Elton John on the genius musician who got lost to history: “He was my idol”
It’s hard for any artist to show their best work at the right time. Even if some artists have pure beauty on display across every one of their albums, being in the business is about being a good salesman, which means that even some of the greatest artists of all time get passed by if they don’t have some sort of gimmick or blessed with the best physical features known to humankind. Elton John certainly had more than enough gimmicks to get him through all of his shows, but that meant leaving behind some of his favourite acts in the dust by accident.
From day one, though, John didn’t initially have the idea of being one of the most androgynous stars in glam rock history. He had a flair for theatricality whenever he performed, but when he was beginning his career as a songwriter, he was more interested in the craft of writing songs in the same way that The Beatles or Bob Dylan had done in their prime.
If anything, his partnership with Bernie Taupin was an attempt for him to put himself in the same league as singer-songwriters from around the same day. He may have been lumped in with the likes of Marc Bolan and David Bowie when he started wearing lavish outfits onstage, but his sights were set on being the piano equivalent to people like James Taylor and Cat Stevens compared to the next rock and roll superstar.
And looking at the artists he worked with, it wasn’t a shock to see him turn towards the titans of songwriting. John never stopped being a fan of music of all sorts, but having an R&B song on the charts with ‘Bennie and the Jets’ was nothing compared to working with someone like John Lennon or eventually getting to appear on some of George Harrison’s greatest albums. He wouldn’t have been that out of place amongst legends, but Leon Russell always tended to be forgotten a bit.
If the powers that be in rock and roll insist that Russell fade into the background, he’s one of the most pivotal side characters in rock history. He was there at the inception of Tom Petty’s career when he started, he helped Harrison pen the song ‘Bangladesh’ for the biggest charity concert of the time, and in the case of John, he was everything that a songwriting pianist should aspire to be, always getting better at his craft even if it meant not selling as many records.
When talking about Russell at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, John still felt that his hero never got his just due, saying, “He was my idol. He was the man I wanted to play like, sing like, and look like. He couldn’t have been nicer to me at a time when we were basically doing the same thing. I want people to acknowledge his greatness as a piano player, as a songwriter and as an artist, and I felt that he’d been forgotten about.”
If Russell wasn’t getting anywhere with his solo career, though, John was going to do everything in his power to get him back on the charts, eventually cutting a record with him called The Bridge where they played tunes back and forth. And out of all the collaborations John ever made, this one felt the most genuine, as if he was playing with the kind of artist that served as his musical big brother in lots of ways.
Although many musicians can grow bitter knowing that their music isn’t being appreciated the way that it should, Russell’s story is that of redemption towards the final years of his life, as if he finally got to see the accolades that he always deserved but had never properly come. It’s easy for anyone to acknowledge genius in hindsight, but John bringing Russell back into the limelight is one of the best examples of someone giving their idols their flowers while they can still smell them.
