Elton’s Birthday Weekend

Elton spent his 70th birthday on Saturday night advocating for those in need, and for the arts, at a special celebration at Red Studios in Los Angeles benefitting the Elton John AIDS Foundation (EJAF) and the Hammer Museum at UCLA.

The evening, which honoured his life achievement as well as his 50-year songwriting collaboration with Bernie Taupin, raised nearly $2.8 million to help fund the grant-making initiatives of EJAF and exhibitions and programs at the Hammer Museum.

In addition to tributes from Elton’s friends in the room and around the globe, there were musical performances by Ryan Adams, Rosanne Cash, Lady Gaga, and Stevie Wonder.

In 1967, I came to London and met the man who changed my life.
Bernie Taupin

Ryan Adams, who helped inspire Elton’s 2001 album Songs From The West Coast and performed with him on Country Music Television’s Crossroads the following year, played a solo acoustic guitar version of Rocket Man. Rosanne Cash, with whom Elton has recently written songs for a future project, took on Border Song and Stevie Wonder, who has played on four songs with Elton (starting with I Guess That’s Why They Call It The Blues in 1983) covered Daniel and Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word. Stevie closed by playing Happy Birthday (from his 1980 album Hotter Than July) for Elton, with Lady Gaga joining in following her own acoustic set of Born This Way and Bad Romance.

Over the past 50 years, and with a catalogue of nearly 400 released songs, Elton and Bernie have formed one of the most prolific songwriting partnerships in the history of recorded music. As Bernie explained in his speech at the event on Saturday, “In 1967, I came to London and met the man who changed my life. A kindred spirit whose tastes also ran to the eclectic. Like-minded, he added classic R&B, soul and jazz-fusion to the mix…as eager to appreciate what I brought to the table as much as I was ready to embrace his wisdom and musical tastes. To this day, music is the thread that still binds us. You’d be hard pressed to find two people who love music more. Fact number one, we’ve always been collectors and fans.”

Elton followed by saying, “When I met Bernie, when I started writing songs with him, it was the most joyous thing in the world. He was the best friend I never had and suddenly we did everything together. And it all revolved around music, art, cinema, theatre, dance…the whole of the arts. I’m so proud of our relationship. And I’m so proud of him. He’s half of my soul, really. He’s etched into my heart. The road we’ve travelled has been miraculous and joyous. Without him in my life I wouldn’t be here, he wouldn’t be here. And you know what? It’s an amazing achievement, what we’ve done. And there’s still more to come out.”

I’m so proud of our relationship. And I’m so proud of him. He’s half of my soul, really.
Elton John, on his relationship with Bernie

In the week leading up to the party, Elton sat down with Apple Music’s Beats 1 Radio DJ Zane Lowe for a wonderfully casual hour-long interview that covered many decades and aspects of his career.

He spoke less like a rock star than a music fan, referring to not only his boyhood idols Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis but also current artists he admires and plays on his radio show: Laura Mvula, Rag’n’Bone Man, Parker Millsap among them.

“There’s so much great new music to listen to”, Elton said in his Los Angeles home. “That’s what I love…that’s what keeps me going. I am still basically at heart a fan. I still love going into the record store; I still like buying my CDs. And I love what I do; I love it as much as I did when I got my first 45 RPM, which was At The Hop by Danny and the Juniors and Reet Petite by Jackie Wilson. It still has that same magic for me.”