Elton John on why Prince was “musically miles ahead”
Changes were made in 2016 that we will likely never recover from.
The music world waved goodbye to not one, but a handful of icons whose careers may simply never be matched, and we mourned as generations of genius finally came to a close. David Bowie, Leonard Cohen and Prince all left the earth, along with the question of whether we will ever see their like again.
Truthfully, you don’t have to be remotely spiritual to remark on the absurdity of the timing. Because it wasn’t just those three who moved on, either. Glenn Frey, George Michael, Alan Rickman, Carrie Fisher and Gene Wilder were but a few icons who joined them in their exit, posing the question of whether this was some higher cosmic plan, to bookend creativity and call time on Earth’s helping of genius.
Prince had always seemed undefeatable, so mercurial in his talent, that it felt somewhat feasible that he would live forever. Moving through the eras and changing sounds as he went, 2016 just felt like the very beginning of his career, rather than the end. So his passing sent shockwaves through the music community, along with the sobering realisation that maybe in him, it was the best it ever got.
Elton John certainly thought so, and thus gave a tribute that summarised his enduring and unbeatable brilliance. “The greatest performer I have ever seen,” he claimed, adding, “A true genius. Musically, way ahead of any of us. Sang with him twice on stage. What an honour.”
One of the main reasons the honour wasn’t lost on Elton was because of Prince’s rather reclusive tendencies. Unsurprisingly, as a man whose genius operated on a different frequency to the average human, Prince didn’t harbour all of the gregarious properties of a charismatic global mega star and so gave Elton little to nothing in terms of insight, even when they did perform together.
During their first meeting, Elton recalled, “He was standing alone by a wall, so I went up and introduced myself to him: ‘Hi, my name’s Elton, and I’m a huge fan of yours, and I just wanted to say… ‘That was as far as I got – Prince just walked off without a word”.
Luckily, Elton got his redemption as the pair performed ‘The Long and Winding Road’ by The Beatles during Prince’s six-month residency at the Club Rio in Las Vegas. Prince cut a similarly aloof figure on stage, ignoring him completely and walking off stage once more, leaving Elton wondering if the dream of sharing the stage with this icon would ever come true.
Eventually, the two finally did duet on The Beatles track in 2007 at London’s O2 Arena, a moment that brought Elton’s career full circle. In lofty, but warranted praise, Elton compared the moment to performing alongside “John Lennon, or Bob Dylan, or Ray Charles”.
Prince’s name deserves to be in those echelons of greatness, for his art was enduring and ever-changing, making him one of the greatest to ever do it.
