British musician and rock superstar of immense appeal from the ’70s to date. His frenetic, bisexual lifestyle has almost eclipsed his extravagant costuming and dynamic concert performances around the world. An overnight sensation in August 1970, he climbed to rock megastar status in the ’70s creating an incredible aura of excitement around his music. Some music industry analysts calculate John’s music accounts for as much as 3% of the annual record, tape and CD sales worldwide. The singer pays little attention to his net worth of around $250 million.
Touched by AIDS sufferers, John created an AIDS Foundation which raised $13 million to find treatment for the disease. A close friend of Diana, Princess of Wales, John rendered a heartbreaking, haunting tribute to her at her memorial service at Westminster Abbey in September 1997. The song has sold more than 35 million copies and raised over $33 million dollars for Diana’s charities. He has been given an honorary Knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II.
Elton was the son of a middle-class couple. His father was a milkman turned Royal Air Force officer and his mother, Sheila doted on her son while her husband spent long periods away from home. The boy sought his father’s love and approval but only received his critical treatment when his father returned home. Elton felt picked on and grew intimidated, frightened and nervous around his dad, preferring to stay in his room. Arguments erupted in the household when his mom defended him against his dad. In 1962, Elton’s parents divorced and his mother remarried.
As a toddler, he was able to display his gift for playing any music by ear. Music would become his escape from family problems. The women in his life, his grandmother, mother, and aunt nurtured and supported his musical talents. He left school in March 1965 and became an office boy. That same year, he formed the group, “Bluesology” and signed a recording contract. In 1967, he teamed up with lyricist Bernie Taupin and they lived in his mom home sharing a room with bunk beds.
In 1970, John gave an unforgettable show-stopping performance at the Troubadour in Los Angeles creating a firestorm of publicity for the young English artist. He built up his career with hit album after album garnering critical acclaim and a growing fan base. By 1976, John reached the pinnacle of mega stardom performing at Dodger Stadium among thousands of screaming fans. His onstage elaborate costuming and extravagant eyewear were greeted with good spirits by his adoring audiences. Seldom in the music industry were critics and fans equal in their appreciation of a singer’s musical numbers.
By the late early 1980s, the fickle rock and roll fans started to listen to other music like punk and new wave and John found his popularity sinking. He continued to make records and perform but his songs never skyrocketed up the charts like in the previous decade.
In the ’90s, John once again began enjoying commercial album success, selling more than 200 million records in 1997alone. He has had a Top 40 single in Billboard every year for the last 27 years, beating out Elvis Presley’s record of 23 years. John branched out to film composition with the score to Disney’s “The Lion King.” His hit song, “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” won the Grammy, a Golden Globe and the Oscar award for Best Song for 1994. A workaholic who loves the music business, John wants to win a Tony Award with his new score for “Aida” on Broadway and another Oscar award.
John lives in a grand estate, Woodside, which is set on a hillside overlooking Windsor Castle. His home is lavish and extravagant crammed with English Chintz, Meissen, and Staffordshire pottery in every room. On his estate, the country squire is surrounded by eight Border terriers, two Irish wolfhounds, two German shepherds and a mutt. His owns a six-bedroom London townhouse furnished in the Biedermeir style. In Atlanta, Georgia, he owns an 18,000 square-foot apartment on fashionable Peachtree Street in the toney Buckhead section. It is here where he stores his vast photo collection. His art collection of Julian Schnabel, Eric Fischl, Warhol and Basquiat is housed in his three-story rose colored villa in the South of France.
John’s addiction to shopping is evident in his homes where he displays his spectacular conspicuous consumption. House-proud, his homes are immaculately kept and cleaned. Before his celebrity status, John’s favorite pastime was cleaning, vacuuming and dusting. Admittedly anal-retentive, John must straighten out his picture frames, put his compact discs away neatly, and make sure the TV remote is placed back on the TV set before going to sleep at night.
John lost his virginity at 23 to John Reid, who would eventually become his life-long manager. Before Reid, John had an unrequited crush on his straight lyricist Bernie Taupin. John held deep insecurities about his abilities to be loved by another man or woman in his life. John was rescued from an attempted suicide after his engagement was announced to a wealthy heiress by his friend, Bernie Taupin. John is a romantic and chased after many relationships, especially with male bimbos. His behavior became fodder for the Fleet Street press accusing him of orgies with young “rent boys.” John sued the press and won in October 1988 with a settlement of one million pounds and a printed apology.
On 14 February 1984, he married German sound engineer Renate Blauel. He wanted to have children but his drug use and unhappiness cost him a divorce four years later. Since 1997, John has been a couple with David Furnish, an Atlanta native who runs his film company and made the documentary “Tantrums and Tiaras” about John’s life in 1996. John has always suffered from feeling insecure about his looks, appearance and overall attractiveness. He agonizes over his weight problem and thinning hair. After an unsuccessful hair transplant, he opted for a luxurious auburn weave styled in a Buster Brown bowl cut.
In the ’70s and ’80s, he recorded successfully but was deeply addicted to cocaine and alcohol.
During his career highs and lows, he did not emerge from his room until late in the day, if at all. He would hide out for weeks on end drinking scotch and snorting coke. His paranoia became so overwhelming he was untrusting of everyone. After his lover sought rehab in Arizona in 1990, John after much bitterness and anger, looked at his own demons. Suffering from drug addiction and bulimia, John finally found a hospital that offered a program dealing with the two problems. On 29 July 1990, John checked into a Chicago hospital for therapy to gain back his self-esteem and dignity. He tried to leave the program twice but broke down in tears outside on the sidewalk and returned to the hospital. Concealing his problems from his public, on 4 January 1993, he was awarded $518,700 after a London jury found the “Sunday Mirror” guilty of reporting that he was bulimic in 1992.
John suffered great emotional loss in 1997 with the death of his good, close friend Italian fashion designer, Gianni Versace. Devastated by his murder, he was comforted by his friend Princess Diana who lost her own life in a car accident on 31 August 1997. Writing, composing and singing a tribunal song at Princess Diana’s funeral, the song, “Candle in the Wind,” was then released to the public, staying on the top charts for quite a few weeks. The extensive proceeds that the song generated were donated to her favorite charities.
John was fitted with a heart pacemaker June of 1999. No details were released concerning the operation, but John was up and performing by the end of August.
In June 2001, John will have a “garage sale” of his cars, 19 examples of automotive excellence, an auction of Jaguars, Rolls Royce’s, Bentleys, Aston Martins, Jaguars and Ferraris.
On 21 December 2005, Sir Elton John married his partner of the past 12 years, David Furnish, at the Guildhall in Windsor, England.
Their son, Zachary Jackson Levon Furnish-John, was born to a surrogate mother on 25 December 2010 in California. A second son, Elijah Joseph Daniel Furnish-John, was born to the couple by the same surrogate mother on 11 January 2013. After gay marriage became legal in England in March 2014, John and Furnish married in Windsor, Berkshire on 21 December 2014, the nine-year anniversary of their civil partnership.
Link to Wikipedia biography