(Credits: Alamy)
Sun 7 September 2025 9:00, UK
One would assume that being Elton John was enough. After all, that is a job that includes being one of the biggest pop stars the planet has ever seen, co-writing some of the most beloved songs ever made and dressing like a casualty from The Great Fabric Wars, but somehow making it work.
What’s more, the man has constantly challenged himself as a musician over the years. Making comeback after comeback with several different styles of music and as many different collaborators. Truly, his is a career in music that no-one in their right mind would turn down.
Yet, that wasn’t enough for him. After spending the 1970s as arguably the world’s biggest pop star, Elton John began branching out into any other medium that would have him in the 1980s. He was a philanthropist at heart, giving hundreds of thousands of pounds to AIDS research at a time when they needed it most and collaborating on several charity singles for the same cause. He also, quite bafflingly, worked his way into football, becoming the chairman and director of Watford, his boyhood club. He’s actually a hero to the Hornets faithful as his intervention saved the club from bankruptcy and he’s still president of the club to this day.
Something that he also dabbled in during his 1970s pomp was film. He turned up as The Pinball Wizard in the film adaptation of The Who’s Tommy. He was part of the consortium that helped finance Monty Python and the Holy Grail, along with Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Jethro Tull’s Ian Anderson and, most fittingly for John’s future work, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s lyricist Tim Rice. This wouldn’t be the last time that Rice and Elton’s paths would cross and the next time they would, it would be on a project that, legitimately, might just be the biggest that Elton John ever worked on.
That’s a pretty mental thing to say, but it’s true. This might just be a project bigger than Goodbye Yellow Brick Road or Honky Chateau. With songs more beloved than ‘Tiny Dancer’, ‘Candle In The Wind’, ‘I’m Still Standing’ or any of his other hits. If you haven’t cottoned on to what this project is yet, there’s still a decent chance you know these songs like the back of your hand and have done since a very, very young age.
What was the project that changed the life of Elton John?
In an interview with Billboard, Elton John was asked about how “multi-media” his career had gotten since the 1990s, and John had pointed to one project in particular that had started all this. “The Lion King opened so many doors for me in the ’90s. Up to that point, I was just making albums and touring and promoting them… Consequently, it went to the stage then I wrote for Aida, I’ve written another two musicals, two film scores, so… I’m not bored with my life. I’m not just making the records and touring, I would find that boring.”
There’s a pretty convincing argument to be made that The Lion King is the single most successful project in Elton John’s entire career. It bagged him his Oscar for ‘Can You Feel The Love Tonight?’ The soundtrack album has sold 15million copies and, accompanying the aforementioned Aida, his songs have also become the backbone of The Lion King‘s stage musical version. Leading to what is arguably Elton’s preferred side gig, writing for the stage.
Over the last two decades, John has written the music for hit musicals Billy Elliot, Tammy Faye, and The Devil Wears Prada. He was also responsible for the infamous vampire mega-flop Lestat but you can’t win ’em all. All of this came from his work in film, and while we often begrudge our musical heroes for parlaying their fame into success in other mediums, it would take a cold-hearted bastard to hold the success Elton John has had in musicals against him.
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