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