Two years ago, Elton John said life on the road was getting to be too much. Perhaps he would be back for a few dates at a time, or the occasional benefit show. But ”I won`t be touring this way again; I ought to move on,”
he said.
So what`s all this? A five-month, eight-country European tour earlier this year? An 8 1/2-week, 30-city trek across North America–including a stop Saturday at Poplar Creek Music Theater–with multiple corporate sponsors? A new 11-piece band? Plans to tour Australia in October with a 96-piece orchestra? Stage outfits designed by Broadway veteran Bob Mackie? And 130 pairs of gem-studded eyeglasses?
”My attitude toward touring is different now,” says the 39-year-old British pop star, dressed in a white cotton jumpsuit and a sailor`s hat. He was being interviewed by a national TV crew in a airport hangar near Detroit, where he was rehearsing for the tour.
”In `84, with the situation I was in, I felt that, yes, that was going to be the last tour. I quite simply was burnt-out and had lost a lot of enthusiasm. At that point, I felt (retiring from touring) was what I wanted to do, not thinking new energy would change my mind.”
The new energy, John said, comes from the members of his band, most of whom worked on his last album, ”Ice on Fire,” the European tour and his next album, ”Leather Jackets,” due out in September. ”I love this band,” John said of the group, which includes his longtime guitarist, Davey Johnstone;
keyboard-guitar player Fred Mandel, who was on John`s last U.S. tour; and David Paton, former Alan Parsons Project singer-bassist.
”They`ve made it fun for me again,” he said. ”I`m playing with young and hot musicians. For the first time in years I`m really singing correctly. The enthusiasm is just back in it again.”
Ticket sales for the tour indicate that there`s plenty of enthusiasm among fans, too. He has broken box-office records for fastest sellouts in Cleveland, Toronto and Columbus, Md., and he`s set to play four nights at New York`s Madison Square Garden–not bad for an act whose new single and album aren`t even out yet.
”I`m amazed,” John said. ” `Nikita` was my last hit, but it was out in January. To have this kind of sales record without a hit single even surprised me. This is what I was doing in `76.”
That year, of course, was the peak of John`s heyday as a pop superstar. Born Reginald Kenneth Dwight in Pinner, England, John began recording in 1969 –after serving an apprenticeship in Long John Baldry`s band–and spent three years releasing albums and building a following.
With 1972`s ”Rocket Man,” however, he exploded as a pop phenomenon equal to this decade`s Michael Jackson, Madonna or Prince. During the next four years, he released seven consecutive No. 1 albums and 11 straight top 10 singles, including such enduring classics as ”Crocodile Rock,” ”Daniel”
”Saturday Night`s Alright for Fighting,” ”Bennie & the Jets” and
”Don`t Let the Sun Go Down on Me.”
His concerts, extravagant stage shows all, were instant sellouts in stadiums and arenas. He also had the magic touch with other artists` careers, using his own Rocket Records to resurrect Neil Sedaka and launch Kiki Dee.
But after 1976`s disappointing ”Blue Moves” album and his controversial admission to being bisexual (he married Renate Blauel in 1984), John announced a retirement from music, becoming much more visible as the owner of the Watford Football (soccer) Club. He resumed recording in 1978 but didn`t come close to regaining his mid-`70s stature until 1982`s ”Jump Up!” album and a tour that reunited him with his heyday band of Johnstone, bassist Dee Murray and drummer Nigel Olsson.
John has continued to release albums and has remained a dependable hit maker and crowd pleaser, judging from his reception at last year`s Live Aid concert. And now it`s clear he is ready to push himself back to that mid-`70s status. The European tour was a smash, and as a friend of Britain`s royal family he was an invited guest at the recent wedding of Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson. John was also part of a group of British stars to play at the Prince`s Trust benefit, which obviously pleased him.
”I was on keyboards, and (Eric) Clapton was there and (David) Bowie and
(Mick) Jagger and some younger guys,” he remembered. ”It struck me as fun to be together with my peers, and I realized we don`t do it enough. We don`t get together enough.”
But if anything is going to put him back at the very top of the charts, it will be the ”Leather Jackets” album and its first single, ”Heartbreak All Over the World,” which is due out in a couple of weeks. Advance word is that it`s a rocking, high-energy disc that reflects John`s good musical mood at the moment, and, as expected, he`s already calling it the best album he has ever recorded.
”Again, I have the new band to thank for that,” he said. ”That enthusiasm really works in the music. You can tell I`m having fun with it. You`ll know this album was put together by a group of enthusiastic people.”
The good feeling has spread to the stage show as well, where John is returning to the glitz of his glory days. The stage is a multileveled affair with colorful backdrops and inflatable, cone-shaped objects that rise on the edges. Designer Mackie`s costumes cost between $5,000 and $20,000 and range from an angel`s wings-with-halo set to a full-blown Arabian outfit complete with oversized turban and bare-midriff.
No price has been placed on the elaborate glasses, designed by a specialized Los Angeles-based firm.
”Any of the critics who have criticized me (for previous costumes), they`ll have a heyday with these,” John said. ”I really believe most people expect me to be a bit colorful. During the last tour, I wasn`t in that mood, so I toned it down. If I`m having this fun with the music, I might as well have fun with what I`m wearing onstage.
”I don`t take (the image) too seriously,” he explained, ”but I do like the fame. . . . I don`t like just being thought of as a rock star. I`m not just embedded in rock and roll–I don`t think that`s a correct definition for me.
”I like all kinds of music, all kinds of presentations,” he added, citing his plans to tour Australia with the orchestra. ”I`m not locked into just one type of presentation. It`s unfair to pigeonhole me in any one area.”
