By the time Elton John retired from touring in 2023, everyone knew his story. It followed a memoir and a biopic, which cemented the Elton lore: how in 1967 jobbing musician Reg Dwight was given an envelope of Bernie Taupin’s lyrics, forging the greatest songwriting partnership since Lennon and McCartney, a baroque new identity, a rampant hit rate of era-defining albums and the commensurate cocaine addiction. Then came sobriety, an emphatic commitment to funding HIV and Aids treatment, finding love with David Furnish; The Lion King, Candle in the Wind, one of the UK’s first gay marriages, two sons. Last year, the documentary Never Too Late told his story again. Just last month, his greatest hits collection, Diamonds, finally hit UK No 1 after 374 weeks. No one could ask for a more enduring brand, a more deserved curtain call. John has different ideas.
“I’m 77. If I don’t push myself, Laura, what’s the point in carrying on?” he says, via video call in early January. “Just be ‘Elton John’ for the rest of my life? Which would have filled me with absolute fucking horror.”
