained you for
60 years. That is a beautiful way to look at
it. So what does this all mean? We've explored
the incredible music, the dark depths of the
addiction, the world -changing philanthropy,
and the ongoing six -decade relevance. Let's
transition into our final section, the highly
complex personal life. the deeply held beliefs
and the passions of the man behind the legendary
glasses. To understand the man today, we have
to look at how dramatically his personal life
evolved alongside his musical one. In his early
years, before the massive fame hit, he was actually
engaged to a woman named Linda Woodrow. Interestingly,
our sources note that in 2020, 50 years after
he broke off their engagement, he stepped in
to financially assist her with severe medical
fees. It shows a remarkable sense of continued
connection to his past. After that engagement
ended, he had his first significant gay relationship
with his manager, John Reed. But his path to
fully embracing his sexuality was long and complicated.
In 1984, he shocked the public by marrying his
close friend and sound engineer, a woman named
Renee Blau. That marriage lasted four years,
ending in divorce in 1988. And it remained a
complex part of his history. She actually sued
him in 2020 over deeply personal details he shared
about their time together in his 2019 autobiography.
His public statements about his sexuality evolved
over time as well. He first came out as bisexual
in a 1976 interview with Rolling Stone. Then
years later in 1992, he told them he was quite
comfortable being gay. And after decades of searching,
he finally found lasting peace with the Canadian
advertising executive and filmmaker David Furnish.
Their relationship is a testament to immense
social change. They were among the very first
couples to form a civil partnership in the UK
when it became legal in 2005. When full marriage
equality was achieved in 2014, they officially
married. And they now have two sons, Zachary
and Elijah, born via surrogate. This raises an
important question, doesn't it? About how an
artist navigates massive personal evolution while
constantly in the public eye. Absolutely. Elton
John has lived through and in many ways helped
to push forward a massive tectonic shift in LGBTQ
plus rights globally. Think about the arc of
his life. He went from being a young man terrified
of international adoption laws when he briefly
tried to adopt a boy from Ukraine in the 1990s
to happily raising two sons with his legally
wedded husband. His own personal timeline reflects
the broader societal timeline of progress. And
his personal beliefs regarding religion are just
as nuanced and fascinating. He is described as
a self -declared atheist. He is strongly, often
aggressively, criticized organized religion.
He once stated he would ban religion completely
because of its historical and ongoing role in
turning hatred toward gay people. Yet simultaneously,
he deeply admires the core teachings of Jesus
Christ. Yes, he caused an absolute global stir
in 2010 during an interview where he referred
to Jesus as a compassionate, super -intelligent
gay man who understood human problems. He received
intense backlash and even death threats for that
statement. But he wasn't trying to be merely
provocative. He was making a point about empathy.
He essentially separates the restrictive bureaucracy
and the exclusionary dogma of organized religion
from the fundamental humanistic loving teachings
of Jesus. It is a highly complex, deeply personal
theology that aligns with his own philanthropic
worldview. OK, as we shift into his political
views, I want to put my hands up and be crystal
clear with you, the listener. We are strictly
impartial here on the deep dive. We are not taking
sides. We're not endorsing the left wing and
we are not criticizing the right wing or vice
versa. Our sole job today is to neutrally report
what is documented in the source material about
Elton John's own views and his political interactions.
Understood perfectly. And politically, Elton
John's interactions are fascinatingly dichotomous.
They cross lines in ways that few modern celebrities
manage. Historically, he has been a strong vocal
supporter of the U .K. Labor Party and the U
.S. Democratic Party. For example, he performed
for Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign in
2016, explicitly stating she was the only choice.
And his relationship with the current Democratic
leadership was highlighted in 2022. when President
Joe Biden surprised him by awarding him the National
Humanities Medal at the White House. Biden even
shared a personal anecdote, noting that he used
to sing Elton's hit Crocodile Rock to his young
sons. But his relationships across the political
aisle are where the complexity really shows.
Take his dynamic with Republican President George
W. Bush. Elton was highly publicly critical of
Bush regarding the invasion of Iraq, at one point
calling him the worst thing that ever happened
to America. Wow, those are strong words. But
later on, he entirely turned his stance around
and praised Bush, stating that George W. Bush
was the president who had done the most on a
global scale to combat the AIDS crisis in Africa.
He was willing to publicly commend a political
opponent when it aligned with his philanthropic
goals. And then there is his incredibly bizarre
dynamic with Donald Trump. After Trump won the
election, Elton politely declined an invitation
to play at Trump's 2017 inauguration, stating
that as a British national, he didn't feel it
was appropriate to perform in an American political
swearing in. But Donald Trump is a massive, highly
vocal fan of Elton John's music. He played Elton's
hits constantly at his political rallies to hype
up the crowd. And most famously, Trump co -opted
the title of Elton's 1972 hit song to nickname
the North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong -un.
Oh yes. Trump stood at the podium during a speech
at the United Nations and referred to Kim Jong
-un as Little Rocket Man. Trump even later claimed
that he gave Kim Jong -un a CD of the song. signed
by Elton. Now, you might expect a left -leaning
celebrity to issue a furious cease and desist
letter over their art being used for geopolitical
insults. But what was Elton's reaction? In an
interview with Variety, he was asked about it,
and he just said, I laughed. I thought it was
brilliant. He simply refused to take himself
or the situation too seriously in that moment.
It speaks to how deeply his music permeates literally
all cultural and political boundaries. You have
Joe Biden awarding him a prestigious medal for
his humanities work, while Donald Trump uses
his song lyrics to conduct high stakes international
diplomacy. At the same time, Elton isn't blindly
loyal to his own preferred political parties.
Not at all. Very recently, in 2025, he fiercely
turned on the UK Labour government, the very
party he had historically campaigned for. He
stated he felt incredibly betrayed over the government's
plans to exempt massive tech firms from certain
copyright laws for AI training. He was so angry
he called the technology secretary a bit of a
moron in the press. When push comes to shove,
he prioritizes the rights of artists and creators
over any partisan political loyalty. He remains
a fiercely independent thinker. And before we
conclude, we cannot talk about his passions without
mentioning his absolute obsession with football.
Yes, the English football team Watford FC. He
has been a massive fan of the club since he was
a young boy standing on the terraces. In 1976,
right at the absolute peak of his global fame,
he became the chairman and director of the club.
And he didn't just buy it for a photo op. He
invested huge sums of his own money into the
club. He appointed Graham Taylor as the manager,
and together they achieved a minor miracle in
the sport. They took Watford, a relatively small
club, up three divisions, all the way to the
first division. For our American listeners, it's
roughly the equivalent of taking a minor league
baseball team and funding them all the way to
the World Series. They even reached the FA Cup
final at Wembley Stadium in 1984. For a man who
travels the globe on private jets, hangs out
with British royalty, and throws million -dollar
Oscar parties, why invest so heavily both financially
and emotionally in a local English football club?
I speculate that it fundamentally grounds him
to his roots. It provides a tangible, visceral
connection to the working -class environment
of his youth and pinner. The football pitch is
a place where he isn't Sir Elton John, the global
icon. He's just another frantic fan hoping his
team scores a goal. It is something real, gritty,
and grounded outside the insulated, luxurious
bubble of global pop superstardom. Okay, bringing
it all together. We have traced an absolutely
incredible, sprawling arc with you today. We
started with Reginald White, the quiet, anxious
boy in the council house who channeled his strict
classical piano training and his desperate desire
to escape his home life into something extraordinary.
We watched him construct the unstoppable feathered
platform boot wearing force of nature that is
Elton Hercules John. We've seen him transition
from playing Jim Reeves covers in local pubs
to selling 300 million records globally. We explored
how he fought his way out of the darkest, most
isolating depths of chemical addiction to reach
the absolute heights of global philanthropy,
saving countless lives in the process. He's a
true pop culture constant, an artist who survived
by never losing his profound curiosity for the
new. Indeed. It is a life lived in vibrant, unforgettable
color. And as we wrap up, I want to leave you
with a final thought to mull over. Something
we touched on earlier regarding his uniquely
successful creative process. Think about Elton
John and Bernie Taupin never writing a single
song in the same room. We live in a world where
we are constantly told that collaboration requires
physical closeness. We assume it requires constant
communication, arguing, hashing things out together
in endless meetings. But what if the secret to
lifelong legendary creative success is actually
distance? What if giving your partner total,
uncompromised freedom over their domain and literally
stepping out of the room is the ultimate act
of professional trust? The next time you have
to collaborate on a massive project with a colleague
or a friend, ask yourself, would this outcome
actually be better if we just stayed out of each
other's way? What an amazing counterintuitive
thought to end on. Thank you so much for exploring
these incredible sources with us on this deep
dive. Keep asking those big questions. Keep looking
for those surprising aha moments in the world
around you. And we absolutely cannot wait to
see you on our next learning journey.