Elton John

The Metamorphosis of Reginald Dwight

Reginald Dwight played the piano in London pubs before he turned twenty. He didn't like his name or the face he saw in the mirror. So he decided to kill off the neighborhood pianist to make way for the star we all know.

In 1967, he met Bernie Taupin through an ad in the magazine New Musical Express. It was a chance encounter that changed the music industry in the twentieth century. Elton wrote the melodies and Bernie wrote the lyrics without even being in the same room.

And the gamble paid off.

During the 1970s, his pace of production was frantic. He released albums such as Goodbye Yellow Brick Road in 1973, which sold millions of copies within a few months. He managed to place seven consecutive albums at number one on the U.S. charts. No one had achieved anything similar until then.

But success brought a spiral of excess that nearly ended his career before he turned eighty. The Donald Duck costumes and light-up glasses hid a deep loneliness. Fame in those years had no mercy for artists who didn't fit the traditional mold.

Breaking into the big screen

His connection to film went beyond soundtracks. In 1975 he played the Pinball Wizard in the film Tommy under the direction of Ken Russell. He wore enormous platform boots and glasses that covered half his face. But his real breakthrough in Hollywood came decades later with animation.

Disney asked him to write the music for The Lion King in 1994. The song Can You Feel the Love Tonight earned him an Oscar and a Golden Globe. That success allowed him to found his own production company, Rocket Pictures, to manage his audiovisual projects.

He didn't want a clean hagiography.

In 2019, the biopic Rocketman was released, starring Taron Egerton. Elton John insisted that the film not shy away from the darkest moments of his drug and alcohol addiction. The film grossed more than 195 million dollars worldwide. It was an act of brutal honesty that earned him his second Oscar for the song (I'm Gonna) Love Me Again.

The End of a Multimillion-Dollar Cycle

The farewell tour titled Farewell Yellow Brick Road began in 2018 and dragged on for five years due to global pandemic delays. It was a massive technical production with high-resolution screens and costumes designed by Gucci. Elton wanted to say goodbye to the stage while his voice could still hit the high notes.

Because business was always present behind the colored glasses.

His last concert took place in Stockholm on July 8, 2023. That tour became the highest-grossing of all time up to that point, with 939 million dollars raised. The financial figures exceeded every forecast of the British music industry.

In 2024, the documentary Elton John: Never Too Late premiered at the London Film Festival, documenting the final days of the tour. It was directed by R.J. Cutler and David Furnish. The film includes never-before-seen footage from his personal archives, shot in Super 8 during his first concerts in the United States.