Rocket Man Sir Elton John is still standing better than he ever did as he approaches his 75th birthday on Friday.
For millions of his fans, any celebrations will be tinged with sadness as Elton is on his last world tour. Farewell Yellow Brick Road is in America and reaches Europe and the UK this summer.
The legend, who has sold more than 300 million records and performed more than 4,000 concerts, wants to spend more time with sons, Zachary, 10, and Elijah, 8, and husband David Furnish, 59.
Here we have never-seen candid shots from an Iconic Images archive of Elton in 1975 and 1976.
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It was a troubled time for the star, who was exhausted from touring and had attempted suicide. Yet his natural fun and charisma shines through.
Photographer David Nutter, now 82, said: “Elton found the tours exhilarating but exhausting. He’d had four gold albums in two years, but was suffering depression and was heavily into cocaine.”
David shot Elton sprawled in a bathrobe across a dressing table, with chips up his nose, eating ice cream in Blackpool with the band, learning to scuba drive in a pool in Barbados and 10-pin bowling at the Playboy Mansion near Chicago.
He also captured Elton backstage with Michael Jackson and his brothers in Philadelphia in 1976 but said he seemed happier posing with good friend Freddie Mercury and Queen.
“Elton could be difficult,” David admitted.
“Events would be set up for him, and he’d suddenly decide he didn’t want to do them. If we were at a restaurant or club and someone said something Elton didn’t like, he’d storm out. party
“Elton joked about his overdose, trying to make light of it, like a bit of fun, a laugh, when in reality it must have been scary.”
In 2019, the star said he had tried to kill himself with an overdose two days before performing at Los Angeles’ Dodgers Stadium.
David said: “Elton could party hard between shows sometimes, other times he’d hide away and rest. He was going through a lot of stuff, not all of it good.
At one point Elton said: ‘Cancel Christmas!’ He wasn’t in the best of moods.
“But a few weeks in Barbados made him feel a lot better, and he got really clean. There were no drugs. All we did was drink.”
“Elton did some skydiving and parachuting there, and learned to scuba-dive in the pool.
“Kiki Dee and Bernie Taupin and Elton’s band flew in, and he started writing music – that was magic. He wrote most of his next album there. It brought him back to life.”
As Elton recovered from his suicide attempt, he struggled with his sexuality. It was during his 1976 tour when Elton first publicly came out, saying: “I think everybody’s bisexual to a certain degree. I don’t think it’s just me.”
David recalled: “We all knew Elton was gay, and it was no big deal. But coming out in public was a huge deal.”
Elton’s record sales fell afterwards, and for several years he quit giving live performances.
Only in later life did Elton, who suffers from diabetes, begin to focus on his health, working with a trainer and a nutritionist, playing tennis and doing aquaaerobics in his pool.
Last year he said: “I’m probably really the fittest I’ve been in a long, long time.
“I’m grateful to still be alive after all I’ve put my body through. How wonderful it is to be alive and look back on this journey.”
