Elton John Says 'Music Has Always Saved Me' While Discussing His Documentary 'Never Too Late'

that's what music did for me for the whole time it got me through the tough times I was suffering when I wasn't playing music as I said in the movie it just saved me music's always saved [Music] me thank you all three for joining us um Elon the reception last night when everyone saw the movie was so beautiful and I know that you were emotional what was it like seeing the movie with an audience last night at Toronto well I couldn't really see it because of my eye but I'm I sensed it I'd seen it before um I don't know seeing it with an audience is far more emotional than just seeing it with a bunch of people um and I got more out of it last night than I did when I saw it the first time uh and it hit harder um um and I really really enjoyed it the first time I squirmed a bit because I don't like seeing myself on stage very much or on film um but I enjoyed it last night I enjoyed uh everything about it and um I forget certain things some of the old footage was quite remarkable because that was the lead vocal of Candle in the Wind and um I just found myself looking so wistful and um and it wasn't a pleasant time for me as the film said it at the time we were writing it but um you I tend to look forward so much that I don't look back and so when you look back at the footage of some of the playing and the John Leonard stuff and the studio stuff you think oh we weren't bad and um well it um I really really enjoyed it I wasn't expecting to because I find I said I find myself difficult to to watch myself but um no I really really I found the audience was so warm and loving and I wasn't expecting that at the end um but yeah I I was I had a really nice time I wasn't expecting to what made you emotional um talking about my family talking about my children talking about how my life is now compared to what it was in 1975 uh I've been through a hell of a lot I mean you name it um I've been through the highs the lows the highs the lows the highs the I mean but it's been an amazing life it's been an amazing journey and the great thing about it is I've learned and I've recovered from my mistakes and and I've had wonderful people in the latter few years to help me do that especially this man here uh my husband um and my children and I just you know the whole purpose of doing this farewell to her was to say farewell um and say I'm coming off the road and when we finished we didn't finish in Los Angeles we finished after glastenbury in Britain the year afterwards and we finished in Stockholm and I got in the back of the car and I went yes I don't have to do this again I've done it and I wanted to go out on the high and it Los Angeles Dodger Stadium was a high glas was amazing I was proud of the way I told the band in the film how proud I was the way they played they played amazingly throughout the whole tour and we ended on a high and that's what I wanted to do um I've still got enough on my plate to keep me busy for the next few years so um I'm not stopping but um when you take stock of what we did in the early years so quickly having we made you know Five albums in one year um plus touring and everything you think how the hell do we do it and we did it because we were on adrenaline and we were enjoying it so much um you know that we enjoyed that first part the creative part is always enjoyable um the loneliness came when the creative part stopped so creativity kept me alive um and I didn't know how to deal with my life if I wasn't creative and so even though you're not going to tour you will still be recording new music even though you're not going to tour you'll still be recording new music I've got yes I've got records um that are going to come out um we've got two musicals opening within a month of each other at the end of the year devil wor PR opens in London in December uh Tammy Fay opens in New York on the palet theater in November uh and that's happened because of Co it just you know it's wasn't planned like that but it's the way it's happened um I still do my radio shows um I've got a jve and I have a beautiful photographic Exhibition at the Victorian abber museum in London there's PL plenty of things that we're doing um I like to stay active what's happened with my eye has been very dis uh it's been very distressing because I'm used to getting out in the morning looking at all the newspapers looking at um the child Arts looking at everything how how the world is doing creatively and I've lost that for the time being it's been seven weeks since I've been able to see out of this um but the prospect is good um I had a hell of a time with this right eye it was a a hell of a bug that got into it um and sometimes I feel foror but most of the time I'm feel grateful that I've still got it and I just have to be patient and I've had so much support um so I'm always optimistic um but I would be I was really last night when I was walking around backstage when I'm walking around at home I know where I'm going last night backstage all the you know getting on with no lights and everything I found it really quite hard um but I had to be here to support this film I had to be here it's the first I've been out for seven weeks and um it was worth it to just to support RJ and David um and be here for it because I'm so proud of it RJ and David can you talk about how the two of you got together and started collaborating to make this beautiful film uh sure uh David invited me to lunch to uh to meet and chat I uh was honored just to be invited to the lunch and have the opportunity to speak and from that very first meeting we started talking about what kind of a movie there was to be made uh a movie that uh would would have as its spine uh this final tour in the final months of the tour and as its nervous system wrapped around that spine this remarkable 5-year period in elton's life that uh where he um I have to say he was being a little modest to say he he put out Five albums in a year and because of adrenaline this was an astounding year and then fiveyear period of artistic output 13 albums that came out over that 5-year period seven of which went to number one the in the Elton John catalog from the 19 early 1970s to the mid 197s is as astounding an output as any artist has ever had and we know that it changed the world but what I didn't know and what David started to tell me all about during that um during that period was all what what Elton was going through and um and and we just we clicked we connected we found a rhythm of communicating that we never really even talked much about it just was this very natural very organic process and then he uh formally invited me to be his partner and and uh and to co-direct and I as as I say what a what a thrill and what an honor and and and I shared with him that my very first concert was going to see Elton in 1974 and what do you know it was at Madison Square Garden and I was there as a 13-year-old when John Lennon came out and performed with Elton and that that was the magic message from the heavens when you meet someone you talk about collaborating um and I I I warmed to R.J instantly and I'm a great admire of all the wonderful films he's created but when he actually said to me you know I was at daughter Stadium the night John lennin went on stage I'm like oh my God sorry sorry not sorry when I um when he said I was at Madison Square Garden the night that John lenam was went on stage I was like oh my God that is history you were there um that to me was like a message that was a signal that this is the person we should be collaborating with how did you balance your roles as a co-director and also elton's partner um I did find it really challenging at times um I felt in the midst of um while we were you know actually editing and pulling things together the the the Gathering and filming part you know you just you just shoot and shoot and shoot but when we were actually starting to to cut things together and the emotional power of what I was actually learning about Elton and things that he was revealing and that he was saying I found myself getting a lot of anxiety I I was carrying this sort of real heaviness um and I do have a really good Beacon for when things without and land authentically and and when they're honest and when they're true but I don't have that objectivity when I'm so close to the subject matter to sometimes be able to step back and to have RJ sort of a very keen very experienced eye um I leaned on that a lot that was a tremendous amount of support um having said that I was also able to provide a lot of meaningful insights that it you know while we were building the film in terms of you know where emphasis might be in certain points that could be drawn out more and things that we needed to cover off it really was a great exchange we were back and forth all the time um ideas and thoughts and and things were all very enthusiastically received um which no is great it wasn't it wasn't combative it wasn't um how did you find the structure of the movie where you went back and forth did that that came from day really from day day one because I had always thought that five-year period which was in a way skipped over in Rocket Man was was such a rich fod and there was there was there was so much to talk about and David really was able the I it was emotional for him and he was very close to the material he also felt it in his heart and in a way that no one else could you know so to for him to he was able to feel themes emotionally and that's such a what a gift you know as a as a filmmaker to have as your collaborator somebody who is feeding back to you on that level it was uh it was very a very rich uh uh process of communication but I I knew you know that the Elton coming off the road was a massively significant cultural moment in the time that we've been together he's been doing 90 to 100 shows a year except for Co um so for him to finally come off the road and stop that's a big big moment and it was elton's instincts when we were planning the tour who said Dodger Stadium should be my last my last North American day that should be the place initially we wanted the whole tour to end there and then Co and you know changed things around but um the idea then of ju deposing Dodgers in 75 versus Dodgers in 2022 and the changes and differences in elon's life that's seemed like a really fulfilling narrative Arc that we could we could explore and play around with one thing that I took from watching the film last night was that before I was played the Dodger Stadium show in 1975 and two days about two days before I was having my stomach pumped um and then I went and did the show and it was fantastic and I was just think well you hear so much about people's mental health these days but in those days my mental health wasn't very good but I was my I was saved by the fact that I could go on stage and play music that saved me I mean two two days before a show and you're having your stomach bumped and then I have to play the biggest show of my life I did it and that's what music did for me for the whole time it got me through the tough times I was suffering when I wasn't playing music as I said in the movie it just saved me music has always saved me even when I was doing a lot of drugs and I was miserable and sitting on my own I still listen to music music that made me cry music that made me feel you know joyful but made me cry because I was so ashamed of myself it saved me I still I didn't sit there not listening to music I always listen to music elen can you talk a little bit about your place in our culture when it comes to lgbtq rights and the movement that you've seen in the course of your life can you talk about your place in culture in terms of lgbtq Rights and where the movement has has gone it's hard for me to talk about that because I don't really look at myself at in that way I mean when I came out to Cliff jard Rolling Stone and um and made that statement it wasn't um a surprise to me because I've been living an openly gay life I mean I was living my manager I was going to gay club blah blah blah um um but it was nice to get the monkey off my back because um I was wondering when and where it might come out so at least I told somebody and it wasn't reported that I was without me being involved um if I helped move the LGBT uh C uh plus Community forward um then I'm very proud of that because um it's been a long journey for gay people and since then we've made incredible strides um I'm married to him I have two children and that time in 1975 it would been Unthinkable so we've made incredible progress and in some places we still have to make a lot more progress um and if I was part of that I'm very proud to be part of that because I'm very proud that I am a gay person I enjoy being a gay person um but it doesn't rule being gay doesn't rule rule my life it's I'm just for me it's perfectly natural um I don't feel different to anybody else I'm part of a lot of my friend my best friends are straight people and we have a lot of gay friends as well but it's to me I'm no different to anybody else it's just that I sexually I am um so if I moved things on I I didn't do it for that I just did it because I was asked a question and I told the truth except plain and simple last night at the Q&A you talked about the election and kindness do you have a message for what to expect in November when it comes to the election well people the thing with music and what I've been gifted all my life to do music and Sport are the two common denominators in life that bring people together no matter what religion they are no matter what uh political uh party they vote for um I don't go on stage and say to people you mustn't vote for the Republicans you mustn't vote for Democrats it's none of my business um how they vote they come to see me and I'm so grateful they have what I want uh by saying that last night it's that there is a danger um as Dick Cheney said the other day of um America is in a very very volatile position at the moment um and it's a country I love and I've always loved and I'm so thankful that it made me who I am so I just want people to vote for things that are just things that are important to people the right to choose the right to be who you are um and not let anybody else tell you who to be and that goes from uh all the way up to the Supreme Court um and I just hope that people have make the right decision to see what is the future going to be is it going to be hell and brimstone or fire and brimstone and and and Hell or we going to have a much Cal a much safer place it again people can vote for who they like but as far as I'm concerned I'm I love love and I love I'm a loving person and I want that to come back to America I feel that's been lost in the last 12 years and and I want to see it come back everywhere not just America I know that you're not a supporter of Donald Trump's he loves your music how did it feel when he took the lyrics to Rocket Man and he used it as a nickname for Kim Jong-un and then he gave Kim Jong-un I laugh I thought it was brilliant I just thought good on you Donald I'm the rocket man yeah um I Donald's always been a fan of mine and he's been to my concerts many many times um so I mean I've always been friendly towards him and I I thank him for his support yeah when he did that I just thought it was hilarious it was it made me laugh he gave he gave Kim one of your CDs and signed it that was that was one of the books about him because Kim I guess didn't know the song so what's that he gave Kim Jong the sign CD yes you know which yeah he I I know course he has heard of me do would be very surprised if he had um I've never toured North Korea and I have no intention of doing so um but it was I thought it was a light moment and it was fun yeah was there anything off limits and talk a little bit about going through the archives and revisiting periods of elton's life um the thing that I was particularly sensitive about was our our sons um because we do consciously do our best to keep them out of the public eye um we do occasionally put stuff up on our social media with them doing just the everyday things that other boys and girls do but we never show their faces we try to keep you know that side of their life private they haven't decided who they want to be yet and what they want to do with their life and I think the greatest gift you can give a child is the freedom to do that without the expectations of the world looking at them I think it's really good to keep that separate look they may decide to PS pursue something professionally that um puts them in the public eye but that needs to be their choice not not ours um it was a it was walking a tight rope because if you're going to tell this story properly why is Elton coming off the road you can't not show the children you can't not have them in the film you have to show what he's coming off the road to um also very challenging in that our older son in particular really doesn't like being filmed um and we had so many times where we were just rocking up and shooting stuff and he would say why are you shooting me or he'd leave the room or he'd just shut down um and again in that way that that Serendipity always helps you when you're making a documentary that FaceTime call in the studio when daddy's working on his on his record and they're back in England um that is completely 100% them and their relationship with Elton he had he had no idea he was being filmed and he reacted completely naturally and there's just so much in that one call because we talk in the documentary about how Elton you know what a fearful childhood he had um and how that did you know go on to define a lot of his journey but when we started our own family Elton said I the one thing that's really important to me is I don't want our children to know fear he said every night I came home it was like walking on egg shells I was fearful all the time and what a horrible thing to do and and to see two boys talk to their daddy in a way where they clearly there's no fear at all and the way that Elton talks to them and tells them that he loves them every day you know outon grow up no one ever told no one ever told you that you were loved and it was a different time in a different generation but that created in Elton what I call a desperate longing A desperate longing to be loved and a desperate longing to be free to be who you wanted to do and who you wanted to be and what you wanted to pursue and so I just loving that call you know so many parents reached that point and it's well documented in some you know Family Psychology studies that parents sometimes go on to repeat what they were victims of themselves in in childhood but the fact that out and consciously at the very beginning said okay this is what it's not going to be I'm not going to put our sons through what I went through I I I find that call really really beautiful and very moving well our sons have given me more love um than I could have ever expected and it works both ways but it's the most along with David it's the the dream that I dreamt about in 1975 when I was lonely that was the kind of life I was dreaming about and um I found it um and it's astonishing and and I I'm not going to throw it away by public publicizing our our sons in the wrong way um they have the most beautiful life we have the most beautiful life and every day I just I'm so thankful that they are in their life it's changed me so much change both of us so much only for the better and then in terms of the the archive the archive was a journey of uh uh exploration and Discovery in the in the most wonderful way Elton and David have a uh two warehouses um full of elton's archive and uh from from posos to outfits to hundreds if not thousands of hours of videotapes tens of thousands of hours of audio tapes and we scoured it all we were given uh full rain and that was it's a we were able to discover unprocessed film Elton recording goodbye Norma genene uh uh in the original recording session that footage hadn't been processed and we we brought it to a lab we processed it and discovered it and that was amazing but so much else um and then there were these two archival gold mines that we dis discovered or or or got access to um one of which was elton's conversations with Alexis petrius that he made during when he was writing his autobiography and those conversations featured Elton in the most intimate honest open way the kind of thing one could never really get in a sitdown interview with the crew in the room and lights and all of those all of those things here was talking to one of his best friends and telling his truth about this entire period of time really his whole life so that was was an incredible thing and then of course uh the cliff jar interviews which nobody's ever heard um in in an archive in Jar's archive at Columbia University and we pull we found those and and to be able to put the climactic scene of the film together uh um using that those that interview to hear Elton say leave the tape recorder running and to to make that decision in that moment and again I say a little a little modesty here but that that moment changed the world that moment made what we see now possible in ways that uh that maybe someone else would have come along and been the first in that way but Elton chose to to seize that moment also to seize that moment when he was the biggest star in the world so to have that amount of commercial and critical success to risk his platform to risk everything to say I just can't be who I'm expected to be anymore I have to be who I truly am um huge risk but that also creates opportunity you asked about how we um respond as as uh LGBT Role Models I'm always so grateful for the the doors that elton's music breaks down the way that it's so interwoven with everybody's life from all backgrounds and all denominations that an amazing door opener and people that love Elton and when all we ever try to do we don't deliberately campaign but we just try to be honest we try to be honest and try to reveal to the world at the very early days of our relationship out new people who's Partners rode in separate cars or sat in different sections on planes El and said no I'm not going to do that you and I are together we'll just go out and be who we are and we'll just present who we are to the world with no heirs or Graces or or nothing being hidden away the only consciousness decision we made was when civil partnership was legalized in Britain and we said this is this is seismic this is a big moment not just for us but for the world so let's do it on the first day it's legal and you know that makes a really strong statement what surprised us as much as we hope to make a statement what a huge statement that turned out to be the world's media turned up we couldn't believe there were thousands of people on the streets of Windsor um and there were TV trucks up and down our street with their satellite dishes up filming and covering the whole event that caught us by surprise yeah we we did it the same place as Charles and Camila we did and we had a biger c yeah what what I'd like to say I know there's been a couple of negative niggling comments about the film not digging deep enough but some of the stuff in this film I've never seen before they dug so deep I would never expected to hear the cliff jar thing I've never expected to see some of the footage of me singing uh uh C of the wind they they dug so deep um because I'm not the sort of person who talks about myself very much I don't do a lot of publicity I don't do much press I don't so I was astonished at what they found so I thought we dug pretty deep and and your handwritten Diaries you those serendipitously came back into our life about I don't know 10 years ago someone had them in a briefcase in a crawl space in their house and pulled it out and said oh I guess maybe we should send these back to Elton so I got the call I'm sending you something I think you'll be happy to receive it they didn't say what it was and we opened this briefcase and there were these Diaries from like charting every single day of elton's career from you know pre-t trador the early days right up until 76 and the two passports where he changed his name from reg Dwight to Elon Elton John they were all in this one briefcase when Alexis started writing working with him on his Memoirs he said you must have Diaries from that time Elton had forgotten he'd done them you know it was such a huge full busy life he said I didn't keep any Diaries back then oh yes you did and they're really really revealing and really charming and and so honest and and you are like a kid in a candy store and you can feel your sheer Joy of discovery of becoming and creating who you ultimately ultimately turned out to be that's really beautiful Elton who would you like to collaborate with is there someone you really like to sing with that you haven't sung with yet um there's a loaded question um but Brandy caral collaborated with me on the song for the film never too late and so that was uh someone I really wanted to sing with I've known her for 20 years and I love her and she's one of our best friends there are plenty of young singers around the moment I mean it's been the it's been a a summer and the year of the great female uh singers and songwriters Spina car um Chapel rone Billy eish Taylor Swift Olivia Rodrigo Charlie XCX Gracie Abrahams they've just ruled it and and they've made records that are really good songs and they' bought a lot of Joy to the people and the songs are really good songs so I'm happy to sing with any of those people would you want to sing with Taylor Swift huh with Taylor Swift I don't have no problems with seeing with Taylor Swift she's a great songwriter she's a great artist and she's a phenomenon I've never seen a phenomenon like that since the Beatles and she works her ass off so good good luck to her I have a question about the Lion King so is it true that in Can You Feel the Love Tonight it was originally supposed to be Timone and Pumba and you said no it has to be between Simba and Nala no it was different they it was actually you should tell the story but they they took it out of the film completely so when Elton scream Lion King there was no Kenya feel the love tonight maybe you you should tell the story yeah I I did The Lion King obviously with Disney and then Jeffrey kenberg who was very involved in the film and um and was great to work with as with the whole Disney team came down to Atlanta and showed me a rough cut of the film nearly finished film and there was no Can You Feel the Love Tonight and I Jeffrey where's Can You Feel the Love Tonight he said well we just couldn't find a place for it and I said it's a love song every Disney Animation film has a great love song you really ought to rec considerer this um and I was quite astonished that it wasn't there not H just great surp greatly surprised and to his credit they went back and they found a place for it and it won the Oscar um and so that was working with people like that that we have done with Disney on this whole thing and and the live broadcast from Dodger Stadium is a pleasure because they listen and we're a team and for Jeffy to go back and say list Elton says we should put this back in the film and they did and as I say won the Oscar it's circle of life you one the Oscar but I'm not going to complain why circle of life because it's it's it's it's the song of The Lion King It Starts The Lion King and and you hear the circle of life and you think of the Lion King um um and and yeah to me that's the song that makes the Lion King but I'm not going to complain so when you saw it there was no can you feel the left hand it's the it's the peak of the movie It's the S of the movie it wasn't no they they took it out completely yeah it wasn't it wasn't there they now can you feel the love tonight but then when the film came out there was and um but it's great isn't it great to work with people when you collaborate that they can listen to you a lot of Studios would have said oh well tough a lot tough luck and uh this was such an important movie for them because it was their first ever original animation film and it's been the biggest success um as a commercial success I mean I don't know I don't have the actual numbers but it's often quoted as the most successful entertainment product in history like across everything um don't know a grand total on that but that's not too bad for your first animated film it opens so many doors to me that film and I'm so grateful for that thank you all your time our time is up I could talk to you guys all day but thank you all very much really really appreciate it appreciate thank you very much [Music]