This is the second half of the interview that Keith Hayward did with me for
his book Tin Pan Alley: The Rise of Elton John, pictured below.
I saw Elton many times after that, at the Festival
Hall, Hollywood Bowl and small provincial gigs as well, and I went to his house
in Sunningdale where we played table tennis. We got on really well because he
was a real record buff and so was I. He collected records and had good taste
and you could sit down and chat with him about old records, obscure ones, and you
could discuss things like great B-sides with him. I remember when I was in Los
Angeles with him he was DJ-ing and I went along to watch him, it was about the
same time as he did the Hollywood Bowl show, the same week, he had taken a
cottage in the Beverley Hills Hotel at the time, and I remember watching him doing
his stint and commenting on his choice of records.
The
Hollywood Bowl was a big night for Elton because they were promoting the Goodbye Yellow Brick Road album that had
just come out. The show started with ‘Funeral For A Friend’ and Linda Lovelace came
on stage to introduce various look-alikes from the world of pop, rock and
film. Then Elton came down and he had
five pianos and when their lids were opened they spelt ELTON. This was the most
memorable Elton show I had seen. I had a good seat at the front in a box and
there was a big party afterwards at the On The Rocks club.
I
remember going to a luncheon for John Reid’s birthday around the same time and
they gave him a great big brass cock. I already knew that Elton was gay or
probably gay. He didn’t seem to have any girls around him, apart from those
that worked for him. You could tell when you’re with rock groups who are
predominately heterosexual by the number of girls that are around and the way
they offer themselves, dressing to attract them. That wasn’t happening around
Elton.
When I
went to Sunningdale, just by Wentworth Golf Course, there was no evidence of
John Reid there because I think Elton lived there with his mum and Fred Fairbrother.
I remember his games room where we played table tennis. He was extremely
competitive but by chance I was quite good at table tennis because when I was a
teenager I used to play in the local town team in a league. Elton was probably
used to playing people who couldn’t really play but he realised after three or
four points that I knew what I was doing and I beat him. He was a bit surprised
and insisted on another game and I think it ended one all.
I
remember America in 1976 when he was a major star. This was at his height when
he had his own plane, The Starship, and a big entourage and he would get to the
airport and there were several limousines to take them to the hotel and to the
gigs. What I really remember was how I got there because I was the only
journalist on the road with him because he remembered me from his early days. I
rang up and said I wanted to do an interview with him and travel on the road
with him and the American PR was a bit snooty about this and I asked him just
to mention my name please, and he got back to me within a few minutes.
The Starship
was a 707 and most of the seats had been taken out. You could walk up the
gangplank and turn right and it’s a carpeted area and with couches at the sides
and beyond that were dining tables with soft dining chairs, two on either side
of the plane, and beyond that was a bar on the left, about six foot long. At
the end of the bar was an electronic keyboard. At various points on the planes
were TV screens which you could use as videos so you could watch what you
wanted. There was a wall behind where the electronic keyboard was and then you
went down a corridor and there were two private rooms, one was full of cushions
where people could lounge around on the floor and another room further on was a
bedroom, with a double bed and then a bathroom. There were one or two bathrooms
at the back and an en suite for the bedroom. The livery on the outside was
painted with Elton John. Other bands used it and the livery changed
accordingly. It was leased from a company in Los Angeles and Frank Sinatra used
the same plane as well as lots of other artists, like Led Zeppelin, and you
paid for it on a daily basis whether you went anywhere or not, about $25k a day.
There were a couple of stewardesses on it as well who were chosen for their
looks and they were dispensing food and drinks. You could tell them what you
wanted beforehand and they’d get it, and there was an unlimited supply of booze
and loads of videos when videos were just coming into play in the mid-seventies
which was a novelty then. I seemed to remember Elton loved Kentucky Fried
Chicken.
When you
have your own plane you can run the tour from one city so you stayed in one
hotel in Chicago and from there in the afternoon they would get on the plane
and go to another city to play and the tour was planned to be within an hour’s
flight from the hotel city. Set off at 4.00pm in the afternoon to get there and
do the sound check and do the show and then after the show it was into the cars
back to the airport onto the Starship, a night flight then back to the same hotel.
The show finished about 10.30 and you are back in your hotel by midnight. The
convoys of limousines would have a police escort as well so you would whiz
through the traffic, through red lights too. Then they would move to another
central point and start again for a couple of weeks.
Elton had
a huge portable wardrobe in his dressing room because he wore these spangly
outfits and you would open the wardrobe and there would be 30 pairs of shoes, 200
jackets to choose from, drawers and drawers of spectacles but he was always
very good natured about it all. He realised it was all over the top and he was
self-mocking about it. He thought it was all a big laugh really.
On that
tour he told me he was retiring and that was a real scoop for me. He said it
was getting all too much for him and he was going to retire and run Watford FC
instead. I knew he was gay. Well, everybody did but you didn’t mention things
like that in the press in those days and MM
didn’t mention things like that, or drugs. We just wrote about the music. When
Elton came out to Rolling Stone I
remember reading that and thinking, ‘Why are they making such a big deal of it.
I‘ve known about that for years.’
When Captain Fantastic came out they had a
party in New York and it was at a lunchtime, a Thursday. I’d been invited to
this party of course but I had deadlines to meet for MM and I had a courier coming round at between 1 and 2pm to collect
my copy. The phone rang at about 1.30 and it was one of Elton’s assistant who told
me Elton had noticed I wasn’t at his party and he wanted to know why. I said
tell him I’ll be along in a minute but I’m busy. The assistant said Elton was worried
that I didn’t like him anymore! When I did get there he came running over and
gave me a great big hug and said he thought I wasn’t coming and I said I was
sorry but I had a lot to do that day. I said I had to write about people other
than him, you know, and he said yes he knew that. It sounds silly now but that’s
how he felt. It was nice in a way, to know that he cared that those who’d known
him since before he was famous still liked him.
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