Elton John has opened up about his fears at the start of his career. In his latest documentary, Elton John: Never Too Late, the Grammy star described how he assumed his career would experience “a decline” after the fast-paced success he had between 1970 and 1975. As of then, the 28-year-old young star had thought he would not be able to perform as great as he had done during those five years.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Famer debuted with his first album, Empty Sky, in 1969 at age 22 and released his first song, “Your Song,” not long after. He recorded about ten albums in the first five years, which he would later describe as challenging times and “difficult to look back on.” Following the rise in his career in a short time, Elton John began to fear that he would decline. But his story turned out to be different.
Elton John’s career
In 1975, Elton John doubted if he would ever have a great show compared to his tours in America and Canada. His fear was largely because he could not imagine another perfect performance in the right atmosphere, “where everything comes together like magic. It all just works, and the audience can feel it too.” Elton shared that he had assumed he could never attain that height again.
However, since then, Elton John has experienced a successful career run with accolades and awards to his name. He has won several awards, including the Grammy Awards, and was shortlisted as one of the EGOT winners, having received the Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony awards over the years alongside other recognizable awards. In total, he has recorded 32 albums and performed over 4,000 concerts in countries worldwide.
After the unexpected success in his career of 52 years, Elton John performed his last tour, Farewell Yellow Brick Road, between 2018 and 2023, with over 300 concerts across the world. On stage, he acknowledged how much he loved performing live and publicly thanked his band. Elton John’s early career and last tour are detailed in his documentary, Elton John: Never Too Late, which is set to be released on December 13th.
Elton John’s health Issues
Aside from Elton John’s career success, he opened up about the health challenges he has experienced. The 77-year-old has completely lost his eyesight to bacterial infections, which started in one of his eyes. John has also battled other life-threatening illnesses while he excelled in his career, buthe did not allow any of them to stop him from winning awards, being remarkable, and gaining global recognition.
Elton John is not bothered by these challenges; he says he is the “happiest” man and expresses his gratitude to his family, husband, David Furnish, and children. He shared, “I don’t have tonsils, adenoids, or an appendix. I don’t have a prostate. I don’t have a right hip or a left knee or a right knee. In fact, the only thing left of me is my left hip. But I’m still here.” Elton John remains as cheerful as he has always been.