At 79, Elton John Reveals The 5 People He Loved The Most 

And sometimes I feel forlorn. But most of the time I feel grateful I’ve still got it and I just have to be patient. And I’ve had so much support. Um so I was sitting at home not too long ago when someone asked me a question I’d never really stopped to think about. They said, “Elton, after everyone you’ve met, who are the five people you love the most?” I smiled for a second because that’s a much easier question than asking who was the greatest.

The greatest starts arguments. The people you loved um that’s personal. I spent most of my life around extraordinary people, singers, actors, writers, members of the royal family. Some of them were exactly as the world imagined. Others were completely different once the cameras disappeared. That’s the part people don’t always get to see.

When you’ve been in this business as long as I have, you end up spending more time with some of these people than you do with your own family. You rehearse together, travel together, sit backstage waiting for a show to begin, have dinner after everyone else has gone home. That’s where you really get to know someone.

People usually ask me about the songs or the tours or the awards. Those things were wonderful and I’ll always be grateful for them. But that’s not what comes into my mind these days. I remember conversations um I remember laughter. I remember the people who somehow made this extraordinary life feel normal. The funny thing about getting older is that um you stop counting achievements.

You start counting people. The ones who stood beside you when nobody was watching. The ones who never treated you differently because your records happen to sell well. The ones you still catch yourself thinking about every now and then. So I gave that question some thought. Five names came into my head almost immediately.

Not because they were the biggest stars. Not not because history remembers them better than anyone else. Simply because they meant the most to me. And um uh the first person I thought about was Freddie Mercury. The first name that came into my mind was Freddie Mercury. That probably won’t surprise anyone who knew us.

Most people remember Freddie because of the voice. They remember the yellow jacket at Wembley, the fist in the air, the way he could stand in front of thousands of people and somehow make it feel like he was performing for each person individually. I remember all of that. But that’s not why he’s on my list. Um I loved being around Freddie.

The music business can be exhausting. One day you’re in London, the next you’re in New York, then Paris, then Los Angeles. Long flights, hotel rooms, that all start looking the same. Interviews where you’re asked the same questions over and over again. It can wear you down if you let it. Freddie had a way of making those days better.

You could be sitting backstage waiting for a show everyone looking a little tired and within a few minutes he’d have the whole room laughing. Sometimes he’d tell a story that became funnier every time he told it. Sometimes he’d tease someone just enough to make them laugh without ever hurting their feelings.

He brought energy wherever he went. People sometimes think performers are competing with each other all the time. That really wasn’t how it felt with Freddie. Um we admired each other. We understood each other. We both knew what it was like to live with expectations. Once people see you as a star, they expect you to be extraordinary every minute of every day.

Freddie never acted that way around his friends. He didn’t need to prove anything. He was just Freddie. That’s one of the reasons people loved him. Um of course he was an incredible performer. I don’t think anyone would argue with that. He could walk onto a stage and completely take it over. There aren’t many people in music who could do what he did.

But honestly, that’s not what I miss. I miss sitting with him after everything had quieted down. Just talking, laughing, forgetting about the business for a while. Toward the end of his life, I could see he was carrying more than he ever let people know. Even then, he was still thinking about everyone else.

 He still wanted the people around him to smile. That took real courage. When I think back now, I don’t picture the concerts first. I picture Freddie walking into a room with that grin on his face, knowing somehow that the next hour was going to be a little brighter because he was there. Um, that’s why when I started thinking about the people I loved the most, Freddie Mercury was one of the very first names that came into my head.

 The next person I want to talk about is Princess Diana. Now, some people might be surprised to see her on this list. After all, she was one of the most, uh, famous women in the world. Everywhere she went, cameras followed her. Every newspaper wanted a photograph. Every little thing she did became a headline. Um, that must have been exhausting.

 The Diana I knew wasn’t thinking about headlines. She was simply, um, someone who enjoyed being around people. The first time we really spent time together, I remember how quickly she put everyone at ease. There wasn’t any sense that you had to be careful because you were talking to a princess. Within a few minutes, the conversation just felt normal.

I’ve always appreciated people who can do that. There were dinners where we’d sit talking long after everyone else had finished eating. We’d laugh about the strange situations fame puts you in. Sometimes we’d talk about our families. Um, sometimes we’d talk about work. Sometimes we’d talk about absolutely nothing important.

Those evenings are what I remember. People only saw the public appearances. I remember the quiet moments in between. One thing I always admired about Diana was how she treated people. It didn’t matter whether someone was famous or completely unknown. She gave them her attention. She listened. That sounds simple, but it isn’t.

 There are plenty of people who hear you. Very few actually listen. That’s something Diana did naturally. Like any friendship, ours wasn’t perfect. There was a period when we drifted apart. These things happen in life. People get busy, feelings get hurt, sometimes neither person picks up the phone because they think the other one should do it first.

Looking back it seems rather silly now. Thankfully we found our way back to each other. I’m very grateful for that. Um because not long afterwards she was gone. I still remember where I was when I heard the news. But first I honestly couldn’t believe it. You keep hoping someone has made a mistake. You wait for another report to come in.

But it never does. People often ask me about singing at her funeral. The truth is I wasn’t thinking about the millions of people watching around the world. I was thinking about my friend. That was one of the hardest performances of my life because it didn’t feel like a performance at all. It felt like saying goodbye to someone who had been far too kind for far too short a time.

When I think about Diana today, I don’t think about the palaces. I don’t think about the titles. I think about someone who made people feel seen. And after all these years, I still believe that’s one of the finest qualities anyone can have. That’s why Princess Diana will always be one of the people I love the most.

Uh the next person I want to talk about is George Michael. George was a little younger than I was, and maybe because of that I always felt a bit protective of him. People looked at George and saw someone who had everything. The hit records, the sold-out concerts, the fame, the success. I saw someone who was trying to handle a life that can become very complicated very quickly.

I’ve been there myself. That’s one of the reasons we understood each other. Whenever we got together, we didn’t spend much time talking about chart positions or record sales. Those things disappear almost as quickly as they arrive. We’d talk about life, about music, about the people around us, and every now and then we’d laugh about how strange this business can be.

George had a wonderful sense of humor. He could be very quiet one minute and have everyone laughing the next. He never felt the need to be the center of attention when we were offstage. That always impressed me. One thing people don’t always realize is how generous George was. He helped a lot of people without telling anyone about it.

Years later, stories kept coming out about families he’d helped, charities he’d supported, people he’d quietly looked after. That’s the sort of thing that tells you who someone really is. Um he never did it for applause. He just did it because he thought it was the right thing to do. Um of course he was an extraordinary singer.

I don’t think anyone who ever heard George live would disagree with that. He had one of those voices that sounded effortless. Some singers work very hard to make something look easy. George actually made it look easy. But that’s not why he’s on this list. He’s here because he was someone I genuinely enjoyed spending time with.

As the years went by, I knew life wasn’t always easy for him. Fame can become a lonely place. People are always around you, but sometimes it’s difficult to know who your real friends are. I understood that feeling. I think George did, too. When I heard he had passed away, it didn’t seem possible. Christmas Day isn’t the day you expect to lose someone.

For a long time, every Christmas reminded me of that phone call. It still does. When I look back now, I don’t think about the records George sold. Um I don’t think about the awards. I think about sitting together, talking about music, laughing over something completely silly, and enjoying each other’s company without worrying about who was watching.

That’s the George I remember. And that’s why he’ll always be one of the people I love the most. Um the next person I want to talk about is John Lennon. Like so many people my age, I first knew John through his music. Before I ever met him, I’d already spent hours listening to his records, wondering how someone could write songs that sounded so simple, but stayed with you for years.

Then uh years later, I found myself sitting across from him. Life has a funny way of doing that. The thing that surprised me most was how relaxed he was. People expected John to be the loudest person in the room. That wasn’t my experience at all. He enjoyed a good conversation, but he was just as happy listening to everyone else.

 He’d ask questions, tell a story, laugh at something completely ordinary. After a while, you almost forgot you were sitting with one of the most famous musicians in the world. One memory always comes back to me. I jokingly told John that if one of my singles reached number one, he had to come on stage and perform with me. Neither of us thought much about it after that.

Well, um the record reached number one. And um John kept his word. He walked out on stage with me at Madison Square Garden, and the audience absolutely erupted. It turned out to be his final live concert appearance, although none of us knew that at the time. That’s the strange thing about memories. You never know you’re making one while it’s happening.

It’s only years later that you realize how special a day really was. Uh as time went on, I noticed John changing. He seemed happier, more settled. He talked about Sean, about family life, about enjoying being at home. After years of living in the spotlight, I think he had finally found a kind of peace. I was looking forward to hearing what he would do next.

Then everything changed. I remember hearing the news that he’d been shot. Like everyone else, I just stared at the television. It didn’t seem possible. Some people become such a part of your life that [snorts] you can’t imagine the world without them. John was one of those people. People often remember him for the music.

Um the Beatles. The songs. The headlines. Um I remember the man who kept a promise. The man who loved to laugh. The man who could spend an evening talking about music, family, or nothing important at all. When I think about John now, that’s the person who comes back to me first. Um and that’s why he’ll always be one of the people I love the most.

The last person I want to talk about is uh Bernie Taupin. Um some people might have expected another singer to be in this spot. Another big star. Another famous face. But this list was never about that. It was about the people who meant the most to me. Um and nobody has been part of my life longer than Bernie.

The funny thing is that we’ve always been very different. If you put us in a room without mentioning music, you probably wouldn’t guess we’d spend our lives working together. Um he liked one thing. I liked another. We saw the world differently. Somehow that turned out to be exactly why it worked. People often ask how we wrote so many songs together.

Honestly, it was never very complicated. Bernie would hand me a sheet of paper with the lyrics on it. I’d walk over to the piano. Before long, the melody would start appearing. We didn’t spend hours explaining every line to each other. We didn’t have to. After a while, we understood how the other one thought. That kind of partnership doesn’t happen very often.

Over the years, we spent thousands of hours together. Recording studios, hotel lounges, backstage dressing rooms, long flights where we talk about music for 10 minutes and then spend the next 3 hours talking about football films or absolutely nothing important. Those are the moments I remember. People see the albums.

They see the awards. They don’t see all the ordinary days in between. That’s where friendship is really built. Like any partnership that lasts decades, we had disagreements. Sometimes we went our separate ways for a while. People started writing stories saying we’d never work together again. Then sooner or later, one of us would pick up the phone.

Before long, we were writing songs together again. Um it always seemed to happen that way. One thing I always appreciated about Bernie was that he never treated me like Elton John. He treated me like Reg. The same young bloke he’d met all those years ago. Fame never changed the way he spoke to me. If he thought something wasn’t good enough, he’d tell me.

If he liked something, he’d tell me that, too. You need people like that in your life. People who tell you the truth. When I hear one of our old songs today, I don’t usually think about where it ended up in the charts. Um I remember the little room where it began. Bernie sitting there with another page of lyrics.

Me wondering whether I could um find the right melody. Those memories mean more to me than any gold record ever could. When I started thinking about the five people I love the most, I didn’t have to think very long about the final name. Because if you look back over my life, Bernie’s been there through almost all of it.

The concerts, the successes, the disappointments, the moments nobody else ever saw, and I honestly don’t know what my life would have looked like if I’d never answered that advertisement all those years ago. I’m very glad I did, because it gave me more than a songwriting partner. It gave me one of the best friends I’ve ever had.

Looking back now, I realize music gave me a wonderful life. But more than that, it gave me wonderful people. That’s what stays with me after all these years. Not the applause, the friendships, and uh those are the memories I’ll always be most grateful for. Looking back now, I realize something. Music gave me a career, but people gave me a life.

When I think about Freddie, I remember laughter. When I think about Don, I remember kindness. When I think about George, I remember generosity. When I think about John, I remember honesty. When I think about Bernie, I remember loyalty. Funny enough, those aren’t the things people usually ask me about. They um ask about the concerts, the records, the um the costumes, the glasses.

Those things were certainly part of the journey, but they aren’t what stay with me now. The older you get, the more you realize that success has a way of fading into the background. The people don’t. I can still picture Freddie walking into a dressing room with that enormous grin. I can still hear Diana laughing across a dinner table.

I can still imagine George sitting quietly before suddenly saying something that made everyone laugh. I I see John with that little smile whenever he was amused by something. And I can still picture Bernie handing me another page of lyrics before I walked over to the piano. Those memories never really leave.

I suppose that’s why these five names came to me so quickly. They weren’t just famous people I happened to know. They were part of my everyday life for different chapters of it. Some stayed for years. Some for only a short time. Every one of them left something behind. Um if I could spend one more afternoon with all five of them, I honestly don’t think we’d spend much time talking about music.

 We’d probably tell the same old stories, laugh at the same old jokes, argue about something completely unimportant. And uh before long, it’d feel as though no time had passed at all. I think that’s what friendship really is. So, those are the five people I loved the most. Not because they were legends. Not because the world admired them. Because I was fortunate enough to know the people behind the famous names.

And after all these years, those are the people I still miss the most.