Elton John: Sir Bitch Is Back
As the sits alongside his beloved cocker spaniel, Arthur, inside a plush villa at the Beverly Hills Hotel, Elton John is a man who has been creating almost as much controversy as music of late. And he’s been creating a lot of music.
Last night, John was in fine form during a Ray Charles tribute at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. The night before, he played a cancer benefit at Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne’s mansion. Later today, he’s heading down to the O.C. to host a tennis event for his AIDS foundation. Then it’s off to Las Vegas for two weeks of The Red Piano, his musical residency at Caesars Palace. And there are the two musicals that open next year – including his first with longtime lyricist Bernie Taupin. Finally, there’s the real reason he wants to talk today: Peachtree Road, his strongest and most revealing album in years.
Yet none of this is why John has been making headlines recently. In the weeks leading up to the release of Peachtree Road – his forty third album, and the first he’s ever produced himself – Sir Elton has been at the center of a few royal media flare-ups. First, upon arriving at Taipei Airport, he offered a memorable critique of the Taiwanese press corp., calling them “rude, vile pigs” on live TV.
From there, Captain Fantastic’s 2004 goodwill world tour moved on to London, where one newspaper recently dubbed him “England’s Alternative Queen.” While accepting a songwriting award at magazine’s annual awards show, John expressed his outrage over the fact that Madonna had even been nominated in the Best Live Act category. “Anyone who lip-syncs in public onstage when you pay seventy-five pounds to see them should be shot,” he said: “That’s me off her fucking Christmas-card list, but do I give a toss? No.” (Madonna replied that he’ll stay on her Christmas-card list “whether he’s naughty or nice.”)
“For me, this moment in my life is about trying to be true to myself, and I got in trouble this week when I spoke my mind,” John says. “Maybe I shouldn’t have said what I said, but you know what? Anyone would have thought that I had said I believe that Hitler was right or something. Madonna was probably the wrong person to choose to level the accusations at, because there are far worse culprits. I kind of regret that. But you know what? I’m fifty-seven – I’ve got to speak my mind.”
On the new album’s first track, “The Weight of the World,” you sing about being “amazed that I’m still around.” Are you surprised you’re still standing?
I’m amazed I’m still around and still as enthusiastic, because there was a point when because of the drugs and the depression you become cynical. You hate your career and you hate everything. I came out of that, and I still am enjoying what I do like I was in the 1970s. Last year I wrote sixty songs. I wrote two musicals, which were totally different from each other – Billy Elliot, which is a Seventies pastiche, and lestat, which is Bernie’s and my first-ever musical together and totally without electronic instruments. I also wrote a lot of songs for the movies. It’s like when we were in the Seventies, when we did two albums a year.
2001’s “Songs From the West Coast” and “Peachtree Road” find you back in classic form. How did it happen?
I have to thank [producer] Pat Leonard for the last record. When we went into the studio, Pat said, “Just do what you do. Stop being someone you’re not, Be Elton and play a lot of piano.” Songs wasn’t a big commercial success here, but that wasn’t the point of it.
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