The one song Rod Stewart never forgave Elton John for: “Don’t touch it with a barge pole”
Elton John has never been known for being a mild-mannered brand of superstar. In every facet of his career, John has made it a habit of doing things larger than life whenever possible, whether making a mainstream ballad or contributing beautiful music for film soundtracks.
Although John may not always have the best judgment about what will stand the test of time, one of his most celebrated songs eventually led to bad blood between him and Rod Stewart.
Looking back on John’s various professional decisions, he never knocked it out of the park all the time. Considering that this was the same musician who hated the sound of ‘Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me’ and infamously thought that Queen’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ would never make it a single, one has to wonder whether there are a few blind spots in those gigantic lenses that he wore onstage every night.
It didn’t matter much to John, though, who usually had unforgettable hits across his career regardless of his judgment. As John was reaching the largest successes he would ever see on the back of albums like Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, fellow rock outfit The Who was on the verge of one of their most ambitious projects with the movie adaptation of Tommy.
Being one of the first celebrated concept albums, Townshend’s story about a deaf, dumb, and blind boy was ideal for a film adaptation. Drafting in rockstars alongside actors like Jack Nicholson to round out the cast of characters, John would eventually take centre stage to perform his version of the hit from the album, ‘Pinball Wizard’.
The first time that Townshend reached out to musicians about the part, the first person he thought of was Rod Stewart, then still riding the high off of albums like Every Picture Tells a Story. While Stewart thought that it might be a good opportunity, it was John who ended up talking his friend out of taking the part.
When discussing being cast in the project, John recalled, “They tried to cast Tommy for a long time, and Rod Stewart rang me up one day and said, ‘They wanted me to be the Pinball Wizard’. I said, ‘Don’t touch it with a barge pole’”.
Once Townshend approached John with the same opportunity, though, the pianist thought that it would be a nice change of pace from the originals that he had been playing for years.
Fitting in his wheelhouse, John delivered an impressive glam-flavoured take on the original song, adding a healthy dose of roaring piano to do justice to Townshend’s impressive strumming on the recorded version. While John thought that it couldn’t have gone better, he admitted that there may have been some bad blood between him and Stewart over it.
After making his cameo in the movie, John thought that Stewart would resent him, explaining, “Of course, I did it, and it was an amazing success, the film and the ‘Pinball Wizard’ track, and I don’t think Rod’s quite forgiven me for that”.
Although both John and Stewart have been to keep things reasonably cordial throughout the years, it must sting knowing that you got cheated out of one of the most significant cinematic moments in rock history.
The song has long been a sore spot for another performer, too. Pete Townshend has routinely labelled the track one of the worst he ever wrote for The Who. “I knocked it off,” the guitarist said. “I thought, ‘Oh, my God, this is awful, the most clumsy piece of writing I’ve ever done. Oh my God, I’m embarrassed. This sounds like a Music Hall song. I scribbled it out, and all the verses were the same length, and there was no kind of middle eight. It was going to be a complete dud, but I carried on.”
That dud would go on to bercome one of the most beloved rock anthems of the decade, and cement The Who as rock and roll legends once more.
