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[Alexis] 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.
[Elton] I regard you as a great friend, and it's like...
[Alexis] It doesn't feel like an interview,
though I am sitting here with a pad and pen, you know?
[Elton] ...one of my best friends, right?
- And that's how it should be. - [Alexis] Brilliant.
- [Elton] That's fantastic. - [Alexis] Thank you so much.
[Elton] You're kidding me. No. Thank you.
[Alexis] Okay.
[Elton] Right. Where are we now, my love?
[Alexis] We are, um, '70s today.
[crowd chanting] Elton! Elton! Elton! Elton! Elton!
[♪ pop music playing, Elton John "Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting"]
[crowd cheering]
♪ 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 ♪
[♪ song fades]
[Alexis] 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... - [Elton] Yeah.
...and it reached its pinnacle at the Dodger Stadium.
[Elton] The biggest gig of my life.
I knew it couldn't get any bigger.
♪ I was justified when I was five... ♪
[reporter 1 chuckles] Once-in-a-lifetime concert event,
Elton John live...
[reporter 2] Tickets are sold out,
as Elton John is set to play at Dodger Stadium
in front of 110,000.
[reporter 3] Elton making history once again.
No solo artist has ever put on a live stadium show.
[Elton] 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. - [interviewer] Quite fitting.
[woman] Yeah. And then he's got this hat.
[interviewer] I quite like that.
♪ ...I'm a bitch, I'm a bitch oh, the bitch is back ♪
♪ Stone cold sober... ♪
[Elton] 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 ♪
[Elton] Everyone thought my life was so perfect.
[Alexis] 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.
[Elton] 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.
[♪ anthemic piano ballad playing, Elton John "Curtains"]
♪ Oh-oh-oh-oh ♪
[♪ song fades]
[♪ gentle piano music playing, Elton John "Levon"]
♪ Levon wears his war wound like a crown ♪
♪ Calls his child Jesus... ♪
[♪ song fades]
The Queen isn't waving, by the way.
Should she be?
No. She should be, yeah.
[makeup artist] All right. There you go.
[chuckles]
I wonder what's gonna happen to all this stuff when I finish.
- [makeup artist] 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.
[Alexis] And kids make you think about mortality too.
- I find. - [Elton] Yeah.
- [Alexis] Right? - [Elton] 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.
[Alexis] Let's just sort of begin
at the beginning, with your childhood.
[crowd applauding]
[host] Winifred Atwell.
- Of course it is. - [crowd cheering]
[♪ jazz piano music playing]
[Elton] 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 honky-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.
[Elton] 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 abusive. They were violent.
They were physically violent.
- I used to walk on eggshells... - [Alexis] 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.
[indistinct argument]
I spend a lot of my time in fantasy land
while my parents were arguing.
I cherish the things that I had.
[Alexis] You have this record collection.
[Elton] 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 Bartók,
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.
[♪ rock music playing, Elton John "Rock and Roll Madonna"]
♪ If anyone should see me making it down the highway ♪
♪ Breaking all the laws of the land... ♪
[Elton] 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... ♪
[Elton] My father hated rock 'n' roll.
- Hated it. - [Alexis chuckling]
[Elton] 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 shit.
♪ But the freeway is the only way she knows ♪
[Alexis] And you went down well in this environment?
- I mean, you-- - [Elton] Yeah. Like a storm.
I mean, if you can play there, you can play anywhere.
[♪ jazz music playing, Bluesology "Come Back Baby"]
♪ Come back, baby ♪
♪ Come back to me, yeah... ♪
[Elton] 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.
[Alexis] When you changed your name, did that change you?
[Elton] 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!
- [Alexis laughs] - [Elton] But Elton John?
- [Alexis] Yeah. - [Elton] That's different.
I just wanted to become a songwriter.
And that's when I went and answered
- the Liberty advert. - [Alexis] Sure.
[Elton] 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."
- [traffic whizzing] - [indistinct chatter]
[Elton] 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.
[telephone ringing]
[Elton] 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.
[Alexis] Right.
- [Elton] It boggles the mind. - [Alexis] It really does.
[Elton] My life wouldn't be the same. If I hadn't had that,
we wouldn't be sitting here talking about it.
[Alexis] No, no, no, absolutely not, no.
[Elton] 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.
[♪ soft piano music playing]
- [Elton] Hello, Olly. - [Olly] Hey, Elton.
[Elton] Do you play guitar?
[Olly] No, I tried to learn the guitar when I was younger.
- [Elton] It's so difficult. - [Olly chuckles] I-- Yeah,
I couldn't get my head around it.
[Elton] I just-- I just can't
- wrap my head around it. - [Olly chuckles]
[Elton] Plus my hands are so small.
I just can't...
[Olly] But that help-- I think that helps you stylistically, though.
'Cause when your hands bounce around the piano,
- it's mesmerizing. - [Elton] 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. - [Olly] Yeah.
The piano, because of the way it's structured,
you write more complicated chord structures.
- [Olly] 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. - [Olly] 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. - [Olly] Just write to lyrics.
[Elton] Yeah. Soon as I see the written word,
I can visualize the whole thing.
- [Olly] You can see it. - [Elton] Like a film or a movie.
- Am I on? - [Olly] Oh, yeah, you are.
[crowd cheering]
[Elton] 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.
[♪ Elton John "Thank You for All Your Loving"]
♪ It was I on my own with no need to belong ♪
♪ And I wanted to die That's when you came along... ♪
[Elton] 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... ♪
[Elton] 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 gay.
I didn't know I was anything. I hadn't had sex with anybody.
[Bernie] 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 à 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.
[♪ soft music playing, Elton John "Skyline Pigeon"]
♪ Turn me loose from your hands ♪
♪ Let me fly to distant lands ♪
[Alexis] When you make Empty Sky, it comes out
and very little kind of happens.
[Elton] 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-- - [Alexis] Fucking hell.
[Elton] Now I was shitting myself.
[Alexis] I bet, yeah, yeah, yeah.
[Elton] 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.
[♪ orchestral music playing, Elton John "Take Me to the Pilot"]
♪ Through a glass eye your throne ♪
♪ Is the one danger zone ♪
♪ Take me to the pilot for control ♪
[♪ jazz piano music playing]
[Elton] 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.
[♪ upbeat music playing, Elton John "The Cage"]
♪ 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 ♪
[♪ soft music playing, Elton John "The King Must Die"]
♪ 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 ♪
[♪ upbeat music playing, Elton John "Bad Side of the Moon"]
♪ I'm a light world away ♪
♪ From the people who make me stay ♪
♪ Sitting on the bad side of the moon ♪
[♪ mellow music playing]
[Elton] 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. - [Alexis] Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[Elton] 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...
- [vocalizing] - [Alexis laughing]
[Elton] And that's what they did. Wasn't written.
[♪ gentle harp music playing]
[Elton] We edited that onto the beginning,
when the harp comes on.
- [Alexis] Sure, sure, sure. - [Elton vocalizing]
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.
[Alexis] Did you know that you'd nailed it?
[Elton] Yeah.
[interviewer] 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.
[♪ rock music playing, Elton John "Sixty Years On"]
♪ You've hung up your great coat and you've laid down your gun ♪
♪ You know the war you fought in wasn't too much fun ♪
♪ And the future you're giving me holds nothing for a gun ♪
♪ I've no wish to be living sixty years on ♪
[♪ song fades]
[♪ gentle music playing]
[young Elton] 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.
- [Alexis] Come on. - [David chuckles] Yes.
[David] You're ready to go?
Yeah.
[♪ upbeat music playing, The Beaches "Let's Go"]
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. - [laughs]
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.
- [Lucia] Oh, thank you. - [Eloise] Thank you.
[Lucia] We never expected to be here talking to you,
but we're really excited that we are, though.
[laughs]
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.
[Elton] Bye.
[♪ pop punk music playing Linda Lindas "Talking to Myself"]
♪ 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... ♪
[both chuckle]
[Elton] I mean, I am 64 years older
than the drummer from the Linda Lindas.
[both laugh]
[Elton] Allison Ponthier
is an exciting singer and songwriter
who I first started playing on the Rocket Hour last year.
She's a pioneering queer country star
and so let's give her a call right now.
I don't like the word "queer."
- It's the... - [Elton] It's what they--
- ...most politically correct. - [Elton] Yeah? Okay.
[David] Well, I mean, you and I grew up with it,
it was a derogatory term, but now people...
- [Elton] Is that off now? - ...really embrace it. No.
[Elton] 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-- - [chuckles] Yeah, I do.
[Elton] And you love trashy movies.
Welcome to the club.
- [laughs] - [laughs] 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.
[both laugh]
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.
[♪ rock music playing, Allison Ponthier "Autopilot"]
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.
- [Elton] I loved her. - I know, I loved her energy.
[staff member] 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."
[♪ mild music playing, Gary Brooker and Procol Harum "A Whiter Shade of Pale"]
♪ We skipped the light fandango ♪
♪ Turned cartwheels 'cross the floor... ♪
[♪ song fades]
[♪ soft music playing, Elton John "Your Song"]
♪ 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... ♪
[Pete] 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. - [young Elton] Good morning.
We're just starting this weekend on our massive campaign
to capture the hearts of the American youth, folks.
[Pete] Which will take you all over--
[young Elton] All over, mate, yeah.
[Pete] This album literally, literally came out of nowhere.
[young Elton] Yeah.
Pete] It had tremendous impact in this country.
[young Elton] 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--
[Pete] Now it is probably the most successful...
- [young Elton] Yeah, mate. - [Pete] ...album of its kind.
[♪ jazz music playing, Elton John "Amoreena"]
♪ 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... ♪
[Elton] 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 ♪
- [crowd applauding] - [♪ song concludes]
[Elton] 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.
- [crowd applauding] - [Elton] I wasn't a sex symbol.
[♪ lively piano music playing]
♪ Yeah! ♪
♪ Come on, now ♪
♪ Wanna take a high dive ♪
- [crowd] ♪ High dive ♪ - ♪ High dive ♪
[crowd] ♪ High dive ♪
- ♪ High dive ♪ - [crowd] ♪ High dive ♪
♪ High dive ♪
[Elton] 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 ♪ - [crowd] ♪ High dive ♪
♪ High dive ♪
♪ Wanna take a high dive ♪
♪ One, two, three ♪
[Elton] 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! ♪
[Cliff] I can't believe it. Four albums in one year.
[Elton] God knows how I fitted it in.
But it was just a fantastic era of creativity.
[♪ energetic music playing]
[Elton] 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 shit.
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.
[Alexis] How did John Reid come into the frame?
[Elton] 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.
[♪ gentle music playing]
[Elton] 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.
[Alexis] Being gay in 1970,
it's still kind of an underground thing.
[Elton] Oh, yeah. People were still--
If they were gay, they were in the closet.
We moved in together very quickly.
[Alexis] So, the relationship happened
before the managerial position was taken?
[Elton] 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.
[♪ music fades]
[birds chirping]
[cell phone ringing]
- [Elton] Aw, it's my boy. - [cell phone chimes]
- [Zachary] Hi. - Hi, darling, how did it go?
- [Zachary] Great. - Did you do well?
[Zachary] Yeah.
- You remember all your lines? - [Zachary] Yeah.
You're a clever sausage.
So proud of you.
- [Zachary] Thanks. - [Elton] 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. [blows kiss]
I love you so, eh?
- I love you so much. - Aw, I love you, too.
Did Elijah go, too?
- [Zachary] Yeah. - [Elijah] Yeah.
[Elton] Hello, gorgeous boy.
- [Elijah] Hello. - [Elton] Hi, gorgeous.
How are you?
How was your day at school? Was it good?
[squeals] Stop it, stop it!
- You've just eaten out of that! - [Elton] Don't, don't.
- How was your day? Was it good? - [Elijah] Yup.
[Elton] Zachary, leave him alone.
How was Zachary in his play?
He was cool. He was really good. [yawns]
[Elton] Oh, great.
Mr. Reckless. I love that T-shirt.
- Thanks. - [Elton] Aw.
I miss you.
Yeah, we miss you too.
[Elton] Bless you. I love you so much.
- All right, love you. - [Elton] Love you both so much.
- Bye. Love you, Daddy. - [Elton] Have a great night's sleep.
And well done, okay?
- Thank you. Bye. - [Elton] Bye.
Bless him.
[Andrew] All right, you got something to play for us?
[♪ pop music playing, Elton John "The One"]
[Andrew] 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 ♪
[Andrew] "A spirit born."
[both speaks indistinctly]
♪ Fire flying from your hands ♪
[Andrew] The "spirit born."
♪ Hold me closer... ♪
Sounds amazing.
[Andrew] That's your original master vocal.
- Yeah. - [Andrew] That's your vocal.
I just put them-- I just re-did them--
Yeah. I think they sound great.
- [Andrew] Yeah. - They sound really unusual.
[Andrew] I just want to do one thing.
So, the part from "Don't go breaking my heart..."
- [vocalizes] - [Elton] Yeah.
[Andrew] It comes on the one of the second.
A cue should go... [vocalizes]
- Not. [vocalizes] - [Andrew] Yeah.
You go. [vocalizes]
♪ 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 ♪
[plays piano]
[Elton] All right, drop me in there.
[cheers]
[plays piano]
- [Andrew] Perfect. - [Elton] Yeah?
That was... [bleep] [laughs]
[laughs]
[reporter] 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.
[Bernie] 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... ♪
[Elton] 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 Honky Château.
Just had a feeling he'd be great.
And he could sing.
We went off to the château, which was the first time
that we'd ever gone away and recorded,
and the whole scenario changed.
[♪ soft music playing, Elton John "Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters"]
♪ Now I know ♪
♪ Spanish Harlem are not just pretty words to say... ♪
[Elton] 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... ♪
[Elton] 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... ♪
[Elton] You hear things like "Rocket Man" coming into being
and "Honky 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 ♪
[Elton] 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... ♪
[Elton] 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.
[♪ soft music playing, Elton John "Rocket Man"]
♪ She packed my bags last night, pre-flight... ♪
[young Elton] 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... ♪
[Alexis] After "Rocket Man" is a big single,
you get Beatlemania,
- you get screaming fans. - [Elton] 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... ♪
[Elton] 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.
[♪ pop music playing, Elton John "I'm Gonna Be a Teenage Idol"]
♪ And root toot shoot myself to fame ♪
♪ Every kid alive gonna know my name ♪
♪ An overnight phenomenon like there's never been ♪
[all cheering]
♪ A motivated supersonic king of the scene ♪
♪ I'll be a teenage idol Just give me a break... ♪
[young Elton] 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."
[chuckling]
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.
[announcer] Ladies and gentlemen, Elton John.
[crowd cheering]
[♪ lively music playing, Elton John "Crocodile Rock"]
[crowd cheering]
♪ 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... ♪
[Elton] 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... ♪
[Elton] 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... ♪
[Alexis] At this time, you are a star,
unequivocally successful.
Was your dad pleased for you?
[Elton] My dad never saw me.
[Alexis] He never saw you live at all?
[Elton] No.
[Alexis] It's really sad.
[Elton] 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... ♪
[♪ dramatic music playing]
[♪ music fades]
Huh? Well, I don't think so.
- Yeah. - [crew member 1] Yeah?
- Um, sneakers. - [crew member 1] Okay.
[Elton] I have never 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.
[crew member 2] Yay!
[Elton] You should be proud of yourself. I'm so proud.
I'm privileged to play with you guys.
- [band member 1] Thank you, Elton. We are. - Yeah.
[♪ upbeat music playing, Elton John "Candle in the Wind"]
♪ 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... ♪
[Alexis] Were you aware when you wrote things,
like "Candle in the Wind," that this is one for the ages?
[Elton] That really is happenstance.
[Alexis] It is quite a somber album, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road,
for all it's held up as your great pop moment.
It's...
[Elton] Relationships collapsing.
- [Alexis] 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.
[Alexis] What do you think influenced your writing?
[Elton] It was the same time John Reid broke my heart.
[♪ soft music playing]
[Elton] 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...
- [Alexis sighs] - ...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.
[Alexis] Yeah.
[Elton] 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.
[host] 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.
[♪ soft music playing, Elton John "I've Seen That Movie Too"]
♪ 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... ♪
[Elton] 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.
[Alexis] Ray Cooper comes into the picture.
[Elton] Yeah. He was at that session.
He was a percussion player
who could also play xylophone and keyboards
and just do something daring.
[Alexis] It’s also during the sessions of Caribou
that you take coke for the first time.
- [Elton] Yes. - [Alexis] So who was doing it?
- The rest of the band was doing it? - [Elton] John Reid.
- [Alexis] John Reid was doing it. - [Elton] Yeah.
[Alexis] He obviously remains in your life
as your manager.
[Elton] 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. - [Alexis chuckles]
"Well, I'll try some of that."
[Alexis] Did you like it straightaway?
[Elton] 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."
[Alexis] This is a widely held fact
that if you make records on cocaine,
it makes them worse.
[Elton] 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.
[♪ somber music playing, Elton John "Ticking"]
♪ 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.
[interviewer] 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.
[♪ soft music playing]
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... [stutters] ...the bubble thing.
[Alexis] Right.
[Elton] 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... - [Alexis] Yeah.
...ever since I was four or five years old,
shutting the door when my parents were rowing.
[Alexis] Cocaine doesn't help.
[Elton] 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.
- [crew member 1] Rolling? - [crew member 2] Still rolling.
[crew member 3] Speed.
[crew member 1] Okay, here we go. Stand by.
[♪ royal music playing]
[narrator] Ladies and gentlemen, Her Royal Highness the Queen.
- Good evening. - [crew members laughing]
I've been asked to do this commercial.
It relates to a gramophone record...
[crew members laughing]
...called Mind Games by John Lennon.
[Alexis] You knew John Lennon through Tony?
[Elton] Yes. I met him through Tony.
- [Alexis] Okay. - [Elton] I met him on the set.
where John was doing a video
and Tony was actually dressed up as the Queen of England.
[crew member 4] Fred Astaire and ginger beer.
- [laughs] - [indistinct chatter]
[Elton] 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... ♪
[Elton] We just hung out and just had a great time.
We just laughed and laughed and laughed,
and we did a lot of drugs.
[Alexis] I heard a fantastic story
that you and him were in a hotel room
in New York somewhere.
[Elton] Yes. It was like 2:00 in the morning.
- Mountains of coke coming out. - [Alexis chuckling]
[Elton] 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. - [Alexis chuckling]
I went to John. [whispering] "Andy!"
And John went, "No way."
- [doorbell ringing] - [Alexis laughs]
[Elton] So, he kept ringing the bell and we just...
[Alexis] You hid from Andy Warhol?
[Elton] He carried the camera everywhere,
the Polaroid. Like, "No, thanks."
[Alexis laughs]
[♪ upbeat music playing, Elton John "Grey Seal"]
[Elton] 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.
[interviewer] You seem o have really enjoyed
the things you did with Elton.
- Oh, yeah, yeah. - [interviewer] Yeah.
Well, Elton and I are very close.
♪ Whatever gets you thru the night ♪
[young Elton] 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."
[♪ rock music playing, John Lennon "Whatever Gets You Thru the Night"]
♪ Come on listen to me ♪
♪ I won't do you no harm... ♪
[Elton] 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. - [Alexis] Yeah.
[Tony] 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.
[♪ rock song playing, Elton John "The Bitch Is Back"]
♪ The bitch, the bitch, oh The bitch is back ♪
[Tony] 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. [chuckles]
And, you know, The Beatles' last show
had been 1966, in Candlestick Park.
[Elton] 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?"
- [crowd cheering] - [♪ song fades]
[Tony] 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.
[Elton] 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.
[♪ rock music playing]
[Elton] Thank you, New York City!
- [crowd cheering, applauding] - [Elton] 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.
[crowd cheering]
[young Elton] 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.
[crowd cheering, applauding]
[Elton] The reception that he got,
I've never heard a noise, a roar like it.
[Tony] 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... [bleep] ...that?"
[Elton] And a lot of us cried and, you know,
there were tears running down our faces.
- [crowd cheering] - [John] Here we go, then.
A-one, two-- A-one, two, three, four.
[♪ jazz music playing, John Lennon "Whatever Gets You Thru the Night"]
♪ 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 ♪
- [crowd cheering] - [♪ song fades]
[John] 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. - [young Elton chuckles]
[John] And we thought we'd do another
a number of an older, strange fiancé 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.
[rock music playing, John Lennon "I Saw Her Standing There"]
♪ Well, she was just seventeen You know what I mean... ♪
[Tony] When John came offstage, he got in the back of the limo
and he looked at me and he said,
"That was... [bleep] ...great!" [chuckles]
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."
[laughs] 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.
[♪ soft music playing]
[Elton] 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.
- [Alexis] And you’re his godfather? - [Elton] Yeah.
- He became in love again. - [Alexis] Oh.
[Elton] 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. - [Alexis] Were you-- [laughs]
[♪ lively music playing. Elton John "Levon"]
♪ 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 war'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 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 ♪
- [♪ song fades] - [♪ soft piano music playing]
What key is "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" in?
- F? D? - [manager] D.
[indistinct chatter]
I can't remember it. Too long ago, 1976.
- [musician] That's a while back. - Don't remember back that far.
Can't even remember what I had for breakfast this morning.
[laughter]
♪ I've got dementia ♪
I think I've got dementia. I can't remember.
[all laugh]
[Elton] Is Dua here or not?
- Here she comes. Hey, baby. - [manager] There she is. Hello!
[Elton laughs]
I am so excited to be here.
- [Elton] Hello, lovely. - Hello, hello, hello.
[Elton] Hi, gorgeous. I haven’t seen you...
- In so long. - [Elton] Been so long.
[♪ upbeat music playing, Dua Lipa "Cold Heart"]
♪ 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... ♪
- [Elton] This is it. - [Zachary] Tiny.
I thought it was bigger than this. [laughs]
[Alexis] Do you remember it as being bigger?
Everything from the past is always bigger in your memory.
- And this is tiny. - [Alexis laughs]
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.
[young Elton] That's the new cover, folks.
Took me six years to crochet that.
[crowd laughs]
[interviewer] What can we expect on that album?
- [young Elton] Filth. - [crowd laughs]
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.
[Elton] 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.
[reporter] 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.
[Alexis] And why did you want all these people?
[Elton] 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.
[crowd chanting] We want Elton! We want Elton!
[crowd cheering, chanting]
I now want to present a proclamation
which declares this week Elton John Week.
[crowd cheering]
[Mike] 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.
[Alexis] How would you define the state you were in?
[Elton] I was either really fun or very miserable.
[Alexis] Why were you so unhappy?
[Elton] My career was killing 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. - [Alexis] Right.
[Elton] 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... [bleep] ...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 kill my-- I'm gonna drown."
[♪ soft rock music playing]
[Mike] 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.
[♪ soft piano music playing]
[Alexis] How did your parents take it?
[Elton] My mother and my stepfather
and my grandmother were worried about me.
[Alexis] Were you then in bed for a couple of days
- after that or-- - [Elton] No.
[Alexis] So, you were right as rain?
[Elton] Well, I had the show to do, so I had to be as right as rain.
[Alexis] There was never any question of canceling the show?
[Elton] No.
I've never taken my personal life on stage with me.
- [Alexis] 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.
[crowd cheering]
[♪ rock music playing, Elton John "Pinball Wizard"]
♪ 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 ♪
♪ All right! ♪
[vocalizing]
Thank you! "Pinball Wizard!"
[crowd cheering]
Thank you, Los Angeles! Thank you, the Dodgers!
[♪ instrumental music playing]
[Elton] 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.
[Cliff] 18 August 1976.
Speaking with Elton John.
You've announced no touring.
You're gonna stay with that if you can.
[young Elton] For the time.
I'm not saying I'm retiring.
I just know it's time to do something else now.
[Cliff] This is a very important time in your life.
A lot of changes going on.
[young Elton] Yeah. I mean, I feel very strange
at this particular moment.
[Cliff] 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?
[young Elton] 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.
[Cliff] Can you be relaxed at all about the kind of person
you'd really like to fall in love with?
[young Elton] 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.
- [Cliff] Can we get personal? - [young Elton] Hmm, a little bit.
[Cliff] Shall we turn that off?
- [young Elton] Keep going. - [Cliff] Yeah, ok.
Do you see any time when you can be
totally honest and upfront about yourself,
sexually?
[young Elton] I've never talked about this before.
[Cliff chuckles]
[young Elton] But I'm not gonna turn it off.
I haven't met anybody
that I would really like to settle down of either sex.
[Cliff] Do you think it would be devastating
for your music or your sales that is--
If you were to take the bisexual posture?
[young Elton] 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.
[♪ somber music playing, Elton John "All the Nasties"]
♪ 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... ♪
[Alexis] Was there any reaction to it within the music business?
[Elton] 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.
[Alexis] Was it a liberating thing?
- Was it a-- - [Elton] 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 ♪
[Elton] It's not until I got sober in 1990
that everything changed.
♪ Oh, my soul ♪
♪ Oh, my soul... ♪
[Elton] 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 ♪
[crowd cheering]
[♪ soft music playing, Elton John "Someone Saved My Life Tonight"]
♪ 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 ♪
[♪ song fades]
This is a very special night for me,
a very emotional night for me. And-- [clears throat]
[crowd cheering]
It's been a long journey. And...
- [laughs, clicks tongue] - [crowd cheering]
I first came here, to America, in 1970,
to the City of Angels,
- Los Angeles. - [crowd cheering]
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.
[♪ rock music playing, Elton John "I'm Still Standing"]
♪ 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 ♪
♪ 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 ♪
- [♪ song concludes] - [crowd cheering]
[crowd cheering, whistling]
[cheering, whistling continues]
[♪ soft music playing, Elton John "Your Song"]
♪ 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 ♪
[Elton] 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. - [crowd cheering]
♪ 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.
[crowd cheering]
♪ 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 ♪
[♪ song concludes]
[crowd cheering, applauding]
[♪ soft piano music playing, Elton John and Brandi Carlile "Never Too Late"]
♪ 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 shoot 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 ♪
[♪ song fades]
[♪ soft music playing]
[♪ music fades]