Speaker 1: Hi there, Welcome back to another edition of my podcast,
Speaker 1: Loves Someone with the Laila. I love doing these podcasts
Speaker 1: because I get to talk to people for more than
Speaker 1: three and a half minutes. On the radio, because you
Speaker 1: guys want to hear songs, and you know it's a
Speaker 1: radio show, I can only really talk to somebody for
Speaker 1: three or four minutes at a time. But in this podcast,
Speaker 1: I can talk to somebody. I can share from the heart,
Speaker 1: we can be a little more in depth, we can
Speaker 1: go deep. And today's guest is somebody that I have adored, loved,
Speaker 1: played his music for over forty years, and I thought
Speaker 1: that I knew everything there was to know about him.
Speaker 1: I've read articles, I saw his movie Tierra and Tantrums
Speaker 1: years ago. I've been to no less than a dozen
Speaker 1: of his concerts, especially when he was touring with Billy Joel.
Speaker 1: But I knew nothing really about Sir Elton John until
Speaker 1: I watched the movie Rocketman, And boy was that an
Speaker 1: eye opener about his life, his childhood, his addictions, his recovery,
Speaker 1: and his tender, tender, tender heart. Now I've known the
Speaker 1: man has a tender heart because he has supported Point Hope,
Speaker 1: my charity for fifteen years now. He has been a
Speaker 1: huge contributor and has donated tickets to shows and autographed
Speaker 1: albums and all sorts of wonderful things that we've auctioned
Speaker 1: off to raise money for Point Hope. So I've known
Speaker 1: that he's had a very tender and generous heart, and
Speaker 1: he's raised like four hundred million dollars, five hundred million
Speaker 1: dollars something insane to help people around the world who
Speaker 1: are living with HIV and AIDS. So I've always known
Speaker 1: that he had a very tender heart and a very
Speaker 1: generous heart, But I had no idea the depth of
Speaker 1: his heart until I watched recently watch this movie. It's
Speaker 1: such a good movie. It is such a good movie.
Speaker 1: I have to say, it's the best movie I've watched
Speaker 1: in a long time. And it's entertaining. I mean, it's
Speaker 1: fun to watch. It's music, it's dancing, it's powerful, it's
Speaker 1: so much fun. But it is such a powerful story,
Speaker 1: such a wonderful depiction of his heart and his passions
Speaker 1: and his vulnerability. That's the word I'm searching for, vulnerability.
Speaker 1: So we are going to be talking with Elton John today. First, however,
Speaker 1: I want to thank the folks who make this podcast possible,
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Speaker 1: I was saying a moment ago, our guest today is
Speaker 1: Elton John and I'm so anxious to talk to him.
Speaker 1: I wish I could interview him in person again, I've
Speaker 1: got to do that in the past. But he's in
Speaker 1: France and I'm in the studio, so we're going to
Speaker 1: have to do it via the phone lines. And he's
Speaker 1: calling in right now. Hyatt's Delilah, Hi, Delaiah's Elton. Oh
Speaker 1: my goodness, not even your people calling me, but I
Speaker 1: get to talk to you first.
Speaker 2: How are you a long time? No speak? Hi?
Speaker 1: Sweetheart? I am so stinking in love with you. I
Speaker 1: have been in love with you my whole life. But
Speaker 1: after watching Rocketman, oh my gosh, can we like Can
Speaker 1: David and I be like sister wives? Husband something?
Speaker 2: Absolutely? Yeah? Why not.
Speaker 1: I have have loved you, I have played I started
Speaker 1: on radio in seventy four, so almost from the beginning,
Speaker 1: I have have adored you. But I never really understood
Speaker 1: you until I watched Rocketman. Uh huh, and I was.
Speaker 1: I was so mesmerized and had to go back and
Speaker 1: rewatch it. And I have to tell you I have
Speaker 1: a love for you now that that isn't just like
Speaker 1: fan geeking. I love everything about you and oh.
Speaker 2: That's so lovely. Thank you so much.
Speaker 3: I mean, the film was very important for me, and
Speaker 3: and you know when I saw it when it was finished,
Speaker 3: it was a very emotional experience. But there was I
Speaker 3: was so happy that I wouldn't have changed one single
Speaker 3: thing about it, which is quite remarkable when you know
Speaker 3: you're having a film made about your life. I wanted
Speaker 3: it to be honest. I wanted to be truthful, inspiring
Speaker 3: and and funny, and you know, with Pathos, and I
Speaker 3: think we achieved everything that we wanted to achieve. With it,
Speaker 3: and I'm so thrilled at the reception that it got.
Speaker 1: I of all the movies I've ever watched about people,
Speaker 1: you know that, I think my favorite up until now
Speaker 1: had been Cole Miner's Daughter, Right. And the honesty and
Speaker 1: the truth, the transparency that you were willing to put into.
Speaker 3: The movie, well, that's my life.
Speaker 2: I didn't want to.
Speaker 3: I didn't want to sugarcoat my life.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: It ended up in nineteen nineteen when I went into
Speaker 3: rehab and got sober, and it tells of twenty incredible
Speaker 3: years up to that point, where I did so much work,
Speaker 3: had so much fun, had so many problems, and at
Speaker 3: the end of it was redemption. And I just wanted
Speaker 3: to show people that, you know, even in the depth
Speaker 3: of despair, when you're lowest low, if you have the
Speaker 3: humility to seek help and go for it and really
Speaker 3: try your best to get well, if you put as
Speaker 3: much into getting well as you did into getting unwell,
Speaker 3: then you will.
Speaker 1: And you put a whole lot into getting.
Speaker 2: And well I did. I put a hell of a lot.
Speaker 2: But oh my.
Speaker 1: Goodness, and thank God that you're alive to tell the story. Yeah,
Speaker 1: how many angels must have just been exhausted.
Speaker 3: I have no idea delighted because you know, when I
Speaker 3: look at the film, I think, how did I survive this?
Speaker 2: How did I know?
Speaker 1: How did you?
Speaker 3: And should never? I don't know. It was my willingness
Speaker 3: to want to live. I wanted to live. I didn't
Speaker 3: want to die, and I had to come to that conclusion.
Speaker 3: You know, I had to make the decision I'm in
Speaker 3: a real mess, what do I want to do? And
Speaker 3: I didn't want to die, and I thought, well, if
Speaker 3: you don't want to die, you've got to ask for help.
Speaker 2: And I found that incredibly.
Speaker 3: Difficult before those before that decision, and then when I
Speaker 3: did ask for help, my life turned around immediately. And
Speaker 3: I put a lot, i say, a lot of work
Speaker 3: into my recovery, but I loved every minute of it
Speaker 3: because it meant that I didn't have to feel as
Speaker 3: bad as I did. I didn't have to hate myself
Speaker 3: as much, and I learned how to become a human
Speaker 3: being again.
Speaker 1: Basically, Elton, We're going to pause for just a moment
Speaker 1: so that we can give a shout out to the
Speaker 1: sponsors that make this podcast possible. I'm talking with Elton
Speaker 1: John about his new song uh it's from the movie Rocketman.
Speaker 1: I'm Gonna Love Me Again. I'm Gonna love me again.
Speaker 1: Do you love yourself? Do you take care of yourself?
Speaker 1: Do you treat yourself well? Are you good to you?
Speaker 1: So we're gonna continue the conversation with Sir Elton John.
Speaker 1: The new song that we've been playing, which is a
Speaker 1: part of the movie, that the only song in the
Speaker 1: movie that that isn't one of your hits. I'm Gonna
Speaker 1: Love Me Again? Boy? Does that say it all? Does that?
Speaker 1: It just and it makes you want to dance to
Speaker 1: it while you're embracing self acceptance and self love. And
Speaker 1: I'm in the studio bopping my head and dancing around, going, God,
Speaker 1: I hope my teenagers don't see me. But what a
Speaker 1: what a fun tune to say.
Speaker 3: I wanted to write was positive and upbeat, and I
Speaker 3: wanted to sing it with Taran because he sang so
Speaker 3: brilliantly in the film, and so Bernie wrote this wonderful
Speaker 3: lyric and I kind of I went back and listened
Speaker 3: to all the Motown songs that I loved and this
Speaker 3: is and I got to one of the supreme songs
Speaker 3: and I thought, this is a nice tempo. So I
Speaker 3: got the tempo from the Supreme song, and I said, right,
Speaker 3: this is the tempo I want. I wanted to sound
Speaker 3: like a sixties, late sixties, early seventies soul song because
Speaker 3: they they were the songs I loved, and I you know,
Speaker 3: they gave me so much happiness when I listened to them,
Speaker 3: like reach out, I'll be there, and so I wanted
Speaker 3: to kind of do a little tribute to that kind
Speaker 3: of music because those songs never make, never fail to
Speaker 3: make you feel good.
Speaker 1: Well, this one makes me feel good and it reinforces
Speaker 1: the whole you know, everything that I tried to do
Speaker 1: on my show is to in empower people to use
Speaker 1: their gifts to change the world for good. That's why
Speaker 1: I do what I did.
Speaker 2: That's what I tried to do.
Speaker 3: I wasted so much time being so selfish and self
Speaker 3: centered that when I did get sober, I thought.
Speaker 2: Right, you've got to really get yourself together.
Speaker 3: And pay some of this nonsense back and do some
Speaker 3: good instead of, you know, just sitting there and taking
Speaker 3: drugs and wasting your time.
Speaker 1: You have certainly paid back again and again and again
Speaker 1: and again to the world, to people, your HIV AIDS, foundation,
Speaker 1: how many millions of lives have been touched.
Speaker 3: And well, and we've got so much more work to do,
Speaker 3: but yes, it's been it's been a wonderful thing. And
Speaker 3: it's not only that, but other things I do as well. It's,
Speaker 3: you know, the whole thing. The philosophy about getting sober
Speaker 3: is helping others, and that's what I've tried to do
Speaker 3: since I've gotten sober. And it gives me so much pleasure.
Speaker 3: And it's not just the money so much. It's the time.
Speaker 3: If you give your time to something and you actually
Speaker 3: go and see what you're doing and you meet the
Speaker 3: people that it's affecting, that it's just worth every single moment.
Speaker 2: It's just so rewarding.
Speaker 1: Well, you have certainly blessed my organization Point Hope over
Speaker 1: and over and over again with tickets and concerts and
Speaker 1: a meet and greet. And we've auctioned off tickets, you know,
Speaker 1: to your shows in the past and now your tour,
Speaker 1: and I mean people respond like like we're auctioning off
Speaker 1: the Hope Diamond because they are. I'm not kidding, just like.
Speaker 3: Well, listen, I Hope I can see you at the show.
Speaker 3: You should come and see the show. I'm so probe
Speaker 3: with the show. We start again on Wednesday. So if
Speaker 3: you're around anywhere and you want to come, please let
Speaker 3: me know and you can be my guest.
Speaker 1: Oh, I definitely want to come, And I want to
Speaker 1: know are your boys going to be there, because if
Speaker 1: they are.
Speaker 3: Coming on the road with me now, because I'm going
Speaker 3: to take them out of school for nine months with
Speaker 3: a tutor, because I'm going to Australia, New Zealand, America, Canada,
Speaker 3: and i want them to see part of the tour
Speaker 3: because you know, it's the last tour I'm going to
Speaker 3: be doing, so i want them to witness it and
Speaker 3: see some of the world with me.
Speaker 1: What a wonderful learning opportunity. Now, what are they They're
Speaker 1: like nine and six.
Speaker 3: Six, they're eight and six going on sixteen and fourteen.
Speaker 3: By the way, They're absolutely adorable and they're so looking
Speaker 3: forward to it and I'm looking forward to bringing them.
Speaker 3: We leave on I'm in France at the moment, but
Speaker 3: we leave Monday for Los Angeles and then we'll be
Speaker 3: all together for nine months, which is I'm so looking
Speaker 3: forward to that.
Speaker 1: So kind of like when I take my kids camping,
Speaker 1: only you're going to be doing that little, you know,
Speaker 1: concert thing at night, and then coming back and being
Speaker 1: with the kids. Well, Elton, I just I cannot tell
Speaker 1: you enough how proud I am of you, and how.
Speaker 3: Proud I am when you're such a sweetheart. That means
Speaker 3: a lot to me, because you know, I'm as I'm
Speaker 3: getting up there in age. I just, you know, I'm
Speaker 3: determined to enjoy the last parts of my life, and
Speaker 3: by having the children, it's just changed my life completely
Speaker 3: and give me another focus. And I will never deserve music,
Speaker 3: but I'm you know, I just don't want to keep
Speaker 3: traveling because I need to be with those boys, and
Speaker 3: I need to be with them when they need me.
Speaker 3: And that's the focus of my life now.
Speaker 1: And what a beautiful, beautiful focus I have. My oldest
Speaker 1: daughter is one of my producers on this show, and
Speaker 1: I won't tell you what year she celebrated this year,
Speaker 1: but it was a big one that ended with an Oh,
Speaker 1: my youngest woke me up at six o'clock this morning
Speaker 1: because he needed a diaper change. He's three. Wow, I'm
Speaker 1: right there with you and your hobby, and you knowing.
Speaker 3: Nothing beats having the boys. It's just the greatest thing
Speaker 3: that's happened to both me and David, and I'm so grateful.
Speaker 3: I'm so lucky after watching Rocketman and sitting through it
Speaker 3: and thinking what my life is now and how it was.
Speaker 3: It's a miracle and it's just the most wonderful turnaround,
Speaker 3: and I'm so happy and grateful for everything in my
Speaker 3: life right now.
Speaker 1: Had you not gotten sober all those.
Speaker 3: Years ago, we're talking to you right now, that.
Speaker 1: Was going to be my question, do you think you
Speaker 1: would still be alive? I wouldn't be amazing. How did
Speaker 1: you find the young boy that played young Reggie?
Speaker 2: I don't know, they cast him.
Speaker 3: He was amazing. And then the other boy who played
Speaker 3: the older Reggie. They were both fantastic.
Speaker 1: I'm so talented.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they were just fantastic. I had nothing to do
Speaker 3: with the casting except for Taran because I knew he
Speaker 3: could sing, and I'd worked with him on Kingsman too,
Speaker 3: and i'd heard his version of I'm Still Standing, which
Speaker 3: was from the animation movie Sing, So that was my choice,
Speaker 3: and that really worked out well because he was astonishingly good, and.
Speaker 2: I just left it.
Speaker 3: I didn't really David, my husband, produced a film along
Speaker 3: with Matthew Bourne, and I just left it to him
Speaker 3: to fill me in because I thought, so, I'm not
Speaker 3: going to interfere. But I did keep my eye on it.
Speaker 3: I watched some rushes and everyone did the most amazing job.
Speaker 2: They all did me proud.
Speaker 1: I purposefully did not do any research on the movie
Speaker 1: before I watched it. I just wanted to be just
Speaker 1: fully in the moment. I didn't want to be analyzing.
Speaker 1: I didn't want to be criticized. I just wanted to
Speaker 1: be fully in the moment. After I watched it, I
Speaker 1: said to somebody, how, how do I know that's really
Speaker 1: how he felt? And she said die, his husband produced it,
Speaker 1: And I went, oh, okay, note to self, pay attention,
Speaker 1: and that I think is the magical piece. I know
Speaker 1: it could not have been such a beautiful story and
Speaker 1: so well produced if it weren't done with that kind
Speaker 1: of love and commitment.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it had to be the real deal, and it
Speaker 3: had to be the truth, because you know that's how
Speaker 3: it was. You know, I had some wonderful times and
Speaker 3: I had some not so wonderful times, and the not
Speaker 3: so wonderful times took over at the end, and then
Speaker 3: the wonderful time's returned so as I say, I'm incredibly lucky,
Speaker 3: incredibly grateful, but I did, you know, to get where
Speaker 3: you are, you have to put the work in. You
Speaker 3: just don't get sober overnight and do nothing. You have
Speaker 3: to work. But I love the work that was involved
Speaker 3: because it just gave me a sense of satisfaction, a
Speaker 3: sense that I was doing something positive with my life
Speaker 3: instead of ruining it. So it was all good, It
Speaker 3: was all great.
Speaker 2: I loved.
Speaker 3: I loved the process of getting sober and all the
Speaker 3: work that I had to do. I met so many
Speaker 3: wonderful people, so many kind people, and you know that
Speaker 3: just I never had a bad day. I never ever
Speaker 3: wanted to go back and take a drink or a
Speaker 3: drug because I took enough drugs and I drunk enough
Speaker 3: for three people's lifetimes. Little I'm mine, and it's just
Speaker 3: it's just not an option for me. But it's it's
Speaker 3: it's it's been work, but it's been great, and it's
Speaker 3: I put a lot into it, and God did I
Speaker 3: get a lot out of it.
Speaker 1: It works if you work.
Speaker 2: It, Yeah, it works if you work it.
Speaker 1: So you're going to be at the Greek Theater in
Speaker 1: la in October and Alan.
Speaker 3: Indeed, we're going to be there, I think on the seventeenth,
Speaker 3: and we're going to do a live screening of rocket
Speaker 3: Man with an orchestra and which is exciting. And then
Speaker 3: I hope to come out with Taran at the end
Speaker 3: and sing I'm going to love you Love Me Again,
Speaker 3: and maybe something else and just do a live experience
Speaker 3: of it because the film. I want to experience the
Speaker 3: magic live that the film did to me when I
Speaker 3: saw the film, So both Town and I thought this
Speaker 3: would be a great idea and it would be an
Speaker 3: unusual idea, and I think it's going to be so
Speaker 3: much fun. It's at the Greek on the seventeenth.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I hope I can be there to see it.
Speaker 2: Ah, let me know and ask if you a big hug.
Speaker 1: Okay, okay, okay, one more thing before you go. I
Speaker 1: have to tell you thank you for something else. When
Speaker 1: my producer Janie met with you a couple of years
Speaker 1: ago when my son was sick, she said she was
Speaker 1: impressed with the fact that you are so eager to
Speaker 1: mentor young artists, and that's something that most people don't
Speaker 1: know about you.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, having an interest. I do a radio show
Speaker 3: my own on Apple, and I try and feature as
Speaker 3: many young artists as I can because I know how
Speaker 3: hard it is for a young artist to get a break.
Speaker 3: And also I love old music, but it's all in
Speaker 3: my brain. I can remember it all, and I just
Speaker 3: you know, press my little button and I, you know,
Speaker 3: it all comes back. But when I hear something wonderful
Speaker 3: by someone new, like a Billie Eilish, or when Lord
Speaker 3: made her record and when she was sixteen.
Speaker 2: It's quite amazing.
Speaker 3: These people are sixteen years old and I didn't, you know,
Speaker 3: It just boggles my mind how great they are. And
Speaker 3: there's so many young artists that don't get played on
Speaker 3: mainstream radio, and a lot do, but the ones that don't,
Speaker 3: I try and help, and it keeps me feeling young,
Speaker 3: it keeps me enthusiastic, and it helps me as an artist.
Speaker 2: Quite honestly, I saw.
Speaker 1: A little note on one of Billie Eilish's song said,
Speaker 1: this is what happens when the choir teacher tells the shy,
Speaker 1: quiet girl in the class to get up and.
Speaker 3: Sing, well, yeah, a bit like me as well, yeah
Speaker 3: yeah man.
Speaker 2: So shy and so quiet.
Speaker 3: But when I got up there, I wasn't and I love.
Speaker 1: That tarn played that so beautifully. Yeah, it's like he
Speaker 1: wasn't even acting, you know.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah.
Speaker 3: When I watched the film, it wasn't like watching an actor.
Speaker 3: It was like watching myself. That's what's so remarkable about
Speaker 3: his performance. And everybody else in the film is incredible
Speaker 3: as well, but Talent's performance was just a mind boggle.
Speaker 3: I do hope he gets a nomination, because boy did
Speaker 3: he deserve that. I mean, it was astonishing what he did.
Speaker 3: Not only did he act, he sang. I mean he
Speaker 3: had two things to do.
Speaker 1: He was amazing, and the dancing and the costumes and
Speaker 1: the expressions on his face and the tears, and like
Speaker 1: I said, I wasn't like watching a movie, it was
Speaker 1: like going through it with you.
Speaker 3: Thank you so much for the kindness, Melton.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for spending time with us. Thank
Speaker 1: you for your generosity. To point hope and I can't
Speaker 1: wait to see you and hopefully your whole family on
Speaker 1: this world tour. And boy are we going to miss
Speaker 1: your performances if you're really gonna retire from touring, because
Speaker 1: you put on a show like nobody else.
Speaker 3: Listen, come and see me whenever you can. And I
Speaker 3: as I say, I'd love to see you, give you
Speaker 3: a big hug, and thank you for taking the time
Speaker 3: to talk to me, and thank you for supporting the record.
Speaker 1: All right, Eldon, love you, God bless you. Give my
Speaker 1: love to the family.
Speaker 2: I will thank you