Elton John has been a dominant part of the pop music scene for more than 40 years. He recorded his first album, Empty Sky, in 1969, while Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, which was released in 1973, is considered a classic. And, whereas many of his contemporaries , Elton John, who celebrated his 65th birthday on March 25th, is still going strong. His latest venture is as the executive producer of the film, Gnomeo & Juliet. This is an animated feature that combines William Shakespeare’s tragedy, Romeo and Juliet, with a comedy about garden gnomes.
Two British actors, Emily Blunt and James McAvoy, provide the main voices, while many of Elton John’s more famous songs are included in the .
In the film two rival gangs of gnomes, the reds and the blues, fight against each other. Some American critics thought that this was a symbol for the United States’ divisions: red is the colour of the Republicans and blue is the colour of the Democrats. Elton John says this was a coincidence, even if the film does have a message:


Elton John
(Standard British accent)

We tend, as children,

to ape our parents

, and I think this is a

storyline

saying that

we should all get on

, even if we’re Catholic and we’re Protestant, or we’re Muslim and we’re Jews, if we’re Democrats or Republicans. I think in America, though,

it’s gotten so far outstretched now

, where the rhetoric is so dangerous, and it puts things in people’s minds. It’s so unnecessary. And if there is any message that can come out of this film, which is purely coincidental, and the time is coincidental, then

I’m all for it

. Because, as I grow older,

it saddens me

to see a country that I love so much, having such a

gulf

between people sometimes that they don’t meet in the middle and talk and put their differences aside.

UNPREDICTABLE
Elton John – whose real name is Reginald Dwight – has certainly had a varied career. In the 1980s he became of his favourite , Watford, but he says that the biggest change came in the 1990s, when he received a phone call from Tim Rice, asking him to co-write the music for the film The Lion King:

Elton John

I don’t know what’s around the corner, and

that’s kind of the way I like it

. You really can’t plan. My life has not... or my career has not been planning, “Oh, in three years, we’re going to do this.” It just happens by accident, ‘cause you never know what part you’re going to be offered. You never know what

gig

you’re going to be offered. And that one part and one show, or one project, can change your whole life. And that’s the way I look at it.
So I don’t really have any more ambitions, other than I just want to work and do excellent

stuff

and enjoy it. And I’m enjoying everything in my life. But I think the element of surprise in this business is what makes us really love it because one day you’re sitting by the phone, waiting to do something, or not doing anything, and the next day

you’ve got the chance of a lifetime

. So, you know, those little phone calls don’t come up so often, but when they come up, it’s fantastic.

FATHERHOOD
And the 1990s was also the decade that Elton John met his partner, David Furnish, who is also one of the producers of Gnomeo & Juliet. in a civil union in 2005, while last Christmas they became the of a baby boy, Zachary, who was born via a :

Elton John

It’s been the most wonderful thing that probably has ever happened to me after meeting David.
And it’s really been... the most surprising thing is, it’s been very relaxing, because this little soul that you’re feeding, and you’re changing, and you’re bathing, and you’re telling bedtime stories to, is a

blank palette

, is a blank

canvas

, and all it needs is love and

nurturing

. And it’s just the most wonderful feeling. When he gets to talking and running around, I’ll probably feel a little different. What can I tell you? It’s wonderful, and

I’m biased

.

LOVE AND HAPPINESS
In the past Elton John was often in the news for non-musical reasons. He had a history of cocaine and bulimia, but he now thinks that he has found stability:

Elton John

As I grow older,

I’m much more content in my own skin

because,

when I come off stage

now, I have a balance in my life, and, until I found that in 1990, I didn’t. I came off stage, and I didn’t know what to do with myself.
Now, I come home and I fly home every night after a show. And I get back in my own bed, and I have a wonderful partner. I have wonderful friends. I can remember things! I don’t take drugs any more! It’s a whole new world out there!

ON HIS MUSICAL PREFERENCES
And here are some more questions and answers with Elton John at the recent Gnomeo and Juliet press conference:

Your music is very varied.

What accounts

for your great eclecticism?
The fact that I grew up in a house that listened to radio, bought records. My family always bought records, and I grew up in the early ‘50s, so it was either classical music or dance music or great vocalists like Frank Sinatra. And I knew all the great American singers. And then, you know, rock and roll came and changed my life, and changed the whole music scene forever.

I LOVE RAP!
any form of music. I listen to everything. and say, “I don’t like it,” they should go and see Kanye West in the studio rapping, or Eminem, when he’s in the studio. It’s a phenomenon. It’s like modern jazz was when John Coltrane, all those people started. , but don’t ridicule it. I find that so many people of my age don’t listen to anything new. I love the new.