(Credits: Raph Pour-Hashemi)
Thu 13 November 2025 11:00, UK
Not many artists are able to march to the beat of their own drum quite like Elton John has done.
He made plenty of records that may have followed certain trends happening in the industry, but there were more than a few times where he was proud to throw in something strange that the charts may not have been ready for at the time. It was bold of him to make those kinds of changes at the time, but it did mean going through a lot of red tape to get to that point over the years.
Because if you know anything about John, it’s that he had to make most of his rise all on his own. No one wanted him in the days of being a singer-songwriter, and even when he started making perfect tunes with Bernie Taupin, it wasn’t enough for anyone to pay attention to him until he came up with ‘Your Song’, a tune so unobjectionable that nearly anyone can sing along to it.
While John had to come up with literal perfection to get his foot in the door, becoming a power player in the industry doesn’t come from strictly having good songs. That’s the foundation of everything, and no one is going to get anywhere without having them, but it also means being able to capture people’s attention, which probably explains why you couldn’t have avoided John if you tried back in the day.
Some may have considered it tacky for him to wear such loud clothing at the time, but it was far from a gimmick. He had studied the best pianists before him, and while there were more than a few people having a problem with Little Richard’s flamboyance, John refused to apologise any time he came out onstage looking like the adopted son of Liberacci.
But when he saw a few of his favourite artists getting jerked around by record companies, he had no problem calling out suits as the most smooth-brained individuals in the music industry, saying, “I think most heads of most record companies are idiots. About 5% are good. They’re only in it for themselves. They don’t care about artists. They’re all about the next fix, the next single. It’s like they’re having a hit of cocaine every 15 seconds. And if somebody falls by the wayside, they’re by the wayside. They’re not allowed one blip. In America, most of them are idiots. They’re sickening, actually. They sicken me. They’re thick as shit.”
Most artists would have been fired on the spot for making such a claim, but the reason why John isn’t touched for it is about more than him being a living legend. He saw a lot of that firsthand, and if someone solely trusted their instincts to get them to where they are, there’s a good chance that we would have seen what the rock legend could do on albums like Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.
It’s not like John was venting about his own issues, either. Some of the greatest artists of all time had been turned down for not having the “right” sound for the time, and if legends like The Doors and The Beatles were told that they weren’t going to get anywhere in the industry, the fact that they tasted success after the fact could practically be seen as a victory lap and a spit in the face to anyone who doubted them.
So while John has become a power player in the industry all on his own, there’s a reason why he has so much compassion for the artist he sang the praises of after him. He knew how much hardship it took to convince someone that anyone is worthy of being a pop star, but even in the face of rejection, the best artists see that rage and frustration as fuel for them to write something even better.
Related Topics