Elton John was not a man who liked to think about his career, but as he grew older, his mindset changed for the better. In an article published by The Guardian, the legendary musician penned a long note about his extraordinary life and what led him to greenlight the 2019 Rocketman biopic.
“I’m more interested in what I’m doing next rather than what I did 40 years ago. But as I grew up, it started to change a bit,” he wrote. John also shared that having his first son, Zachary, at age 63, and his second son, Elijah, at age 65, inspired him to look at his life retrospectively. “I started thinking about him in 40 years’ time, being able to watch or read his version of his life,” he said.
Gradually, he became less “conscious” about keeping details of his life to himself, which led him to approve the 2019 biopic Rocketman, where actor Taron Egerton portrayed a younger version of him. When he and his team commissioned the script from Lee Hall – with whom the singer had worked on the musical stage with Billy Elliot – they were pleasantly surprised.
“It was fantastic. There were moments that were pure fantasy and there were moments that were really hard, no punches pulled,” the I’m Still Standing singer wrote. He recalled that there were some “disgusting and horrifying” moments, but they were his Was true to life.
John revealed that some studios asked him to tone down the sex and drug use in the film so that it could get a PG-13 rating. “But I haven’t lived a PG-13-rated life. I didn’t want a film full of drugs and sex, but at the same time, everyone knows I had a lot of both of those things during the 70s and 80s,” he explained.
To them, the on-screen portrayal of Elton John quietly going back to his hotel room after a show, drinking warm milk and reading Gideon’s Bible before going to sleep meant nothing. However, at the same time, he did not want the biopic to be completely straightforward and the fantasy element lost, as he spent a lot of time in “his own mind” growing up.
Recently the Grammy winner revealed that he has lost the vision in his right eye due to an infection. “It’s been four months now, I haven’t been able to see. And my left eye isn’t the greatest,” he said during his appearance on Good Morning America.
