EGN NEWS DESK
Elton John remains to be standing higher than ever in his engrossing new documentary, Elton John: Never Too Late, a glance again on the highs and lows of the singer’s 50-year performing profession.
Premiering on Disney+ on Dec. 13, the documentary options never-before-seen movie footage, diaries, and audio interviews for his memoir Me, plus animations that recreate the Grammy winner’s reminiscences. Directed by Elton’s husband David Furnish (who additionally produced the 2019 Elton biopic Rocketman) and R.J. Cutler (The September Issue), the movie follows the rock star as he performs his final reveals in America, culminating in a Nov. 20, 2022, live performance on the Dodgers stadium in Los Angeles.
The filmmakers hope that by displaying how Elton John went from scuffling with drug dependancy to overcoming abuse and beginning a household, it should encourage others who need to make a change in their very own lives. Per its title Never Too Late, “the message of the movie [is] that it is by no means too late to make the choices that may impression your life,” Cutler tells TIME.
Here’s a take a look at a number of the most memorable moments from the movie:
A historical past of abuse
Elton describes his dad and mom as violent. He endured beatings whereas being potty-trained and even whereas strolling down the road in entrance of individuals.
From a younger age, he had the reward of with the ability to hear a tune after which play it on the piano. His father hated rock ‘n’ roll and so he got down to show him flawed. He enrolled within the Royal Academy of Music, and began a band referred to as Bluesology. In the late 60s, he answered an advert for Liberty Records, which was searching for songwriters, and met his longtime collaborator Bernie Taupin. As a strategy to distance himself from his abusive childhood, he stopped going by his beginning title Reginald Kenneth Dwight, and began going by Elton John. His father by no means noticed him carry out.
Elton says his former manager and lover John Reid, whom he dated from 1970 to 1975 was additionally abusive to him, as soon as smacking him within the face so laborious that he had cuts throughout his face and his nostril began to bleed.
By performing onstage, Elton says that he’s capable of transcend the darkish moments of his previous. In the movie, Elton describes music as “my intercourse” and “an escape,” noting, “I’ve by no means taken my private life onstage.”
His friendship with John Lennon
The movie dives deep into Elton’s friendship with one other legendary British rock star, John Lennon.
Elton remembers one time he was doing “mountains” of cocaine with John Lennon in a lodge, and Andy Warhol knocked on the door.
In the movie, there’s footage of John Lennon shocking the gang at Elton’s Thanksgiving Madison Square Garden live performance on Nov. 28, 1974. They carried out “Whatever Gets You Through the Night.”
Lennon’s ex, the artist Yoko Ono, ended up being within the viewers. Lennon and Ono obtained again collectively shortly after the present. Elton ended up turning into the godfather to their son Sean.
The 1974 Thanksgiving present would find yourself being the Beatle’s final main live performance efficiency. He was fatally shot on Dec. 8, 1980 in New York City.
Desperate to quiet down
One of essentially the most shocking issues that Furnish discovered about his husband was in a 1976 Rolling Stone interview, by which the star mentioned ”I crave to be beloved” and “I simply wish to quiet down” and “I’d prefer to have some youngsters.” Elton appeared to return out as bisexual by saying, “I haven’t met anyone that I want to quiet down with — of both intercourse.”
Elton obtained sober in 1990 on the age of 43. “It did take me 43 years to learn to perform as a human being, somewhat than as a rock star,” he says within the documentary.
When Furnish first met Elton, it appeared just like the musician’s profession didn’t go away time for teenagers. Plus, the 1997 documentary Elton John: Tantrums and Tiaras (additionally directed by Furnish) gave a widespread impression that the rock star was a hothead. As Furnish tells TIME, “Unfortunately, it related Elton with tantrums and this notion that he loses his rag on the drop of a hat. And there have been no tantrums within the making of this movie.”
Elton John: Never Too Late makes clear that what retains Elton calm is his marriage to Furnish and their two sons Zachary and Elijah. In the movie, Elton is proven to be a doting father. He shares candy moments along with his sons, taking their telephone calls and asking how faculty went.
“I’ve by no means felt happiness as I’ve now,” Elton, now 77, mentioned on the movie’s Sep. 24 premiere in Manhattan, the place he carried out “Tiny Dancer.” He mentioned music by itself “didn’t fulfill me”; he solely felt full when he married and have become a mum or dad. “I discovered utopia. You can get right here you probably have slightly religion.”
