Elton John; his brand new album: a pure dose of why the world fell in love with him in the first place - Interview

Interview, Nov, 2001 by Ann Powers

EJ: Well, obviously it is a worldwide epidemic now. But let's concentrate on North America and Britain. Infections are on the rise with young gay men because of unsafe sex. You don't need to practice safer sex, they assume, because there's a drug that's going to keep you alive. It's very alarming, because there are new strains of the virus [appearing] all the time.

AP: Do you have friends dealing with HIV?

EJ: Yeah, I know so many people on triple therapy. And a lot of them are now beginning to come off it, because they've been on it for so long and it's making them feel so ill. And their T-cell counts are down and it's quite frightening.

AP: It seems your new songs confront mortality in many ways. "This Train Don't Stop There Anymore" is almost an attack on the image of Elton John as happy-go-lucky.

EJ: Bernie's always had this thing about his lyrics. I mean, you listen to the album Yellow Brick Road and think these are really nice pop songs, but when you tune in you discover there aren't many happy songs on that record. And there aren't on this new one either. They're not desperate, but it's certainly not an upbeat album.

AP: It is a self-aware album. And you have had some hard times lately. I was wondering how you were doing with your shopping bug. Is it under control?

EJ: Oh, I've just bought a place in Venice, so I can say the shopping bug is alive and well. It's not a very big apartment, but it's certainly there to be furnished with paintings and furniture. The shopping bug is still running rampant through my life, and I love every single minute of it.

AP: People read about your struggles with bankruptcy, that you spent $400,000 on flowers, but they might not realize you have some serious collections as well.

EJ: I have a fantastic photography collection, which I'm absolutely passionate about. I started primarily collecting in black and white. I had the odd Irving Penn and [Robert] Mapplethorpe color photographs, but not that many. And then suddenly, in the last five or six years, it's really exploded. I bought a whole lot of Nan Goldin, and Sam Taylor-Wood is a friend of mine--she's done the album cover--and there's a New York boy, Anthony Goicolea. You can walk into a gallery now and ask to see new work by people, and you'd be astonished. It's so exciting. It's kind of like the '60s with music. There are so many innovative things going on with color photography.

AP: Then there are the cars.

EJ: Well, I just sold some of those. I wanted to buy the place in Venice, so I thought, I'm gonna sell some cars.

AP: How's the football team doing? [John is the chairman of Watford Football Club in the U.K.]

EJ: The football team is great! We've got the best manager, a guy called Gianluca Vialli. The fact that we are a first-division club and not a premier club at the moment and have got him as manager makes me so excited. So I put some more money in the club.

AP: If Elton John can't spend his money, who can?

EJ: Goddammit, I work hard. My famous quote in court recently was, "I'm not a rainy day kind of person." But I'm not destitute, either. I have a very large nest egg, thank you very much. But I'm gonna enjoy my money now.