Elton John has candidly admitted what he was written on his gravestone as he recently celebrated his 78th birthday.
Elton’s latest project, Who Believes In Angels?, is set for release on April 4 - but working on it brought a wave of emotion that caught even him off guard.
He revealed on the Smartless podcast that while writing the song When This Old World Is Done With Me, he was struck by the reality of his own mortality.
“I wrote a song at the end of the album and I just get the lyrics, Bernie Taupin’s lyrics called When This Old World Is Done With Me. And so I’m writing the verse, like, ‘Oh, this is really pretty’. And then I get to the chorus and of course it’s about my death. And when you get to my age, which is near 100, you think, ‘How much time have I got left?’”
He admitted he “just broke down for 45 minutes”. The moment was caught on camera for his documentary Elton John: Never Too Late.
“You’ve got children, you’ve got a wonderful husband, you just think about mortality,” he added. “And so when I got to the chorus, I just broke down for 45 minutes and it’s all on film.”
Elton’s collaborator Brandi Carlile witnessed the emotional breakdown firsthand and described it as raw and human.
“I want everybody to see it because it’s really human, like deeply flawed and embarrassing,” she said.
“And the kind of s**t that you do when you forget that there is a camera on is what’s really interesting. He got to the end of that chorus and his voice started to shake and I thought, ‘Oh, he’s going, like he’s going to really go’. And he went into a real moment.”
Given that Elton is contemplating life after death, he has also considered what he wants in his gravestone, per the Daily Mail.
“On my tombstone, I want nothing to do with Crocodile f***** Rock. I just want it to say: ‘He was a great dad’,” Elton declared during a one-night-only show at the London Palladium on Wednesday, where he opened up about his family, mortality, and his next musical chapter.
Despite decades of global fame, sold-out tours, and a discography that shaped pop culture, Elton told the audience he doesn’t view music as his biggest legacy.
His family is what matters most.
The Rocket Man singer shares two sons, Zachary, 14, and Elijah, 12, with husband David Furnish. He said he hopes his kids remember him for being present and loving - not just for being a rock icon.
David, for his part, echoed the sentiment in a heartfelt birthday message: “Happy Birthday to my brilliant, beautiful, big-hearted husband. Thank you for all the love and joy you give to me and our sons. Love you forever. David xoxo”
It’s been a physically tough year for the music icon. Elton revealed last December that he had suffered from an eye infection that left him blind in his right eye and with limited vision in the left.