“It was pathetic”: Elton John met his hero in 1976 and instantly regretted it
Throughout the latter stages of his career, Elton John has become a father figure to younger artists attempting to navigate their way through an ever-confusing music industry.
As one of the best-selling solo artists of all time, he’s not a bad mentor to have. Artists such as Sam Fender, Lewis Capaldi, and even indie outfits like Yard Act are among the many that John has taken under his tutelage, being on hand to offer advice during any difficult juncture, and even pop up in a song or two.
While it would be easier for John to focus on his own career, his family life, and ‘Life President’ position at Watford FC, he’s a deeply caring person who wants others not to make the same mistakes he did in the roaring cocaine days of his 1970s.
Despite performing in sold-out arenas with the company of thousands, standing on the stage can be an incredibly lonely place to be. Few are better placed to offer words of encouragement than Elton, who has previously stood in the same shoes. However, when he was in their position, his meeting with his idol was an incredibly regretful encounter.
The singer-songwriter hero-worshipped Elvis Presley as a child growing up in suburban London, which invited him into an exciting new world. During his youth, Elton’s mother would make regular trips to the record store and introduce her son to the latest sounds from the hit parade. The moment she brought back ‘Heartbreak Hotel’ by Elvis Presley, it had a transformative effect on John.
“My mum always used to buy a record every Friday. She came home, and she had the 78 of Elvis Presley, and she said, ‘I heard this in the record shop, and I’ve never heard anything like it!’ She played it to me, and I’d never heard anything like it either,” he once told The Guardian.
With a wistful air of reflection, Elton continued: “It was weird because, about ten days before, I’d had my hair cut in the local barbers, where I went as a little boy, and I’d noticed a Life magazine. I was reading this article on a man who looked like an alien but was so handsome – I’d never seen anything like him, and I put two and two together and said, ‘That was the man I saw in the magazine!’ So that was the record that really changed everything.”
Decades later, they had gone from listening to Elvis’ records in the comfort of their family home to seeing him perform in front of their very eyes. However, the man they saw before them was a far cry from the idyllic version of Elvis Presley that John had dreamt up in his head or seen in magazine pages. The concert occurred in 1976 when Presley’s health was in dire straits, and the global superstar was a shadow of his former greatness, as John discovered when he met him before the show.
Seeing Elvis in the flesh was a warning sign about what could happen to Elton if he didn’t change his ways. The ‘Rocket Man‘ singer opened up about the gruelling ordeal to Oprah Winfrey in 1996 and revealed: “It was so sad because he turned into this big man with no eyes. They had sunk into the back of his head, and it was pathetic.”
Elvis had succumbed to an addiction to painkillers, which utterly consumed him. As a result, he was no longer reminiscent of the musician Elton once adored. It had a scarring effect on the British singer, who was overcome with sadness following the event. He had gone from proclaiming that ‘Heartbreak Hotel’ “completely changed the way I listened to music forever” and hailing its “primal” beauty to feeling utterly deflated.
Once, he had said, “He looked amazing and he sounded amazing and it changed everything for me. It was rock ‘n’roll! This was what I wanted to be.” But one meeting as he was fulillig that juvenile ambition in ‘76 sullied all that.
John spoke about his experience of the evening to Tom Doyle in the book Captain Fantastic and painfully admitted, “It was sad.” The pair conversed before Elvis took to the stage, but according to Doyle, it was an awkward discussion. “Elton looked into the eyes of the King and felt there was ‘nothing there’,” he wrote after discussions with the Rocketman.
Reportedly, Elton requested Presley to perform a rendition of ‘Heartbreak Hotel’ during the concert, but unfortunately, Elvis could not alter his pre-determined set. Elton recalled: “It was someone who was in a complete drug haze giving nylon scarves away to these fans. And yet it was still, in a way, magical.”
While Elvis did have a mystical aura, John saw a frightening glimpse behind the curtain, which dissipated the illusion of grandeur. He wasn’t this superhuman figure who existed in another realm; Presley was a flawed and fragile individual like the rest of us. If John wasn’t careful, the meeting was also a haunting reflection on his future.
In the end, perhaps it beneficially dismissed the notion of stars being superhuman, and may well be part of the reason Elton has since dedicated so much time supporting the stars of the future.
