Why Kate Bush never wanted to compete with Elvis: “Thank God I don’t”
Even though she’s gone on to influence so many other stars in the years since her emergence, there truly has never been another performer quite like Kate Bush.
Of course, there have been countless other incredible performers in the history of popular music, so in that sense, she’s far from unique, but the way in which she has carved her path from a young age is truly singular, and the fashion in which she has maintained this status is not exactly something for which you can draw parallels with other artists.
The thing that makes Bush so out of the ordinary is the fact that she’s managed to have mainstream success and be instantly recognisable despite making very few public appearances. Stepping back from touring in 1979 at the age of 20 after the infamously tortuous Tour of Life, where she was performing elaborate shows non-stop for six weeks, she chose to live a more reclusive life compared to many other stars of her generation, and was also very particular about when she would do any kind of publicity.
Despite being a private, shy and retiring figure, Bush remains iconic and beloved by many, but she doesn’t quite understand why anyone would want to pursue a career in music in any other way opposite to how she has always chosen to. Many people often choose not to pursue a career in music for this exact reason, but in Bush’s eyes, those who do go chasing the delights of being world-renowned are destined to find out the hard way that it’s hard to ever escape fame for a little bit of peace.
In a 2006 interview with Rolling Stone France, Bush was asked whether for this reason she would consider someone like Elvis Presley to be her opposite, with interviewer Philippe Badhorn stating: “You work at your own pace; you manage to have a life away from show-business when he stepped out of day-to-day reality.”
Rather predictably, Bush would state that she has no idea why someone like Presley would have actively wished for the fame that he received, and hypothesised that he never truly sought it in the first place.
“I believe he really was a sweet and fun loving nice guy who couldn’t say no,” she argued. “Nobody would want to be that famous. I was already asked if I felt I was like him. Thank god I don’t. I’m not as famous, nobody is, except maybe Frank Sinatra or Marilyn Monroe, but she died because of that sooner than him. It’s hard to have the whole world looking at you.”
While it’s impossible to know whether this is really the case, and whether Elvis was truly in pursuit of notoriety, it’s fair to say that you have to be a different kind of person to want to be perceived by the public in such a way. For Bush, her own stability and privacy is something that’s always been important to her, and if that means that she also gets to work on her own terms without constantly being hounded by fans and media alike, then it’s probably best that she’s remained distant from the spotlight to the same degree.
