Do Go On - 167 - Elton John

Episode Date: January 2, 2019

We bloody love a music legend biography here at Do Go On, so this week Jess tackles the HUGE career of one of the greats - ELTON JOHN! Find out how The Rocket Man got his big break!Tickets to our first ever ADELAIDE podcast on March 10 are available, use the code "adelaide" for a discount when booking early. Book here: https://www.trybooking.com/BABRY 2019 Melbourne Comedy Festival tickets now on sale. Tickets: https://www.trybooking.com/ZYYPSupport the show and get rewards like bonus episodes: www.patreon.com/DoGoOnPod Submit a topic idea directly to the hat: dogoonpod.com/Submit-a-Topic Twitter: @DoGoOnPod Instagram: @DoGoOnPod Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DoGoOnPod/ Email us: [e-mail] Book tickets to Matt's stand up show (in Perth, Adelaide, Brisbane and Melbourne) with the early bird discount code: dogoon via mattstewartcomedy.com/gigs  Check out our other podcasts: Book Cheat: https://omny.fm/shows/bookcheatPrime Mates: https://omny.fm/shows/prime-matesREFERENCES AND FURTHER READING: Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Melbourne and Canada, we got exciting news for you. And we should also say this is 2026. Jess, what year is it? 2026. Thank God you're here. Right now, I'm in Melbourne doing my show with Serenji Amarna, 630 each night at the Cooper's Inn Hotel, having so much fun. We'd love to see you there.

Canada, we are visiting you in September this year. If you've somehow missed the news, we are heading up Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal, and Toronto for shows. That's going to be so much fun. Tickets for all this stuff, I believe, are online. And I'm here too. This podcast is part of the Planet Broadcasting Network. Visit planetbroadcasting.com for more podcasts from our great mates.

And welcome to another episode of Dugo One. My name is Dave Warnocky and I'm here in 2019 with Jess and Matt. And what a year it's been. My goodness, top five moments, Matt, go. I loved it. Which part of 2019 is this? A few days in. A few days.

The first few days have been my whole. It's okay. I reckon. Where is you, Bopper? I went to the beach. I went to a music festival. I went and I had an icy pole. Nice.

This is three. Four, had a nap. And five, pizza. Hell yeah. Yep, been a big year so far. That's a big year. Already proud of everything that I've achieved. And no further questions.

Your Honor. Dave, I don't care what you've been up to. Now, what do you've had a probably been? what horse polo, that sort of stuff. Yeah, a lot of skiing. Yep. On poor people. Yeah.

Did you buy another yacht? Oh, yeah. I mean, we're three days in. He's 2019 yacht. Yeah. Yeah. Ivory back scratches coming out the wazoo. Yeah.

The wazoo of the yacht. Yeah. A wazoo is a part of a yacht. Oh, yes. That's where the term comes from. Yeah, made of oak. Yep. Like a rare kind of oak.

But then it's also coated in gold. Yeah. But like a rare kind of gold. An endangered kind of. of gold. Yes. Royal oak and gold. It costs lives.

Yeah. Yeah, you can't buy it with currency. You have to spare lives. I'm rich with other people's lives. Don't worry about it. But no, 2019, it's going to be a good one. We are looking forward to doing more podcasts in more places this year. So exciting.

And we're excited to announce right here, right now. For the first ever time, we are coming to a city we've never been to. Yep. And Matt, that city is. Can I list the cities we haven't been to? No, no. Oh, yeah, all right. I mean, actually, Jess doesn't know that many cities, you'd be fine.

That's true. I can't think of that many. I'm not very bright. Sure you are. Chicago. Haven't we been there? I don't know. Not yet. It's on the list, it's on the list, people. But one we're happy to announce.

Speaking about posh and rich, we are going to a very posh city. And churches. Yes. It's probably the nicest sort of. a city square in Australia, I reckon. It's all very pretty. And the city, of course, is Adelaide. Adelaide.

Use it in a sentence. We're going to Adelaide. Yeah, very good. When are we going to Adelaide? We are coming to perform there on March the 10th. Ah, my favorite day in March. A beautiful day. That's Richard Buick's birthday.

A guy went to primary school with, haven't seen him in probably 20 years. How is he? Great. It's going to be particularly good that day Because it's his birthday Yeah Now we're coming to perform at the At the National Wine Centre

At 315 in the afternoon on Sunday March the 10th And let me just say Other podcasters have said That it's very difficult to sell tickets in Adelaide And they said, Don't even bother going there But we said no way, we love Adelaide We will always go there

As long as they sell out this show Yeah, that's what we've always seen From the beginning When we definitely knew live shows Was going to be a thing we would do It's at a beautiful new venue The Adelaide Wine Centre Run by the National Wine Centre

National Wine Centre Bloody hell It's not just Adelaide, it's national baby It's much like South Australia's Football competitions It's called the South Australia National Football League Even though there's only

South Australian teams in the comp But yeah, there's so many great acts playing there. Matt Stewart, a good friend of mine. No, sorry, me. I'm there for two weeks. You can be your own friend. No, I'm not. I hate myself.

I like you. Show called Bone Dry. It'd be great to see there. There's a discount for Do Go On listeners, and that discounts do go on. But there's also people like Ben Knight, another man with a red beard. I think maybe they exclusively have shows of people with red beards. That's not true. Amy Hetherington is also performing there.

And our good pal, Seren, Jiamane. Neither of those have red beards. Serene has a beard. He has a beard, yes, that's correct. It's hard to bloody throw a rock around here. No, that's true. Yeah. So lots and lots going on at the National Wine Center,

which is the corner of Hackney and Botanic Road in Adelaide. A beautiful spot. Just looked down on the mat, Matt, and you're in a bloody good spot. So all those shows are part of the Adelaide Fringe. We are outside of the fringe, but we're going to be there during that time of year. So it's always an absolute cracker. And those other shows are on sale at Adelaidefringe.com. dot are you but our show is on sale right now there's a link in the description of this episode

or you can go to do go on pod.com find uh click on live shows there and you'll be able to find the tickets on sale and let's just say if you book in the next couple of weeks and use the code Adelaide oh that's clever love it we'll give you a little because that's where we're going yes we're in weird if the code was Darwin can you make the code Darwin all right Adelaide and Darwin are both codes yes Amy's from Darwin. So in a way, it's an homage. Yes, fantastic.

To my friend Amy. So wait, I'm confused now. Do you think the listeners would be? What's happening? Well, no, they probably didn't zone out just then. Okay. Just go to do go onpod.com. If you're in Adelaide during that time of year, please come along and use the code word Adelaide and or Darwin.

It's just all. It's just all. There's only one discount. And book in the next couple of weeks. And we'd love to see you there. much 10. It'll be so much fun. Do the double see me that night after seeing the podcast.

Oh man. Yes. Can you get too much Matt Stewart? The answer will shock you. It's no. And other places in Australia, stay tuned. We're going to announce some more interstate shows over the coming weeks. That's right.

And I'm also touring around Australia with that solo show. If you want to check out my dates, they're at Matt Stewartcomedy.com slash gigs. And the discount code of Do Go On. It's an early bird. I forget when it lasts till, but it's still on, apparently. I get you a real sweet discount for shows in Perth, Adelaide, Brisbane and Melbourne.

Now, should we get cracking with the show? The way this show works is we rotate between the three of us and tell a story about a report that we've researched. We do a report on a story that we've researched, and it could be anything from history or current events or people or places or pornography. It's all pornographies. We've never done a pornography, but we should. You have not.

Oh, that's true. We've done a pornographer. Yeah. And this week's report is going to be done by Jess. And to get us on the topic, Jess is going to ask a question. Dave and I don't know what the topic is, but we're going to find out with this question.

Jess, what is your question? I hope you don't know this because I didn't know it. So here is my question. Is it geography-based? No, but I wouldn't know it. Equatorial Guinea. What is it? What is the stage name of Reginald Kenneth Dwight?

Oh, I know this. Do you know? Matt, do you know? Is it, oh, there's a few. Can I have a... Have a guess. Elton John? Yes. It is Elton John.

Elton John. We're talking about Elton John? We're talking about Elton John. The Piano Man himself. The bitch is back. And other songs. He has... He has...

So many songs, though. What did you say? The piano man. There's a little joke there But I was so keen to say the bitch is back I just ignore whatever you said That's what I yell Every time I go home at night

Piano Man Yeah That's some good stuff there Absolutely quality If the first time listening It's about this good For the next hour So

Get comfy This is an episode to send to my dad Huge Elton John fan Growing up It always played in the car And I'd always be like Oh I hate this I hate this.

I had the same attitude to Fleet with Mac. Now I'm a big fan of both. Yeah. And I think like, I really enjoyed researching Freddie Mercury and then listening to all of Queen's music all over again and then watching Bohemia Rhapsody, the film. All right. The bitch is back. The bitch is back.

Freddie Mercury, the piano man. So I was keen to, yeah, do another sort of music legend bio because I didn't know a lot about his early life or where he kind of got started. Right. And so, and with, I just want to put this eye out up the top is that this is a mammoth topic in terms of like his life is ridiculous. I'm looking forward to this mammoth topic. Thanks for getting us excited for it.

Yeah, I can't wait. In depth is what I like to hear. You turned over every stone and researched read dozens of books, I imagine. I imagine there'll be 20 minutes on the duet with Kiki D. Oh, don't go breaking my heart by no. not researching that period of his life. No, I did. I'm not saying I didn't do any research.

Oh, thank God, because I was going to be pissed off and the bitch would be bad. What I was trying to get through a sentence was that I've focused mostly on his early life and how he kind of got started and then I just kind of do like some key moments. All right, Jess, sing me a song. I'm the piano man. No, Jess, I'm excited. I reckon the early life is the bit that I know the least about as well. Yeah, exactly.

Yeah. It's pretty interesting. This has been suggested by a couple of people. It's been suggested by Ross and Ashmita. Neither of them giving their last name. Oh, okay. Or possibly they filled out the form separately. First name first, last name, second.

Is it Ross Ashmeta? Or they could be superstars in their own right. Like Beyonce or Adele. Adele! Nobody knows her last name. I wish science would come far enough for us to figure it out. I wish journalism would dig a little deeper and just like find a birth certificate or something. I need to know her last name.

She was born in Kenya. Do you know that? That's what I've heard. Prove it. Yeah, exactly. She's buried the evidence in Kenya, probably. Is she even from this earth? Adele.

It doesn't sound like it. It doesn't sound like a human. She's a bit like Elton John, a bit of a star man. That's a real. Rocket Man joke, guys. So thanks so much. Thank you so much. Thanks a much. All right. So Reginald Kenneth Dwight. Which is a fantastic name. Why would you change that? Reggie Dwight. Not quite the rock star name. Reggie D. Reggie D. Oh, there we go. Um, he... Sorry, I don't, the last time I'm interrupting me, but the older he gets the more he looks like a original. Don't you ever

lie to me. I'm sorry. The older he gets the more original Kenneth Dwight. I think he looks like. I could not agree more. Yeah. He, now he looks like a Reggie. No, a Reginald. He looks like a Reginald. And in many ways, he is. That's beautiful. You know? Yeah. Like, I would argue sometimes I don't look like a Jess.

I reckon I could pass for a Kate. Oh, 100%. Thank you. I say thank you. I really like the name Kate. Hello, I'm Kate. See? That sounds like me.

Yeah, that did sound like you. What's this Jess? Jessica. Oh, God. Anyway. Jessica blah. Jessica blah. Jessica blah.

That's how I hear my name. Every time someone says it. Anyway, Reginald Dwight was born on the 25th of March in 1947 in Pinner, Middlesex. Pinner and Middlesex. That's a hot name. It's hot, right? His parents were Stanley, he was in the Air Force, and Sheila. Stanley?

What was his mum's name? Sheila? Did you say Sheila? Because that is much better than Stanley. Sheila? Sheila, not Shee Hulk. Is that what Sheila's short for? No.

Oh my God, I think it is. It's just a woman's name. Her name's Sheila. No. Whoa. What was Shee Hulk's name again? Babs. Babs.

Dr. Babs. Marvin Monroe. Dr. Babs Monroe. Both of his parents were musically inclined. His father played the trumpet with the Bob Miller band, which was a semi-professional big band that played at military dances. and both of his parents were keen music lovers and they amassed quite the record collection

and he remembers being immediately hooked on rock and roll when his mother brought home records by Elvis Presley and Bill Haley and his comets in 1956. So at a pretty young age he was... He was a comet man. Into some cool music. I'm a comet man. Being the only child,

young Reginald used music as an escape from his parents arguing. From a very early age, he could pick up a tune and play it by ear on the piano from like four or five. Matt's playing his ear like a trumpet. I mean, I was looking at him and I didn't get that. It took me a bit too. You got no chance. I thought that that was his impression.

Is that you playing by ear? Kenneth listening to a song and singing it back, which is obviously an amazing skill because I can't do that. But he does on the piano, so that is actually impressive. And when he was seven, his parents got him proper piano lessons. And by the age of 11, he was awarded a scholarship at the Royal Academy of Music. 11. Gosh, he was a bit of a prodigy. Yeah, he joined the junior exhibitionist scheme,

which was for state school children who showed an exceptional gift for music. So there's only 11. Exhibitionists. They're doing it in the nude? Yeah. Playing piano in the nude. Which honestly, I find, is the best. way.

Yeah. You can only truly play music when you are completely vulnerable. Yeah, jazz is about the clothes you don't wear. I got no shirt on. Is that Under the Sea? It's my interpretation of Under the Sea. Yes, thank you. So despite his exceptional skills at a young age, he couldn't actually read music.

But at the Academy, he learned to read music, how to compose music, to understand it, and how different composers would construct their music in different ways. For the next five years, he attended Saturday classes at the Academy in central London. What day? Saturday, Saturday, Saturday. Saturday? Saturday. Saturday night?

No. Oh, all right. He's a child. He'd go during the day. Saturday. Yeah, he liked playing a... Bach and singing in the choir during his Saturday classes. But he also says, I kind of resented going to the academy.

I was one of those children who could just about get away without practicing and still pass, scrape through the grades. God, what a, what a skill. I don't have to practice. I'll be right. He's claimed that he would sometimes skip class to ride around on the London Underground. Just go on the train. That's different.

Do he still play his ear in the corner? I, yeah, I think, you know, entertainment's come a long ways. Now when kids wagged school, they don't just sit on a train going around a loop. Yeah, at least they'd go smoke. Yeah. You know? At least go and smoke. The very least.

You nerd. If I find out my kids have wagged school just to ride a train. I would be shoving cigarettes in their mouths so fast. Yeah, I'll be grabbing them by the ear trumpet and dragging them up to the supermarket and buying them some cigarettes. You smoke every last one in this packet until you stop riding that train.

You nerd. That's your punishment for everything. You buy them an expensive car. You drive this car until you've got it out of your system, young man. Our family do not ride trains. We're rocket men. His parents divorced when Redd was 14 and his mother remarried a local painter. Fred Fairbrother

Why is that funny? The emphasis on Fairbrother. Fairbrother. The year was... Fairbrother. Fred was a caring and supportive stepfather who Reg affectionately referred to as DIRF, which was his first name in reverse. Oh.

It's like us calling you Tam. That's nice. Or Evad. Which I enjoy. Sedge. Very nice names. Thank you so much. But it was quite a contrast to his absent and uninterested father.

They moved into a new flat in an eight-un apartment building called Frome Court, not far from his childhood home. And it was there that he wrote the songs that launched his career as a rock star. Right. So how old is he when he's writing this? Songs, in his teens. He lived there for a while into his early 20s, but I am jumping ahead a little bit. He was merely a rocket boy.

In 1962 at the age of 15, two big things happened for Reg. Firstly, with the help of his mum and stepdad, he got a gig as a weekend pianist at the local pub. He'd play Thursday to Sundays. He'd play Jim Reeves and Ray Charles, as well as a few originals, under a very cool stage name. Oh, what was it? Reggie. Yeah, that's good. Is it a stage name?

Just Reggie. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Hello, I'm Reggie. Exactly.

That is. Reggie. And that would have been before all the other, most of the people that had known by one name, mononyms. So I reckon he should have stuck with that. He could have been the first. Everyone would just know him as Reggie.

But like when he's dancing around in like feathers and big glass, you're going to be like, well, that's Reggie. You know? Yeah, no, I definitely think that's Elton. I think he should change it back now. Okay. He should be Reginald now. He's back to Reginald.

You know, this is one of the weirdest things I think I've ever found out. I watched a Christmas episode of The Nanny a couple weeks ago. Ray Charles is in that show. Isn't that bizarre? That's very odd. Like a guest appearance? He's like a recurring guest as, uh, what's the, you know? Nana's name, Yoda's partner.

What? Do not remember that at all. Yelda? What's her name? Anyway, it doesn't matter, but the nanny's Yeda. Yada's boyfriend is Ray Charles. Isn't that wild? But is he just like a regular person or is he Ray Charles in the show?

I think, uh, I didn't, look, I wasn't concentrating that hard. But he played the piano and sang like Ray Charles. So he's Ray Charles. He's like some version of Ray Charles. That's wild. So weird. How did I not? Remember that.

It feels like that's one of the weirdest things that's ever happened in TV. I think you're right. It is one of the weird. Like an all-time musical legend. Yeah. Had a recurring role on the nanny. As yet as boyfriend. Yeah, that's fun.

Why? Was he out of money? Yeah, I can't figure it out. Was he just a fan of the show, maybe? Maybe as a big fan. No, I don't blame him. He just wanted to get close to Mr. Sheffield. Miss Foyne.

The nanoo. Is that Ray Charles? He composed a theme song. Yeah. Is that what I was saying? Surely you recognise his voice. Who would have thought that the girl we described? Ray Charles.

He's not going to describe. So, yeah, he's playing at the local pub. There's Day to Sunday nights. Reggie. Reggie is playing. Just Reggie. Also in 1962, the same year. So he's 15 years old.

He and some of his friends formed a band called blues ology Just give me a minute Bluesology Have a go saying it Bluesology It's fun isn't it I like adding ology

On to the end of things Yeah me too Me too ology Like a bartender Oh no I'm a mixologist Yeah Oh god You're jazzing it up a little bit

Don't remind me You can be a mixologist in the Sims And I played the Sims For four hours last night Instead of writing this report And now I just want to kind of get this done so I can go home and play some sims. Because you're a somologist. Yeah, I'm a somologist.

I'm a gamer. Gammologist. I'm a gamologist. Thank you so much. Are we podologists? Yeah. Let's get back to this podcology. Oh, that sounds good. Do you reckon? Yeah. Next time I'm at a dinner party, which happens often,

I'm going to, when someone says, and what do you do, I'm going to say I'm a podcologist. And then when they say, oh, what? I'll just excuse myself and go get a drink. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. No more questions. Excuse me. I think that's my phone. I think that's my pager.

Excuse me. That's my child yelling. From my handbag. And just come back and sit back down and never mention it again. This is why I get invited to so many dinner parties. So he's in bluesology now. Bluesology. As reggie.

As reggie. By the mid-60s, bluesology was backing the touring American soul and R&B musicians like Major Lance and Paddy LaBelle and the Bluebells. Like they're backing up pretty big acts that are coming over and performing. Bluebell's performing with bluesology. Paddy La Belle and the Bluebells and the Bluebells and Bluesology. Honestly, Patty LaBelle is the outlier there.

That's a big name on a poster. Yeah. Yeah, it's too much. And you know what colour of the poster was? Orange. Oh, thank goodness. That compliments blew so well. By the time he was 17, he was set on his job.

dream of being a musician and school was getting in the way. Despite being terrified of his headmaster, he told the headmaster that he wanted to leave school. And surprisingly, the headmaster said, well, I know how much music means to you. I give you my blessing, but make sure you work hard at everything you do. Really?

Yeah. It's not your parents, it's your actual headmaster. Yeah, and this isn't like, this is in the 60s. It's just like, well, fair enough. He must have shown lots of promise. I mean, yeah, I mean, obviously he was exceptional. talented. He was supporting Paddy LaBelle and the Bluebells with Blues all his old age,

mate. When he's like 16, 17. He just handed his principal to flyer to that show and he went, get out of here, kid. You're going to be a star. That principal was also a talent agent. Wow. Yeah, no. Well, you get a little side hustle, you know?

These days, less people are working a nine to five and more people are doing like a couple of things, you know, a couple part-time gigs. So that Dean was a bit of a pioneer. Oh, yeah, I think so. That crusty old Dean. Dostedly, Dean. I'll get you, Dean. In 1967, Reg answered an ad in the British magazine New Musical Express,

the ad was placed by Ray Williams, who was then the ANR manager for Liberty Records. Reg met up with Ray, and Ray gave Reg an envelope with lyrics written by someone else who'd also answered the ad. And Reg went away, wrote music for the lead, lyrics and posted them to the lyricist who was a man named Bernie Torpen. Bloody hell, that's how it started. That's wild.

Yeah, isn't it? The initial ad was we need songwriters for our label. I think so. It doesn't, I didn't really get much of exactly what the ad was, but yeah. It must be someone, which is so wild that like one of the world's biggest record companies just puts an ad in newspaper saying, hey, write songs for us. Send us what you got. And gives him, like, he hadn't opened the envelope.

He didn't know if the lyrics were any good. He just handed it's like, here, go write some music for this. That is cool. Yeah. And the lyric, he read the lyrics, it's like, Rocket Man, Rocket Man, Rocket Man, I'm a Rocket Man, Rocket Man, Rocket Man, I'm a Rocket Man. And look what he changed it into. Rocket Man, Rocket Man, Saturday night's all right. Bernie needs help.

And he's like, I reckon we could do some of this, maybe. I reckon this is good enough for two songs. So yeah, that's how they met shortly after this initial kind of correspondence and a writing partnership grew from there. Towards the end of that year, 1967, Reg was going by the name Elton John. And this was an homage to two of his fellow members of bluesology, Elton Dean and John Baldry. So he's just taken two names. An homage slash.

It's like, hey, we're not dead. We're still trying to make a music career, is it? Yeah. I'll use your name. Would you be on it or would you be weirded out? Are they still playing, like, are they backing him up? So now it's Elton and John supporting Elton John. Like, guys, I'm starting a new podcast, but I'm going to now call myself Jess David.

Is that cool? I love it. And you couldn't have said that at better timing, because I'm also starting a new podcast, but I'm going to refer to myself as Dave Matthews's band. Wow. Yeah. Why, you've been banned?

Yeah, my podcast is all about naughty things. Dave Matthews band up late. You're going to be catching a few trains on the daytime? You naughty person? Couldn't say it. I'm bad. You're going to call me a naughty girl and you stopped yourself? Yeah, that was probably a right...

Real wrong. Yeah, that's probably the right reaction. But that's not even your bit. What's your bit? You don't sound like a good girl. You don't sound like a good guy. You sound like a good girl. It's a genuine conversation I had.

That was good fun. But the best comedy comes from truth. And tragedy. That's also true. So yeah, it's true. I guess it is a little bit weird that he's taken their names as an homage. But usually you would be like to much more like famous people from the past often. You know, that's a homage.

Not to these are my two mates, can steal their names. Obviously they meant a lot to him or he just liked their names. That's really only something Elton John could tell us. Your names meant a lot to me. And he joins us right now. Hello. Any questions? Why did you choose Elton John?

I'm a rocket man I'm a rocket man Cockatoll rocket man Rocket man Thank you so much Elton John I imagine you're very busy So you must be

That appearance cost us 85,000 Money well spent I reckon I just wanted to add a little something To my podcast report You know A little how you say How you say

Elton how do you say Oh certain I did not know he was fluent in French. Or a gangster. I did not get any of that in my research. So that's something that we can only get from the source. That's funny, because I've never heard him talk before now.

And that has surprised me that that's what he sounds like. I'd have no idea if, yeah, if he talked in a different way, I would not have been surprised as well. Yeah. But that is how he talks. It's much like Adele, you know, sings like an angel. Talks like Adele! It's very confusing.

but I felt like a butterfly, sing like an angel, talk like a dale I contacted me recently and said they were listening to me on Triple J and I sounded very different to how I sound on here.

Really? Honestly my first thought was like different equipment, maybe. Just Triple J, don't they make you talk like Triple J voice? It's this, this is my Triple J voice. See, Triple J.

Through a filter. I mean there's commercial radio voice, but I don't do that because Triple J is cool. It's probably just because you're talking different words. Yeah, and I'm not telling people to get fucked. Yeah. Yeah, Matt, they don't recognize your voice without the swear words.

I like to keep it interesting. And that was the latest one from Ario Speedwagon. Some fuckhead. All right. Got him. I don't do that. I'm a professional. Do you still play Ario

Speedwagon? Yeah. I haven't tuned into the Js in a while. Yeah, well, you're too old for the Js now. Yeah. Our target demographics, 18 to 25 and you're 106. I listen to single J. As you get older, you lose your Js. You're in negative three Js.

You'd just about be double J now, Dave, I reckon. Well, apparently, is that really 18 to 25? Yeah. Yep. So you're too old for your own station. Shut up. Shut up. Don't tell management.

The bosses don't know how old I am. Isn't one of your bosses about 72? Shut up. Shut up. Everybody shut up. I'm imagining this bit's getting edited out. I need this job. Shut up.

Anyway, okay. So, yeah, so this is the end of 1967. He's going by Elton John, but it wasn't until 1972 that he legally changed his name. Oh, right. Do you know his middle name that he chose? No, don't. Danger?

Elton Hercules. Oh, that is incredible. Yeah, danger would have been good, though. Elton, Danger. John, did you hear that McCauley Colkin put out a poll to let people choose his middle name? No, that's fun. So he put it out, people gave him suggestions, he picked five that he liked, and then he put that to a vote. And by an absolute landslide, his middle name is now McCauley Colkin.

So he's McCauley, McCauley Colkin, correct. That's fun. And so now he's really looking forward to anybody being like, are you McCauley Colkin? He goes, please, McCauley Colkin is my middle name. That is funny. So that was one of the five that he chose to put up. Yeah. Isn't that great?

One was publicity stunt and nobody voted for that. So his name is McCauley, Macaulay Culkin, and he legally changed it. Matt, you'd be up for letting the podcast listeners vote on your new middle name. We let them decide I got a tattoo. It's only fair that they can legally change your middle name. Maybe the Patreon subscribers. Well, I think we know what it's going to be. McCauley Colkin.

Diane. I was thinking, yeah, McCauley Colkin. Matthew James McCauley. Gary would be, Gary, Indiana. Gary, Gary is the best. Greg's Pastries. Greg's. Three G's.

Anyway, so. Elton John and Bernie Torpen joined Dick James's DJM records as staff songwriters in 1968. Right, so just to confirm, Bernie, I don't know much about him. Is he also English? Yes. Okay, great. Yeah. Cool, didn't know.

Over the next two years, they wrote songs together for a. variety of artists. The way they would work and still work is pretty insane. Bernie would write out a bunch of lyrics within about an hour. Give them to Elton. Elton would write the music to go with it in about half an hour. They're just like smashing out. That's not, the timeline isn't the same as how they work now, but back then because they're just trying to, they're just trying to churn out music and turn out songs to then like pitch to artists. They're just going through it so fast. For two years they wrote easy listening tunes for Dick James to pedal to singers and their early output included a contender for the UK entry for Eurovision in 1969.

Nice. It was for Lulu and it was called I Can't Go On Living Without You. Right. So contender does that mean it was shortlisted? Yeah, it was like they narrow it down to six and it was like sixth out of those six. Six. Top six. Top six.

So came last. Yeah. Yep. Of six. Mate, top six, please. You would have hated that. That's six.

Yeah, that does annoy me a bit. I've heard of top five. But then if you had them in like, like, I'm imagining them as cubes and then you've got three and three. I don't mind that. Okay. Yeah, my brain doesn't make sense, okay? I don't quite get how that's a cube, but I... A song is a cube, obviously.

Everyone knows a song is a cube. That is a good name for a song. Why do I have to explain this to you? Sorry, you don't. A song is a cube and people are complicated. Okay? Matt, you're not a cube. demographic.

Yeah, you don't get it. You don't get it. Sorry. People your age don't understand that songs are cubes. Frankly, neither do I. Songs are stackable cubes. I, yeah. Oh, that was the latest cube from Mario Speedwagon.

So they are churning out music, which is pretty insane. But yeah, even, so they wrote together for like 40, 50 years. That's always how they worked. Bernie, they never sat in the room and wrote a song together. Never. Yeah, that is interesting. Bernie would write the lyrics, give him to Elton, Elton would write the music. Send a telegram.

Well, they used to mail it to each other. I'm hoping, you know, as the times progressed, they would email. I would hope. Because they could be any, because Elton could be touring. He'd be anywhere in the world. Bernie wasn't touring with him. Pretty amazing. So, Bernie, at some point, Bernie, this is one of the weirdest lyrics.

There's something about this lyric that means I can't like this song. Bernie Taupon wrote, Living like Lovers, Rolling Like Thunner. under the covers. Is that? Under the covers. And I guess that's what they call it the blues. Laughing like children.

Wait, what's happening here, Bernie? Living like lovers. Wait, children and what? Obviously, like when you hear the song, you go, you just go along with it. But imagine if you'd never heard the word, the music before, all you've got is a piece of paper that says those words on it. Yeah. Rolling like thunder.

He's done it again. Rolling like thunder under the covers. Yeah, I'm imagining. I like it. Elton gets and he goes, oh, fucking hell, all right. Got a bit of work to do to make this sound, okay? Yeah, imagine how good the song's could have been if someone wrote great lyrics. Well, that's the thing, too.

I was watching a docco about it, and Bernie was talking about when he wrote your song, your song. My song. Your song. Yeah. Which is called Clickety Clack. The boys are back. Shiggity shack. And here we go.

Wack-a-da-a-da-dak. Ding-a-dong. Yeah, it's a long title. We've been meaning to talk about that. Bracket. Oh boy. Look, I hear that. Here for a good time, not a long time.

Let's get her done. Sunny sun, bracket. I hear that and I think he's done it again. That is amazing. Wow. He's got away. So what was he saying in the doco though? He was talking about when he wrote your song and he's like, it's this song that's all about love.

But I was like 17, you know, had no experience. I had no idea what I was talking about. When he originally wrote it, yeah. Wow. It wasn't released until a little bit later. Because that, yeah, that's like maybe his most iconic almost. One of the, yeah, I'd say so. And it's really interesting too because a lot of the, and I'll get to it,

a sizzle, a lot of the most iconic songs are his early work. Yeah. Which is pretty impressive. Like a lot of artists, you kind of hear their early stuff and you're like, but they get really good. For example, Pantera. Yeah, that's true. I reckon when pop, it feels like these days, if you don't have a big hit album early,

where rarely to bands get discovered mid-career or have a big breakthrough. It feels like a lot of first singles are big singles. And it's weird how as musicians would probably be getting better by learning to be better musicians, that's when their popularity starts to drop usually. That must be frustrating, I imagine. But that's sort of like pop music and rock and stuff is kind of a, you know, most big hits ever were written by people under 30, I would think.

Most big hits ever. I'd say, I'd say the majority. Yeah. You know, like there's a lot of artists who died before they even hit 30. So what you're saying is Dave and I are in our prime. As songwriters. I'm just saying the clock's ticking. Right.

You've got a year and a half before you are dunzo. Okay. In the rock world. Jess. Yep. I'll write some words down and you can make a tune to it. Okay. Every tune is going to be.

Ha, nah, nah, nah. What do you think? Oh, great. All right. I try and put this to it. Big Feather Down 1-19. Have a go. What does that mean, Dave?

Sorry, just write it. This is how... No, we can't do this in the same room. This is how Bernie did it. Can you just email these to me? Fine, I'll email you Big Feather Down 119. Dave doesn't make art. He lets art flow through it.

Yeah, I don't know what it is. Don't ask questions. Just a vessel. In decades, that will be absolutely classic. Dave is just an empty vessel. You're an empty vessel. Fantastic example of one of my earlier songs You're an empty vessel, 1119.

That's like a robot's writing music. Yeah, I'm trying to, you know, stay relevant when the computers take over. Oh, I like that. Smart thing in a head. I would have thought you'd go ones and zeros, not nine. No, no, no, no. They're going to develop. Also, I'm speaking to my German ancestors.

Ah. Nine. Got it. Thank you. I didn't need to explain it. Also in the late 60s, El and John was engaged to be married to his first lover. What a weird sentence there.

Sorry about that. Are they rolling like thunder? No. Under the covers. Good. That's good stuff. It was Linda Woodrow, who's mentioned in the song,

Someone Saved My Life Tonight. Elton and Lisa were sharing a flat with Bernie in Furlong Road in Highbury in London. Hence the opening line, when I think of those East End lights, Bernie really wrote from what he knew. So he's living with a couple And then writing about the couple And then giving the words

Here The way You looked in that blouse tonight Yeah I wrote a song for you to dedicate To your girlfriend who's just sitting over there And then the girlfriend's like Oh you wrote a song about me Bernie

Yeah Thank you Bernie That's a little bit creepy I prefer a belt and how to crack No Oh my God Now I want to have a friend move in with me

I just want a friend. I realised how sad and desperate that sounded. Anyway. Just imagine how good Elton's lyrics are if he, when he's getting burn, his lyrics goes, this is the good stuff. Yeah. Rolling like thunder under the covers, I could never think of that. God, he's good.

Elton was having serious doubts about the impending marriage to Linda. He, oh, yeah, he was having, he was having a lot of issues at the time. He was having doubts about the marriage. He was contemplating suicide. Like he was very, it was quite a dark time for him. And he took refuge in his friends, especially John Baldry, who is the John of Elton John. And he convinced Elton to abandon his plans to marry in order to salvage and maintain his musical career. So he was like, what my friend Christy says, if it isn't a hell yes, it's a no.

I like that. That's a good motto. Yeah. I've used that a lot since she said it. So he's like, look, if it's not right, call it off and focus on you and your music. Can I get you a drink? Yeah, yeah. No, that's a no.

Sorry. Sorry. But imagine if you were someone who answered hell yes, something like that. Can I get your drink? Oh, hell yes. Hell yeah. I'm an alcoholic. I just meant water.

It's 10 in the morning. I'm getting coffee. Hell yeah. Hell yeah. I'm also a slave to the bean. So, yeah, okay, bad example. Anyway, so it wasn't until 1969. Nice. Matt, I wrote nice. You don't want to miss an opportunity.

Don't want to miss that. That is. This is why he did the report, I imagine. 1969, summer of love. That's when... Summer of the moon. Woodstock and also... Summer of the moon. That's good stuff. Summer of the moon.

Summer of the moon. Man, it's somewhere to the moon. Get your butts out. Yeah, that's what I meant. So, 1969, that Elton released his first solo album. It was titled, Empty Sky. Oh, did it burn you think of that? Love it.

Brooding. And it attracted little attention and wasn't really all that well received. So for their follow-up album. See that, Matt? He doesn't always have to be hit first go. Any future hits on there? I don't think so. I think it's changed.

I think you maybe in the past you had more of a chance. Like I know Bruce Springsteen had a pretty slow build up before he got huge. I think that used to be more common for artists to sort of build. But now you sort of build a fan base in your city. Yeah, I think it's changed now and it's more like your first album, you know, there's pressure on for you to make a big bang early, I believe. Well, album was a little bit different. I think, because, well, I'll talk about it here.

So the follow-up album was called Elton John. Love it. And Elton and Bernie. Elton John love it? Because that is a great title. Elton John. End title. Oh, sorry.

And title. That's weird. Is that in brackets? I hate both of you so much. Elton John and title. I hate both of you so much. Please stop writing this down, Gary. It's just called Elton John.

Oh my God. fucking writing. Gary, you're fired. Yeah, you're fired. What do you think about a non-debut album with a self-title? That happens a bit. I always find that an interesting choice into your career and you go, this is my self-title album. Yeah, I find it a bit strange. It's kind of like... I'm going to call my fifth solo show, Jess Purpose. It's kind of like you could... I'm not going to do five. You could think of something more interesting early on, but now you've run out of good titles.

That's what that says to me. Right. No, but I still wouldn't default to my name. I'd go for things like spaghetti, you know? There's options. Banana. Yeah, right. Et cetera.

Yeah. I'm so sweaty. Yeah. It's really hot. And I know we complain about that constantly, but I'm hot and I'm dying. In about, in a few weeks, this studio is going to be cooler. Yep. Great.

Just in time of winter, cannot wait. Just in time. Will it also work as a heater? Yes. Fuck. Yes. That's good news. Woo!

Anyway, so now they're working on Elton John. And Elton and Bernie enlisted Gus Dudgeon as their producer and Paul Buckmaster. They didn't have, they couldn't afford producers, fine. But don't treat us like idiots and makeup. These weird D&D game names. D dungeon and Paul Buckmaster. That's why I thought of Dungeons and Dragons because it sounds like dungeon. Damn it.

I assumed I was reading it wrong. I'm like, no, it's. Dungeon. Well, our limited experience of Dungeons and Dragons, I think every character is either called Dungeon or Dragon. Is that right? Or Gus. There's two families.

Yeah, I assume that's how it goes. Paul Buckmaster was the musical engineer. And they'd kind of gone to Dick James. I'm Dick James, bitch. I wanted to say that before, but I missed my chance. Yeah, you did it. Hey, good stuff. They went to him for money to finance this.

And it was kind of like, look, it's expensive or what they're wanting to do because they were using like full orchestras and stuff like that to put together this album. But they're like, we'll take a gamble. So it's quite a big budget. Right. So the second album, they're investing big on the second one. That's pretty impressive. Second album, big budget.

Elton John was released in April of 1970. Where was he in prison? I knew that was going. The album. This is confusing. It's why you don't self-title albums. Right. The album was released.

He renamed himself. by deed pole, the album. Yeah, which is weird. You don't name Hercules. The Hercules album. And desperate to get some attention for the album, Dick James sent copies to his contacts in the US, and one landed in the lap of Russ Regan.

Wait, he was so desperate for attention for this album that he sent it to people. Mate, back off. Klingy! Oh, mate, all right? Matt, just play us a bit over the phone. Just be cool. Gross, mate. Back off.

Yeah. No. Post. Yuck. So it landed in the lap of Russ Reagan, who was a president of you and I records. And he was so impressed. And he remembers thanking God and thinking it was one of the greatest albums you'd ever heard. What?

But this isn't a more modern interview with Russ. And I reckon you would be like, oh, I knew straight away. It was the best. If he was like, no, I'll give it a go. He wouldn't say that, would he? He'd be like, I can, I smell talent. I've heard albums that I've really enjoyed first up, but I've never gone,

this is going to change everything. Yeah, I've never thanked God. It usually takes a three or four full goes before you can get a proper opinion. Maybe he did give it three or four proper goes. And you thanked God through four proper times. But anyway, he was like, we have to bring this guy to America. So Dick James had already taken a gamble on Elton approving a large budget, like I mentioned.

But with the enthusiasm from Ross in the American music world, he decided to take one last gamble and fund a trip for Elton and the band to go to America. I like the idea that, so funding this album, he thought was the big gamble. And he's like, all right, we haven't released it, hasn't paid off. Let's chuck it in. Oh, what, you want more money to promote the album now? You want people to hear it. Oh, all right, here's more money.

Chase is throwing good money off to bed. But it was sink or swim. It was like, if you don't, if this doesn't work then. Yeah, if this doesn't work, I will throw you in the river. You're donezo. Yeah. Which river, Dave? The Hudson.

Oh, okay. I'm not going to fly home to drown you, am I? I'm going to just get someone there to... Yeah. It was the original miracle on the Hudson when Ellen John was thrown into the river and not a single life was lost. Someone saved his life that night. Yeah, he landed on a mustachioed pilot named... What was he that?

Sully. Sully Burger. Burger? We remember each remembered half of his... His name. Brilliant. All right. So he's gone to America.

He's in L.A. And the record company in the US were keen to present out as someone who was already a star in the UK to kind of help build buzz. Like, oh, he's huge. We're lucky to have him. But really, like, he wasn't getting much attention at home. Hell yeah. We did that on our UK tour as well.

No one cares about us here. We're huge. I love that idea that there was a time not that long ago where you could pretend something like that. Now you'd just be like to do a quick Google search. like, no, you're not. Yeah. Well, a guy in England recently went viral because he organized an American tour and light.

Did you read about that? The metal guy? Yeah, the metal guy. Yeah, I read about that while we're in England. That was wild. Booked in a whole trip by basically creating all these Facebook accounts and making his band look like they're popular and faking all these streams and stats. And then when he got...

And also faking ticket sales. So he said that there were pre-sales. Yeah, investing all his own money, hiring like, session musicians to back him up who were really excited to go over them when they get there, there's zero people at the gigs. I don't know what his point was. I don't know at what point did you think that it was, yeah. And then the interview that I read with him, he was a bit like,

I controlled all of this. I even tipped off the media that this was fake. It's like, you are a douche. I mean, that is one way of getting some sort of attention, I suppose. But yeah, it feels like that's a... Kind of backfired. Maybe just make good music, I reckon. I mean, that's the thing he did.

He wrote an album called Elton, John. And it goes a little something. Sadly, he was just pipped to the post. Anyway, so yeah, they're trying to make him seem like he's already quite famous. But Elton and Bernie were quite the opposite. Their reality was sharing a bedroom in a little flat in the London suburbs.

Like, they're not big stars, but they're being treated like they are. So Elton had a week-long run of shows at the Trubador Club in L.A. And the record label ensured that the who's who in the music industry was there to see him. Including the Who. The Who were there. The first show was a massive success. Oh.

He smashed it out of the park. Word quickly spread about him. There was a, I forgot in his name now, there's a reporter who was talking about seeing the show. And it was a Richard Wilkins. Thank you, yes. I see big things for him. He was talking about how this venue, the Tribador, wasn't like the rock and roll or the pop kind of venue. It was like a singer-songwriter.

you'd go there and Joni Mitchell played there all the time. But they've brought... One of the greatest songwriters of all time. Yeah, totally. But like it was more, it was a bit more of a mellow club, and they've brought him in, and he just sort of like rocked it out. Crocodile rocked it out.

The album's first single, Borda song, peaked at 92 on the Billboard Hot 100. The second single, Your Song, reached number seven in the UK and number eight in the US, becoming his first hit single as a singer. and the album soon became his first hit album, reaching number four on the US Billboard 200 and number five on the UK album chart.

So his second single, well, that's true, second album was your song. That's early days though, for a career that spanned decades. And with this newfound success, Elton's stage presence and confidence grew quite suddenly. I remember somebody, I think it was one of the guys from bluesology talking about, seeing him on TV and that he's interviewed, he's introduced as Elton John and he looked at it. He's like, that's not Elton John. That's Reggie Dwight.

But he's just like, That's my fucking name. He kind of became this Elton John kind of character, I guess. And over the following years, he became known for his, you know, large-in-life shows and his extravagant costumes from feathers to Donald Duck. He dressed in a Donald Duck costume one show.

From feathers to, another feathered outfit. He wanted his shows to be unlike anything people had seen before and he had the confidence to do what he wanted and not care what other people said. And even quite recently, this is a quote from him. He said, I want people to be astounded when I come on stage and I want people to be astounded when I leave the stage.

Oh my God, he's gone! What the hell just happened? I am astounded. Okay. So this is just like a summary of the next, I guess a few years, summary of the next few albums. So next they did a concept album called Tumbleweed Connection. I haven't heard that. But that is a great concept.

It was a country Western Americana theme. Wow, okay. I mean, you've just started to make it. Yeah. You've only been to L.A., but you're like, no, I know all about this land. I'm Americana. That is, yeah, your belief in your science. is high.

Yeah. I am a genius. It was released in 1970 and it reached number two in the UK and number five in the US. Okay. It was very popular. I'm a fool. Yes, you are, but that's unrelated. Matt, high-five me.

Matt, high-five her. Thank you. Two good high-fives. Let's not go for three. But at least I felt part of that. The next one was Mad Man Across the Water. Man-Man or Mad Man? Mad-Man.

Man man man across the world It's pretty good Man man I'll name it Makes more sense than the last title What do you mean Tumbleweed connection That's great

The Kermit The Kermit A Tumbleweed connection The Lovers Rolling like thunder Under the covers 119 119

119 So Mad Man Across the Water came out in 1971. It was his next album. It reached number eight in the US and produced one of his most successful songs. The album's opening track, Tiny Dancer. Oh, a great song. Blue Jean, baby. L.A. lady.

Seamstress. For the band. Thank you. I mean. Bernie, you've done it again. God, he's good. There must have been other songwriters on the side going, maybe I could get in there and have a,

Have a go. I could throw some words out. Yeah. No, no, Bernie's my good luck charm. Blue, Gene, baby. L.A. Lady. Huh?

He's just writing down things he sees and says it down. He's like, he'll never use this, but I don't know. He'll done my pages for the day. Yeah, he just had a word can every day. Pirate smile. Is it pirate smile? Yeah. Good.

That is a great tune Oh, it's amazing Love a builder Love a big build Yeah Oh my closer Tiny dancer I had a feeling this episode

Would result in a fair bit of singing From a Moire The next one was released in 1972 It was called Honky Shato Love it Became his first US number one album Spent five weeks at the top of the Billboard 200 That's big baby

And began a streak of seven consecutive U.S. number one albums. Holy shit. Isn't that massive? Yeah, that's wild. Crazy. Seven in a row. Reach number two in the UK and it spawned the hits like Honky Cat and Rocket Man. You familiar with Rocket Man?

I've never heard that one, but I've heard Honky Cat. Of course. Honky Cat. Bernie, what? Bernie, are you okay? Bernie, I need an album to be. title. Honky Chateau. Great. You've done it again. God, he's good. And sign that over. Give the artwork to the record executive.

Get back. Honky cat. My goodness, this is so good. I reckon we've just penned our first number one album. Benny, you've done it again. Now, the next album was a pop album called Don't Shoot Me. I'm only the piano player. That's good. That's probably his best title so far. Don't shoot me, I'm just the piano player. Shoot the other guy with the gun. He's got a gun. It came out at the start of 1973,

reached number one in the UK, the US and here in Australia. The number... The album produced hits like Crocodile Rock, which was his first U.S. Billboard Hot 100-N-N-N-N-N-N-N-O crocodile. Crocodile, Crocodile, Crocodile, Crocodile, Crocodile, Crocodile, Crocodile, Crocodale, Crocodile, Crocodile, Crocodale, Crocodile, Crocodile, Crocodle, Crocodile, Crocodale, Crocodale, Crocodile, Crocodale, Crocodale, Crocod, Crocod, Crocod, Crocod, Crocoad. Crocodile

Crocodile Crocodile Crocodile Crocodda Crocodda Ratsar Alright And we're back

We actually had to cut out 45 minutes there Yeah but we left you the best part We left in a little bit I'm pretty glad I coughed there I did not know how to get out My dad always told me Oh, we're all bloody coughing

Like, Crocodile went the wrong way down, Matt's throat. My dad always told me, big Elton John fan. I don't know if this is true, but that he was inspired to write crocodile rock because he was inspired by the Daddy Cool song, Eagle Rock. Yes, I heard that as well. Ozzy classic. He was like, oh, that's a really good song. I should write my own sort of style of that.

So he wrote the crocodile rock, which I imagine worldwide is much more famous. Yeah. So he just takes things from other people. Is it a taker? Elton, John. So did we... I mean, if Bernie's writing a word. Did Bernie do the Snatching?

Yeah, I guess so. He said to Bernie, I reckon that's a really cool kind of song. We should write something like that, and Bernie the next day just handed in a piece of paper that said Crocodile Rock. Do it in the Crocodile Rock. You know, Bernie, this sounds pretty similar, but I'll go with you. Just do it. Shut off.

Okay. So next was Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, which was released in 73. This is like, that's the second album in the same year. So Don't Shoot Me, I'm Only the Piano Player, came out the start of 73. Towards the end of 73, he's got another one out. And they both are... By contract, he's doing two a year.

Oh, he has to. Yeah. But also, he's actually doing more than that. I read somewhere across the space of three years, he released like seven albums, which is only an extra one. But anyway, like... That's still...

Heaps. But he was talking about it. He was like, you know, I was young, and it's just that young adrenaline. And you only have that for so long and for such a certain period of your career, so you just kind of go with it. Yeah, I guess that's smart.

In some ways it's like, oh, space it out, mate. But maybe the public may have gotten over him, you know. You just don't know. Maybe that kind of music goes out of style or whatever. So maybe it's best to just because now the rest of his career is just playing the hits of those first 15 years or whatever. How many years when he was like on the top of his game? Oh. Well, seven in a row of number one.

But that's seven in three years then, right? God. Well, he just keeps going. from here. Okay. We're only about three-ish years since his first album. And it gets bigger. So this album, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, gained instant critical acclaim

and topped the charts on both sides of the Atlantic. And it remained number one for two months. It also kind of established him as a glam rock star. And it contained the songs, Benny and the Jets, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, candle in the wind. Saturday night's alright for fighting and funeral for a friend. Holy shit.

That's a big album. That is sort of his iconic album. It's the only album title I've recognised so far. Yeah, right. Man Man across the river. Oh, sorry, man man, yeah. Thank you. That and man man, man.

Obviously, the big two. This is just something kind of interesting. In 1974, he collaborated with John Lennon on a cover of Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. and the B-side was Lennon's one day at a time. And in return, Elton John was featured on whatever gets you through the night on Lennon's Walls and Bridges album. Crack and tune. Later that year, in what would be one of John Lennon's last major live performances,

the pair performed these two number one hits, along with the Beatles, I saw her standing there, at Madison Square Garden in New York. And John Lennon rarely made stage appearances by that stage. but he did appear with Elton John and his band to keep the promise he'd made that he would appear on stage with him if whatever gets you through the night became a US number one. He was like, I'll do it if it gets the number one.

He's like, all right. Gosh. Isn't that kind of wild? What a gig to be out. That would have been. Yeah. You'd be dining out on that story for the rest of your life. I was there.

I was there. It's like when people tell you they saw the Beatles in Melbourne, it's like, Fah! Isn't that wild? Absolutely wild. I saw Franz Ferdinand at Festival Hall, so it's similar. I saw the Foo Fighters there. It was Festival Hall where they played, wasn't it?

Yeah. I saw, on the 50th anniversary, I saw a Beatles cover band play at Festival Hall. Were they good? Yeah, that were great. Cool. You know, for a... Because if you're going to put that on, you'd want it to be like a really good Beatles cover band? Wild that you'd get so many people.

I guess it's because of the event and everything. the anniversary, that's kind of cool. Just a bit of fun. Bit of fun. So to celebrate five years since he'd first appeared at the venue, in 1975, Elton John played a two-night four-show stand at the Trubador, where he first went over to L.A. So he's done all of this in five years, all these huge albums. Seating was limited to under 500 per show.

So the chance to buy a ticket was determined by a lottery, with each winner allowed two tickets. everyone who attended the performance received a hardbound yearbook of the band's history. It was like this big thing. During that trip, he also received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and performed two sellout shows at Dodger Stadium, the first music actor performed there since the Beatles nine years earlier. Right. And with a star, he would have been pretty young together.

Yeah, he's about 27, 28. Oh, dear. Oh dear Yep So when he got there And they gave him the star They declared it Elton John week

It was huge Every time someone gets the stars At that person Clint Eastwood Week I mean I've never heard anybody else Celebrate Ellen John Week since Every week How long is that street

Because it feels like everyone's got a star there Matt Salt on the Lones We don't have one Come on There's thousands Get fucked. How'd you get one, mate? I've never been around the block a few times.

Yeah, you're a bit older than us. This is my first bloody rodeo. We'll get one. I did a sell out tour of Dodger Stadium once. 100,000 people turned up to see him. Is that how? Wow. A hundred thousand people.

God. It is wild. This is only, again, five years after his first album. It's insane. Also, he's had seven number one albums. It feels like if anyone's going to sell out 100,000 cedar. Totally, but it's just such a short period of time.

Like, if you think about what you were doing five years ago, it doesn't feel that far away, but you're like, Jesus, what am I going to do in the next five? What is it, because Adele, doesn't she release albums with her age? Only, no, she's not doing that anymore. She's done the trilogy. So what were they? 1921, 25. So that were our first three albums?

I think so, yeah. Yeah. 1921, 25. Yeah. So first three albums in. That age span. Dave? 19.

6 years. 21, 25. The middle one doesn't matter that much. Yeah. 1925. How many have we talking here? Obviously, people will take. Three albums.

In how many years? Six years. It's really just said that. It's a bit different. Well, I just wanted a confirmation from something. And also, I think it's longer than that because it's the age she was when she started recording the album. Right. So often it takes a couple of years.

I think that last one took a two or three years to put out. Yeah. I heard in it. Well, she's, He did an interview with Graham Norton and he was like, you're going to just keep going until you're 95. And she was like, nah, I'm stopping there. I believe in trilogies. Which I love.

I believe in trilogies. Oh. No, no, they're a myth for sure. If Bernie thought that, he'd write it down. But we believe in triptitches. Yeah, I do believe in that. Yes. So, we're not so different.

Adele and I? That's why there's three of us on the show. We are a triptitch. Yeah. Of podology. Adele believes in us. In us? Isn't that how she talks?

Not us. She can say us. Can you? She's Adele. Go on. Us. Huh. There you go.

Unbelievable. I believe in afts. Do you reckon Adele that I could be friends? Genuine question. She seems fun. She does seem fun. Yeah, that's why I'm going to say no. But not like a party.

Ouch. Not like a crazy partier like Lindsay Lowen 10 years ago, you know? Yeah. Like I feel like Adele would very happily just have like a glass of wine and her PJs and we'd watch movies and stuff. More like Lindsay Lowhan 10 years from now. I hope so. I really hope there's positivity for her future. That's positivity in the future.

I do want that for her. Quiet glass of wine. Is what we all want? What we all want. Matching PJs with your best friend, Adele. Hello. I'm Adele. Anyway, so besides being the most commercially successful period,

1970 to 1976 is also held in the most regard critically. So it's like people love it, but so do the critics. And this is what I was talking about before. With only a three-year span between 72 and 75, he saw seven consecutive albums reach number one in the US, something which had not been accomplished before. So he's exploded. But as with literally every story we've ever heard about musicians or actors

or any kind of performer who reaches some kind of level of fame and success, he struggled with the fame, the pressure of traveling, the rock and roll lifestyle, which included a lot of drugs and alcohol. So he exploded. he made a real mess. Yeah. Even this is in a docker I was watching. Even the night before the show at Dodger Stadium,

he flew his parents and grandparents and some friends over from the UK. Oh, no wonder he could sell 100,000. He's flying the crowd in. Yeah, 98,000 were imports. He sold his, he brought in his parents and grandparents. We're looking at like four people. How many more tickets do you need to sell after that? Seven or eight?

You're a long way there now. That's what we should. should be doing is flying in our parents. Flying in our parents. My dad's a plane. My dad's a rocket man. Dave, what's your dad? Some sort of hellie chompter.

Helly chompter. Yeah. That's that to me that I'm picturing like a flying dinosaur. Yeah. Yeah, that's me dad. He's a heli chompter. There he is. Hi, dad.

He's here to pick me up. What's he like? Fly him into Dodgers Stadium. Yeah, he killed a lot of. lot of people that day. So he's, yeah, it's a big deal. He's flown his family over, but this is the night before he took an overdose of pills. Apparently like an attempt on his own life.

Obviously, he recovered well enough to perform. That's pretty impressive. That's a mate. It's so weird and surreal. Russ Regan was saying, this is a quote from him, he said, he never showed it on stage. That expression, the show must go on. He did that. He got on stage and you'd never even know he was depressed.

God, that is so sad. Because now you're going to watch all your favorite artists like, but how are you? This show's amazing, but are you okay? Dr. Stage. Keep in mind, he was 28 years old. And in the span of five years, he'd gone from quiet and reserved Reg Dwight to the biggest pop star in the world.

I'm jealous of him. he's suicidal. It's like, oh gosh. It's pretty, I don't envy them. You know, that level of fame is beyond what I would ever want. That is. And beyond what you'll ever get, to be fair. You're right, do you think so?

Are you telling me that by 28, which is the edge of... Have you heard Dave sing? Rocket Man, Rocket Man. And I hope we pass this. audition. That was beautiful. Thank you so much. I think we just cut your first hit record.

I'm sorry, I ever doubt. Five seconds of me singing, Rocket Man. Loop that. Loop it. Loop it. Loop it, good. No, but that, in all honesty, though, that level of success, 100,000 people are coming to see.

That is overwhelming for anyone. Yeah, I could. No way. In 28, and like you say, five years earlier, Jesse's living in it. I assume he's still living in a one-bedroom flat with Bernie. I don't think so. Oh, okay. Yeah, I think he's...

That's where it all went wrong. When he flew out his family and stuff, they were staying in his house in L.A. So he's already got a couple of properties. It's just crazy. I would like a really slow success. Yeah, I want to... You should peak in your 90s, I reckon. I want to...

Me, best. Yeah. Yeah, that's when I'll do my best work. In the 2080s. Wow. Do you reckon I'll live that long, Dave? Hell yeah. I reckon your career will live longer, though.

Am I right, Matt? Dave. Thanks, Dave. Because your career is going to be as a corpse on display. Yeah, we're going to donate your body to that guy in Germany that turns corpses into museum objects. I want to be a chair. Okay. Well, he does all sorts of weird stuff.

A beautiful choice. Because then when people sit on me, it's kind of like a hug. Yeah. A sitting spoon. Yeah. Oh, that's nice, because I love spooning. He can put wire through your arms so they're bendable around you. Yeah, perfect.

Oh, that's nice. And then I can be the big spoon for you or you can spoon me. Yeah. Either all. And if you turn to your left, there's a bookshelf. And on that bookshelf is a book made from my skin. Oh. So we're all there.

So we're together in death? Matt, are you there? No, he's the one paying to spoon. Yeah, sitting on the chair. Having to read. I haven't read of the skin book. It's the curse of immortality. All right.

So just a little bit as well on his, like I said, at the very top, I'm, I've brushed. over a lot of things because this is a life that has contained a lot. But just a few key points here. Have we got up to the Kiki D? That kind of came after. And Bernie was talking about how they've got, like he's proud of the music that they've created. And there's a lot of good stuff in there.

But he also talks about, he's like, there's some duds. And he talks about a fair bit of fluff. Yeah. Like music just, uh, and he talks about that Kiki D. duet as being a bit of fluff. What are you talking about? It's a banger. Islands in the stream, yeah?

That is your greatest, your greatest song. No need to be jealous of kicky, Bernie. Yeah, come on. Just because he didn't duet with you. You were always the other partner. Yeah, silent partner. Yeah, silently, very, very wealthy partner. In an interview with Rolling Stone in 1976,

Elton John came out as bisexual. In 84, he married German recording engineer Renata Blauul in Darling Point in Sydney. They got married in Sydney. That's crazy, isn't it? But of course, because he'd come out as bisexual, people then speculated that the marriage was a cover for his homosexuality because it was the 80s. I mean, if you're trying to cover that up, you come out and you talk about your sexuality very openly. Yeah. That's a classic way of covering up.

Oh, so you claim to be bisexual, which means you're attracted to both genders and now you've married a woman. Ha ha, gay. What does that mean? What a wild time. You don't understand any of this. They were married for four years before they divorced in 1988 and after his divorce, he told the magazine he was comfortable being gay. So I guess in a way, annoyingly, they were right. Kind of right.

But it's not always the case, right? They were ignorant in their... correctness. They happened. Anyway, shut up. And what happened to blow? I love hearing you soy boys get fucked up. Yeah, we're so soy.

Oh, I'm sorry. I'm just, I'm being a bit of a warrior for social justice over here. They haven't made it this far. Those people that don't like us. If they have, they can fuck off. Anyway, in 1993, he began a relationship with David Furnish. He was a former advertising executive and now filmmaker originally from Toronto. Is that a little Toronto accent?

He's from Toronto. Toronto. Didn't not realize. Interesting. That's just a little side note there. I'll come back to them later. Oh, okay. Cizzle.

Can you feel the love tonight? Can you feel? Which is what I'm talking about right now. Along with Tim Rice, Elton John wrote the songs for the 1994 Disney animated film, The Lion King. Now, Dave, which one is Tim Rice? All right, there's Tim Curry, Tim Rice. Yes. Which one's which?

Tim Curry Is the bad guy in McHale's Navy. He's the remake with Tom Arnold. He's the sassy one because Curry's sassy. He's rooster in the orphan Annie. He's also in Congo. He's in Congo, a movie we took a little primates. That's right.

And? With a baffling accent. Yeah, wow. He went full Tim Curry on that role. It was something you should never do. And Tim Rice... You never win an Academy Award going full curry. You know who has won an Academy Award.

Tim Rice. when he goes full Tim Rice. Right. Well, speaking of Academy Awards, at the 67th Academy Award, three of the five nominees for the Academy Award for Best Song were from the Lion King soundtrack.

That is crazy. I know. I mean, I really hope they won. Well, Elton John won the award for Can You Feel the Love Tonight, which goes a little something like this. Rocket Man. Do you reckon Bernie's is a lot of me?

the wing's a little bit pissed off. That he, he didn't get the co-lave. Oh, yeah. They got Tim Rice in. Bernie's like, you fucking figure, probably not.

It doesn't strike me as that type. Seems like a pretty chilled out, dude. Actually, we did an episode of Primates about Lion King a few weeks back. That is a fascinating film. And apparently it was the first time they got a big name musician to do the music for a film. Yeah. Before that,

they didn't really do that. And same with the cast. They didn't normally have big-name actors through the whole cast. It was the first one, apart from Robin Williams in Aladdin, but he was sort of just one out. And then this one, it was an all-star cast. JTT, Darth Vader. Nathan Lane.

Jeremy Irons, Rowan Atkinson. Oh, yes. Whoopi Goldberg, etc. Big cast. Matthew Broderick. There we go. So, Can You Feel the Love Tonight won the award. Both that and Circle of Life became hit songs for Elton John.

Can You Feel the Love Tonight also won him a Grammy Award for Best Male Pop vocal performance at the Grammys, obviously. After the release of the Lion King soundtrack, the album remained at the top of the Billboard 200 for nine weeks. Huge. Wow, that's big than all these other stuff. I know, that's massive. Also in 1994, he was inducted to. into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame by Guns and Rose's frontman Axel Rose. Wow, I bet he was honoured.

Yeah. Who would you choose to present you with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? Probably Axel Rose. Really? To be fair. Yeah. I would go Duff McCagan. I was going to go for Dame Edna.

Oh, I was going to go Buckethead. The brief replacement. Yeah, very brief. So you picked Dame Edna. Yes. Oh, right. Love her work. She's a real battler.

Yep. She went from a regular woman to a dame. Yeah, I think she grew up in Mooney Ponds. Correct, yeah. Wow. Such an inspiration. In early September of 1997, he contacted his writing partner, Bernie Torpen,

asking him to revise the lyrics of his 1973 song, Candle in the Wind, to honor Princess Diana, of Wales who'd been killed in a car accident just the week earlier. In 1997, that was the same day that the Saints beat Port Adelaide to finish on top of the ladder at the end of the season. So a real roller coaster of a day. We all know where we were on that day.

For me, it was a great day. Time zone wise, though, that probably happened before she died too, eh? Yeah, I just remember being real happy that day. Matt. But I don't think... Some kids lost their mom. No, I mean about the footy. I know, but like, come on.

Some Adelaide fans lost that day. Port Adelaide fans, though. Adelaide fans. Adelaide ended up being us in the grandfinal, so thank you very much. You're saying you can't refer to Port Adelaide as Adelaide. There's Adelaide and there's Port Adelaide. That is ridiculous. You know there's Melbourne and North Melbourne as well?

Yeah, well, two Melvons don't make it right. No, he's right. Hey, he's right, though, he's right. He's right. And I'm sorry, you saw boys. obviously Princess Diana was a great princess and an inspiration of all of us. Thank you. And I wasn't at all trying to make light of that.

But it was a great day for the same. On the 6th of September in 1997, he performed Candle in the Wind 1997 for the only time in a live setting at the funeral of Diana in Westminster Abbey. And the song became the fastest and biggest selling single of all time, eventually selling over 33 million. million copies worldwide, the best-selling single in UK chart history. Isn't that crazy? Yeah, that a cover of your own song. Yeah, then just becomes huge. I think, yeah, there's so much, obviously it's a great song anyway,

but also the country was just mourning real hard. Big time. And the world. Yeah. She wasn't even just the princess of Wales. She was the world's princess. Yep. In Wales.

The people's princess. And we did that to her. us, you know, via the media, hounding her into a car crash? I mean, we were seven. Thank you. So I don't think. We all played a role.

All right, yep. Well, we acknowledge what we did. Yeah, I remember playing with my Batman toys when I heard that she was in a car accident. Why did you do that, Dave? Because I got it from my birthday and I got the Mr. Freeze and that was really cool. I was playing with toy cars,

which was insensitive on my part. Oh, come on, Jess, bit. And you became a journalist. Yeah. You went to study journalism. Yeah. But she gave it up because when she understood what the media had done to. Yeah.

I just wanted to get in. I wanted to be some good on the inside. Right. Make change from the inside out. Exactly. And then I didn't go into journalism. Be the journalist you want to see in the world. Exactly.

Thank you. Thank you. It's beautiful. So the proceeds from the song, which was approximately 55 million pound. Oh. We donated to Diana's charities via the Diana Princess of Wales Memorial Fund

and at won Elton John the Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance at the 40th annual Grammys in 1998. So we've got a Grammy for that as well for doing a cover of his own song. Profiting from tragedy. Well, did give it all a charity. Well, did he give the award to charity?

Probably did. Probably. Probably. Probably did to be honest. Yeah, probably did. In 1997, the Lion King musical debuted on Broadway and the West End in 1999. In 2014, it had grossed over $6 billion become the top earning title in box office history for both stage production and films surpassing the record previously held

by Andrew Lloyd Webber's 1986 musical, The Phantom of the Opera. And Andrew Lloyd Weber, of course, notoriously being the arch enemy of Maxwell Sheffield. That's right. That crusty old conductor, I mean composer. God down. I always forget his name. I remember Sheffield's name.

Maxwell. What's the other guy's name? Andrew Lloyd Weber. Yeah. Shit beneath my feet. It's what I call him Weber. So you should be happy then because Elton John beat him. Yeah.

Took his record off him. The phone. Come up a row. All right, man. Have a whinge. Inside your... Bart. Is that what it is?

Inside your butt. The phantom. Shush, phantom. I do say. The fandom always plays up when I eat spicy food. Do you call your butt the phantom? No, he's in my butt. That's what you said.

That was confusing. Please excuse me, the phantom of the opera is here. Inside my butt. Returning to musical theater, Elton John, comp, composed music for a West End production of Billy Elliott the musical in 2005 with playwright Lee Hall. Opening to Strong Reviews, the show won four Lawrence Olivier awards, including Best New New Musical.

It was the 11th longest running musical in West End history, and the London production ran through until April 2016 after 4,56 performances. And you know it was performed in the theatre where we saw Hamilton? Yeah. They replaced it, yeah. Have we talked about seeing Hamilton? That was great fun. Did we talk about it last?

I don't even really... Last year. Do I like musicals? I'm confused now because... Did you like Hamilton? I enjoyed that. And you like any? I think you like musicals.

Come on, you do. There's something about them that I'm not sure about. That's okay. I historically really dislike them, but I really enjoyed Hamilton. Hmm. Hmm. Interesting. This is great.

These are good chats. Oh, thank you. Tell me what else you've... Don't like and do like. Oh, okay. Wait, it was a joke. I've got a report to do. Oh, okay.

Fucking roasted. Brussels sprouts and custard. You do or don't? You don't like custard? I love custard. Don't like Brussels brussels. I do not. Interesting.

You're a real cliche. The show grossed over $800 million worldwide and is a winner of over 80 theater awards internationally. This is Billy Elliott? Yeah. Huh, never heard of it. it. And speaking of musicals in January of 2017, it was announced that Elton John would be composing the score.

For the full Monty. For the Broadway musical version of the devil wears Prada. Yes. He's wearing Prada. The devil's wearing Prada. Here he comes Nata. The devil's wearing Prada. Oh, that is good.

Hello, Mother Fada. We come from Camp Granada. were devil wearing prada this shit rise itself how many Lawrence Livio Awards will we be winning well the time like the musical is yet to be announced of when it's going to come out so

did you skip over the part where he composed something for Nomio and Juliet Jess did he do your research I think so well maybe do your research before you undermine my research that was rude

and uncouthful in my research In March 2007 he performed at Madison Madison Square Garden for a record-breaking 60th time for his 60th birthday. 60 times. Jesus, that's big. 60 times.

The concert was broadcast live and a DVD recording was released as Elton 60 Live at Madison Square Garden. It's an exciting title. Name, age. Love it. ASL. Yeah, I love it. I'm looking up, No, Bill, Julia.

I'm not seeing any mention of Elton John. Is that right, Dave? Although it did star Ozzy Osbourne. So in a way, aren't we all right? Star? He was one of the voices apparently. Is he no-meo? No, he was Juliet.

He's very, very low down. He was and. On the list. So in December of 2005, the day the Civil Partnership Act came into force, Elton and David were amongst the first couples to form a civil partnership in the UK. And nine years later to the day, they married after gay marriage had finally been legal. So they'd already been to this since 1993. They were one of the first couples in 2005 to get a partnership.

And then when gay marriage was legalized, they were like, get hitched. Their oldest son, they've got two boys. They got Zachary Jackson-Lavon furnished. John. Fuck, that is good. That's fun. You hate it. Say again.

So let's break out. We need to go through it by name by name. What is it? Zachary. Zachary Jackson. Levon. Furnish John. Furnish John is hyphenated.

Furnish John is a, sounds like a funny name. Did you go John Furnish? John Furnish is better. I agree. Furnish John. We're not the parents? It's also, it's funny that, yeah, he's really committed to John being his surname. Well, he's legally changed his name to it in the 70s.

So, I mean, that's, his name now. I'm happy for them. What a character. John. Zachary was born on Christmas Day in 2010. What day is this? Why is Christmas Day?

And they've also got another son, Elijah, Joseph, Daniel, furnished John. Daniel, my brother. And he was born in 2013. Well, you know. Two young kids. Are you still looking up Nomio and Juliet? When they had their first son during that period, Elton John was working on the Nomio and Juliet,

original soundtrack, produced by Elton John and David Furnish, the partner we're talking about right now, and includes the duet of Lady Gaga and Elton John of the song, Hello, Hello. It also features Crocodile Rock. Saturday Night's Aright, Don't Go Breaking My Heart. It basically, it's just Elton John songs. Benny and the Jets, tiny dancer.

I'm not crazy after all. Good news, everyone. I don't know. Stop tweeting in about Nomeo and Juliet. You seem a little bit. A couple more things. I'm nearly done. I just wanted to wrap up with a couple of things.

Sorry, sorry, I'm treading on your toes about the Naomi-O-M-M-O-Julget facts. Well, you are now. I was going to end on that, but now this will just fizzle out. No big finish then. In January of last year, 2018, it was announced that Elton John would be retiring from touring and would soon embark on a three-year farewell tour. Wow, if he lives that long, gosh. He's only 71 or something.

Okay, well, I mean... I love that, though. Like, if he lives. I think that that is true of any tour. Yeah, good point. Good point. But also, I like it because his reasoning for retiring is for his kids to spend more time with his kids. So instead, while they're like 10...

One's eight and one's five. He's going to just tour for three years. Yeah, I'll be back on your 16th birthday. It's fine. I worry about it. The first concert took place in Allentown, Pennsylvania, in September of 20th. 18. And yeah, this is a quote from him. He says, 10 years ago, if you asked me if I'd ever stopped touring, I would have said no. But we had children and that changed our lives. I've had an

amazing life in career, but my life has changed. My priorities are now my children and my husband and my family. That nice. That is not, but I agree with you, Jess. You think that he would take some time off now and then maybe in his late 70s come out and do a few final concerts and he still loves to perform. Yeah, don't spend three years doing a farewell tour. Like, maybe, obviously he's huge and if you're going to do a farewell tour you want to get to everywhere you can but also like three years is a long time

but anyway I mean you know he can make his own life choices I suppose and will we be going to see him on his farewell tour? No I've got to refund those tickets I bought Matt for his birthday God I thought he was a fan yes

yes God now I'm going to buy those tickets back oh god now they're triple the price I want more money. I'd go see him perform, I reckon. Well, would you go see a biopic? Yes.

No, yes, maybe. Is it called Kenneth? He's middle-names. It's called Rocket Man. Oh, that's pretty good. Do they have much info about it? It's set to be released in May. Right, so they've got a star and everything.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's directed by Dexter Fletcher, who directed Bohemia Rhapsody, which was about Freddie Mercury. And it's going to star Taran Edgerton as Elton. And he has had some experience with Elton's music. He performs a cover of I'm still standing in the animated film Sing. He's a rhino? Something like that.

They're all animals. Is he, is that the Aussie Edgerton? Is he an Edgerton brother? No, he's English. Yeah. Taran Edgerton. Taran. Taran.

He's in, um, oh shit. Kingsman. Why, I mean, why are you saying a movie that no one's ever seen? It's a good movie. And finally some fun facts, if I may. Oh, I love it. I haven't done fun facts for a while, but I've just got a couple here. Aside from his two children that he has with his husband,

he also has 10 God children, including Sean Lennon, John Lennon's son. Wow. David and Victoria Beckham's sons, Brooklyn and Romeo, and Elizabeth Hurley's son, Damian Hurley. You'd think if your mum was Elizabeth Hurley, you'd have a more glamorous name than Damien. That's just a little side thought there.

that Damians of the world. Yeah, my cousin Damien. Sorry, Damo, you're great. But your name's a little dull. What about Damien Martin? The one of cricketer. Yeah, I love cricket. Well, now you've hurt the feelings of one of the greats.

Damian Martin. He had all the towel in the world, never quite converted that. Into results. But he, geez, he was beautiful to watch when he was going. That's nice. Yeah. Like a one more fun fact. Is it about Damien Martin?

No. Because that would be so apt. The video for, so Elton John, after a while, he didn't want to be in his own music videos anymore. So the video for this train, don't stop there anymore, featured Justin Timberlake, portraying a young Elton John. And there's also a video for I Want Love, which featured Robert Downey Jr. Lipsinking. That's fine. That's fine.

And how cool is that? They de-aged Robert Downey with the Marvel technology. No, they're good. That's cool. I totally get that as well. I think I'd be eventually, be like, just make a short film. Here's some money. Yeah, just get an animated thing happening. Get some patterns.

Just make it artistic. I'm busy. Just get Robert Anna Jr., whatever. I've had enough of pretending to sing my song over and over again. That must be pretty tedious. But yeah, that is my report on the life of Elton John. That was a lot of fun, Jess Perkins. That's pretty interesting.

Obviously, there's heaps more. He's like, I mean, he's one of the biggest artists of the last century. Yeah. Yeah. And there was that period of his life where he was what spending like $200,000 on flowers a month or something. Did you come across that? Yeah, I think so. Like he just weren't out of control.

But he and Bernie wrote together for like five decades. And Bernie still alive? Yeah. Oh, I think so. The doc I was watching was from a few years ago. But I believe so. Someone was telling me, I don't know if this is true, but someone was telling me that he, because he gets homesick or something when he's

touring so he has every room he stays and he gets made to look exactly like his bedroom. Oh, wow. You didn't come across that. That might not be true. No, I think I did. That sounds absolutely wild and Bernie Torpen is still alive. Yeah. And looks, to be honest, like an Elton John impersonator.

Yeah. That's what he looks like. Uh-huh. It's a cool dude. So yeah, there we go. What a life. What a report. Good times.

Thank you so much, Jess. Pleasure. Thanks for having me. Thanks to everyone that suggested that topic. Are there any other crazy but very interesting lives you want us to report on? Or any topic at all, you can go to do go onpod.com and click submit a topic. Take you to a little form. You fill it out.

Tell us where you are in the world so we can thank you when we do the topic. And tell us why it's interesting. That always helps make it jump out amongst the thousands of suggestions. If you did enjoy this as a topic, we've done a bunch of English musician bios before, like The Beatles and David Bowie and Freddie Mercury I've done all of those Have you really

And we've done a bunch of American ones too Like Johnny Cash and Pantera And others Gosh I haven't done Have I not done a musician then Dave You get your next vote should be All right I'll do it

My next vote on the Patreon Will be Cool Musos Nice Nice Nice But that does bring us to the end Of the report part of the show

but to the start of the Patreon presents, I guess in a way, part of the show. That's right. And first up, of course, is the fact quote or question. And we get all that stuff from patreon.com slash do go on pod. If you want to support the show, give back a couple of bucks or even more every month. You can go to Patreon.com, just do go on pod, like I say. And you get bonus rewards, shoutouts, access to presales, discounts on tickets, and two bonus episodes every single month.

No one else hears those. not even Reginald Kenneth Dwight. No, no matter what he says. No, actually he is a Patreon. Oh, well, he can afford it. Yeah. A similar sort of triple-barreled name is this week's fact-quote or questioner from our Patreon, Kevin Ulysses Packrad.

I love that name. It's a great name. He's a fact-quote or question before. His title this time around, so you get to give yourself a title and then offer us a fact quote or question to be read at the end of the episode. The title Kevin's given himself is, your mum's great friend who doesn't want to intrude in on your personal life, but feels as though there's a moral obligation involved.

Love that. Thank you, Kevin. And he's offered a quote, and the quote is... I love a quote, inspirational. You can take inspiration from it, yes. No matter what it is, I promise to be inspired. This one, he put our... poll out to the Patreon Facebook group to see what quote he should give.

And they wanted to do an ad lib sort of thing. So he, I think a bunch of people in the patrons added a couple of words each. And this is what it's ended up being. I've not read this yet. I always try to talk. Do you know, understand what I'm saying? Does that make sense? Yeah, right.

So it's a combined poetry essentially. Yeah. So, yeah. Yep. I always try to talk about where I was found within the lion's den of my wretched soul, pondering the floating jellyfish from out of banana hammock, where the bananas are constantly consumed and expelled with joyous frivolity. The only way forward is if Matt, if it,

the only way forward is if Matt and Jess and festive boy continue to reference Simpsons each week forever more. I will never stop until you eat my shorts and pray. When this airs, the legalisation is ended. That is from the Dugan patrons. Wow. Wow. That was, wow. Especially the first sentence.

It did sound like the opening of a novel. That was beautiful. That was, wow. Thank you so much to everyone that can. I think there's so much you can read into it too. You could unpack a lot out of that. Yes. I would have spent many elite class analyzing the shit out of that passage.

I love it. What do they mean by bananas? Yeah. Do they mean bananas? No. Symbolic. Yeah. Symbolic.

Phallic, some sort of phallus. Phallus. Dix. Yes. Potassium. Oh, potassium dicks. Chimps. Ptacium dick.

Oh, chimps. Maybe it's chimed dick. Chimp dick. There we go. We got to the bottom of it. Maybe some sort of chimp dick triptitch. We cracked the code. Thanks guys.

Send us in another code. We'll crack it. So if you want to do that, you get on the Patreon and subscribe on the city Scheinberg level or above. And also what we like to do at the end of episodes is shout out to some other Patrions. And we normally do it in a way where Jess gives us a little game to play based on the topic of the episode.

Did we, when we did Freddie Mercury, did we give them stage names? That sounds possible. Yeah, I feel like we've done that before. Should we name their album? Great. Love that. You okay with that? I love that.

You hate it. Oh my God. You hate me. Just to recap, my favorite album was definitely Tumbleweed. Connection. God, that's good. The Tumbleweed connection. Even the way I said that, it was like I said a word then Jess completed it.

Maybe we could name the albums that way. Yes. I imagine that's often how Bernie. That's how Bernie works. He plays that game with himself. He'll write one word, cover it, write another word. Cover it. God, I've done it again.

He just flicks through a dictionary and closes his eyes and points. Beautiful. Tumbleweed. Banana Lounge. Connection. Banana Lounge. God, I've done it again.

He is good. All right, well, I'll kick it off. So we're each going to add one word to the title. Yep. So firstly, I love to thank. From Western Australia, Mr. Cameron Warns. Cameron Warns.

Okay. Rusty. Nail. Head. Oh. Whoa. This is fun too. That sounds like something from W.A., that you reckon?

Outback. It's a Nailhead. It's a country album. Of course. Cameron Warns. Cameron, Warns. Cameron. Thanks Cameron.

I'm looking forward to hearing your album. Rusty Nailhead. Twitter, please. I'd also love to thank from... Is that Austria Dave? Can you have a go at saying the name of where it's from? All right. I would also love to thank from Uretsfield in

Nidu Storich In Austria Possibly not exactly how you pronounce it I would love to thank Thomas Hinterrega Oh Thomas in Austria What an absolute honour Thomas in Austria

Dave, you're going to kick this one off again Okay Flamingo Grey Bildoza Flamingo grey bulldozer Because it sounds like that that's a type of A flamingo grey bulldozer

I like it And in Austria I imagine that means even more. Well, it means a lot to Thomas anyway, because that is going to be his debut album. The Flamingo Grey Bulldozer. Can I thank some people too? Please.

Love it. Love it so much. I would like to thank from Rouse Hill in New South Wales. Levi Burrows. I like the name Levi. Levi's cool. Thank you, Levi. And is Dave starting it again or do you want to take turns?

No, I think we should take turns. All right, Matt, you start it. Okay. Can I have the name again, please? Levi Burrows. Bellows. Hedge. Zone.

World. Oh, that feels, that's a, that's a, it feels like a whole sort of like a world. Theme park. Head zone world. Come on down to hedge zone world. You can trim a hedge. You can look at a hedge. But you can't defeat the hedge.

The one rule of head zone. Just this insane. man. Yeah. The hedge will always win. Well, sister and her boyfriend were telling me they went to a hedge recently, like a hedge maze in country of Victoria, but it was so overgrown. You couldn't, and then there were some bits that were dead. You couldn't tell what was a walkthrough and what was just a dead bit.

Oh. And then there were lookout zones and you go up to the lookout. And the tree, the bush had grown so much that you could only look for one foot and then there was just more hedge. That was the lookout zone. Oh, that's nice. I imagine that's hedge zone walls. Yeah.

Hedge Snow World's a bit shit, but the album is great. Do you know where they were by chance? No, I'm afraid not. Because there's one in Wondilagong, and I'd be sad to hear that that's run down because it used to be a beautiful hedge maze. Wondillagong. Wondillagong. I just said it was somewhere in country Victoria.

Love it. Well, that is in country Victoria. Find out. Let's not make assumptions. I don't want to besmatch the good people of Wondillagong. Never. I'll also like to thank someone else if I may. Pleasy.

This is fun. Pleasy. Indulge. I'd like to thank from Saskatoon. Ah, Saskatchewan. Is that... No? No, not related?

I feel like they are. Saskatoon. Yeah, that's the name of the... All right. I love how they get to have both of those. They don't have states there. They have territories. Right, in Canada.

Bridgett. Ooh. Oh, beautiful name. No, Bridget. I don't know how to say Bridget's last name. Bridgett. Gwynane. Oh, that sounds right.

That sounds beautiful. Sorry, Bridget, if that's not right. But your album is going to be sick. Quinae. And I'm kidding yourself, okay. Quinae. Okay. Ribbitt.

Good times. Ribbit Good Times. That sounds like an Elton John Alton to me. Rubit Good Times. Yeah. Is Bridget on the cover of the album in a frog costume? No, she's not even in a costume. It's her head photoshopped onto the frog.

But like a cute frog on a lily pad. That's called Ribbit Good Time. Ribbet, good time. It's a very sexy album. It sounds nice to me. I like it. I like it too. Thank you, Bridget.

Thank you, Bridget. In Saskatoon. Saskatoon. Saskatoon. Is that something like that? Is that how they say something like that? Sure. Yep.

Now, this is a very well traveled. Not really roundly lived to people, I should say. Roundly lived. I'm trying to say that these people are from all over the world this way. Because we've had Austria. Worldly. We've had Canada. We've had Australia.

And now it's time to go to China. Woohoo! I'd like to thank from Beijing, Stephen Bauron. Stephen. Stephen Bauron. So you're kicking this one off. Yep. Great.

Hallie. Should I say a real word? Yeah, if you would mind. Great. Holly. Ox. Great holly ox. That's nice.

I quite like that. It's fun to say. Festive. Yeah. Is it a Christmas album? Absolutely. Love it. Good for you, Stephen.

Not enough people do Christmas albums. Yeah. It's a good chance to cash in if it takes off. And now it's January. You're getting in early. Yeah. I love that too. I love a planner.

For Christmas. I love a plan. All right, from Beijing all the way over to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Ah, the buck country. We're a man from Milwaukee. Hanson. And there is a man from Milwaukee, and I imagine they're singing about Michael Winfell.

Winkler. Michael Winkler is a fantastic name. That is a great name. Michael Winkler, who sounds like a, like the father in an American movie to me. Yeah, Michael Winkler. No, I think Michael is the son of Henry. Oh, Henry Winkler, of course. I imagine there's definitely a relation, yeah.

Michael's album is called Night. Heart. Leather. What? Thought of the fonts. Night. Heart leather. Night heart leather.

I'm right. It's night full stop. Heart full stop. Yeah. And he's just, yeah, he's all leather. Right. Like straddling a hog. Yeah.

Yeah. No, no. Like a big wild pig. Yeah, that's what I imagined. Wearing the pig's uncle in leather form. Yeah. So what is it again? Night hog.

Leather. No, heart. Heart. I mean, they're one in the same. You got your heart. You got your hog. Night heart. leather. That's probably my favorite.

Yeah, that's good. That works. So thank you to Michael as well. Thank you to Mr. Winkler. Say howdy you dad for me. Henry. That is the end of the show. Thanks to everyone that contributes to Patreon every week. It's not just these six superstars. There are lots and lots of people that we would like to thank in spirit. And there it is. Thank you.

Thanks. And for everyone out there, Patreon's on not. You can get in contact anytime at do go onpod.com. There's links to everything we got, including merchandise. You can buy through Red Bubble. We've got a Red Bubble page. There's a couple of designs there. We're going to add some more very soon. And that means you can print that design basically on anything. Posters, clocks, t-shirts, jumpers, socks, cups, magnets, maybe. Everything there, except possibly magnets. But there's a lot there. And you just go to do-goonpod.com and click merch to do that. And our email is do-go-onpod.com. Drop us a line anytime. Or on

on social media at do go on pod check us out totally do that totally to do do it you can also check us out on YouTube which is YouTube.com slash dogo on pod there's more and more of the live episodes that we recorded

in the UK tour going up over previous weeks so you can watch us as well as listen to us there to be honest just a single camera thing but if that interests you please check it out yeah it's still fun to see yeah we do a bit of stage We do a bit of movement. And we'll...

See that our faces move. And we're going to start recording sporadically. We'll record some of the studio episodes as well to put up on there to. And yeah, if you can give us a review on iTunes or whatnot, that'd be so good. Or if you can't do any of those things, maybe something you could do is suggest us to a friend who might enjoy the podcast. Because that really helps get the word out and keep it all running along, which is so nice. And we've heard people doing that recently where they'll get friends. and then it becomes like a buddy, a friend or family thing people do together.

It's always really nice when people rock up with their partner or their family or their close friends and they go, yeah, I got this person listening. Yeah, it's nice. It warms the cockles of my dick. I'll regret that. Can you edit that a bit out? It warms the cockles of my heart. Or your hog.

My knight heart lane. Leather. Leather. D. And if this podcast wasn't enough for you, Matt and I also have a. spin-off shows, also on the Do Go On network, which is within the Planet Broadcasting Network, including primates. Matt, what's the most recent episode about?

The most recent one was with Jess Perkins and Peter Jones. That's me! We talked about MoGley. It's sort of like the most recent version of the Jungle Book. Dave, that Jess Perkins that he mentioned. Who's that? Me. That's just Perkins.

I thought it was an amazing coincidence. It's quite a common name, by the way. It's a really, really... But it was me, Jess, okay, Kate Perkins. It's a very fun, funny episode. Jess was making me lull real hard. And, yeah, it's worth checking out. There's now 26 episodes of that up.

I think, Dave, you've been on about... About 24 of them? I think about eight or so. Jess has been on about the same. So worth checking out if you're looking for something to do. Oh, there's my show, Book Cheat, which I just put out new episode yesterday, also featuring Pete Jones. And Beck Petratus.

Together they are from the Kentucky Fried Chatton podcast. It's also a lot of fun that you should check out. And yeah, we talked about Jules Verne's science fiction classic 20,000 leagues under the sea. Under the Sea. Under the Sea. It was a lot of fun. So you can check that out as well on your podcast out. Darling, it's better down where it's wetter.

Is that a Bernie? Yeah, that does feel like a Bernie. Yeah. Totally does. We'll put links to those in the, probably will we? We'll put links to those in the, um, Show notes. Yeah, I think we've started looking every week to primates and book cheats.

So spread the love, spread the podcast, make it hip. I was going to say hip and happening. And I just said, he pen. It's time to go. Make it hairpin. Thank you so much for listening. And until next week, we will say happy new year and goodbye. Later.

Bye. This podcast is part of the Planet Broadcasting Network. Visit planetbroadcasting.com for more podcasts from our great mates. I mean, if you want, it's up to you. Don't forget to sign up to our tour mailing list so we know where in the world you are and we can come and tell you when we're coming there. Wherever we go, we always hear six months later, oh, you should come to Manchester.

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