Understanding the reason why Elton John and David Bowie stopped being friends
Both David Bowie and Elton John gained major star power around the same time, with the Starman’s single ‘Space Oddity’ reaching the top five in the UK Singles Chart only a year before the Rocketman dropped ‘Your Song’ to similar chart success.
Due to the similarities between the two artists, what with their eccentric styles and forays into similar genres, it wasn’t long until the two struck up a friendship. According to John, “David and I were not the best of friends towards the end. We started out being really good friends.” Detailing further, he continued, “We used to hang out together with Marc Bolan, going to gay clubs,” he added, before explaining that they eventually “just drifted apart”.
The ‘Tiny Dancer’ singer was hit with a series of rather cruel remarks by Bowie in interviews which weakened the pair’s friendship. “Years later, he’d always make snippy remakes about me in interviews,” John said. “‘The token queen of rock and roll’ was the most famous one, although, in fairness, he was absolutely out of his mind on coke when he said it.”
In another interview, Bowie even addressed John when he said: “I consider myself responsible for a whole new school of pretensions — they know who they are. Don’t you, Elton?”
John explained: “I honestly don’t know what the problem was, but there clearly was a problem. I was never great friends with Bowie. I loved his music and we socialised a couple of times, visiting the Sombrero with Tony King and having dinner together in Covent Garden while he was rehearing for the Ziggy Stardust tour. But there was always something distant and aloof about him, at least when I was around.”
From the outside looking in, it’s clear that the two just didn’t naturally mesh well together. Commenting later, John said: “I thought it was a bit snooty. He wasn’t my cup of tea. No; I wasn’t his cup of tea.” The ‘Rocketman’ singer even believed that Bowie thought himself “above” him.
Despite the hostility towards each other over the decades, John seemed to leave that behind when Bowie passed in 2016. Speaking about the ‘Heroes’ singer’s death, John said: “But the dignified way he handled his death, I mean, thank God. I knew he’d had a heart attack on stage in Berlin years ago, but not about the cancer. Everyone else take note of this: Bowie couldn’t have staged a better death. It was classy.”
John paid his respects to Bowie during a gig in Los Angeles just three days after the news broke, which you can watch below.
