Elton John retires: The rise and rise of the Rocket Man, one of pop music’s greatest living showmen

“From all of us here, from all the bands and all the artists that you’ve loved and inspired and helped, we just love you so much,” said Martin, whose own piano balladry owes more than a bit to the trail John first blazed in the 1970s. “We’re so grateful for everything you’ve done for us. Everything you’ve done for the AIDS Foundation. Every time you’ve been kind to anybody. Everything you’ve done for LGTBQ. Everything you’ve done for fashion and eye wear. Everything you’ve done for sexiness and love and dressing gowns. Everything you’ve done for music. Everything Bernie [Taupin]’s done for lyrics [...] Happy retirement and we’re going to miss you so much, man.”

It was a fitting tribute that referenced just a smattering of John’s many achievements over a career that spanned six decades, almost 40 studio albums, over 50 hit singles on the UK and US charts, five Grammy wins, two Oscars, two Golden Globes, and a Tony Award. Not bad for a working class boy raised in a council house in Middlesex.

John was born as Reginald Kenneth Dwight in 1947, the son of a flight lieutenant in the Royal Air Force and a civil servant. His father Stanley was also a trumpet player with the semi-professional Bob Millar Band, and it became clear quite early on that Reginald had inherited a similar talent for music. He started learning piano formally at the age of seven, and won a junior scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music at 11. But while he enjoyed some of the classical music he learnt at the Academy, his real interest lay elsewhere: in the blues and rock ’n roll that was just making its way to English shores from across the Atlantic.

In 1962, he and some friends started a band called Bluesology, opening for touring American acts like the Isley Brothers, Major Lance and Patti LaBelle. But his real breakthrough came in 1967, when he answered an advertisement in British music paper New Music Express, placed by an A&R rep for Liberty Records. At their first meeting, the rep gave him an envelope with lyrics by Bernie Taupin, who had also answered the same ad. That marked the beginning of a songwriting partnership that continues till this day — apart from a brief separation for a couple of years in the late 1970s — and is acknowledged as one of the most successful such collaborations of all time.

But first they had to overcome a rocky start. The first album John wrote and delivered to his label — titled Regimental Sergeant Zippo — was shelved by his label because of conceptual similarities with the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper's. His actual debut — 1969’s Empty Sky, released under Dwight’s newly adopted name Elton John, a tribute to two his former Bluesology bandmates — was a damp squib that showcased an artist who had not yet realised his real potential. But John and Taupin hit gold with Your Song, the lead single off his self-titled second album, reaching #8 on the US Billboard Charts.

1972’s Honky Chateau—an eclectic collection of ballads, bluesy rockers, country-rock, New Orleans funk and soul, elevated by Taupin’s sardonic lyrics — kicked off a record-setting run of seven consecutive albums to hit number one on the US charts. 1973’s Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, which featured evergreen hits like Candle In The Wind and Bennie and the Jets, is widely considered his magnus opus. The record — along with John’s penchant for bold, colourful, gender-bending attire and lively stage antics — also established him as a temporary glam star and a forever style icon.

This period from 1970 to 1976 was John’s commercial and artistic peak as he innovated and reinvented himself with every album, dabbling in pop-rock, glam, and confessional art-rock, and finding success with each new iteration. But all that success took its toll and John announced his first retirement from touring in 1977, one that lasted for little more than a year. This also marked the beginning of a rough period for his career: 1979’s disco experiment Victim of Love, his first studio album without Taupin, was his first commercial flop.

The two would reunite soon after, but it wasn’t enough to keep John’s star from waning throughout the 1980s. In 1983, he received some much-deserved public criticism for breaking the cultural boycott of apartheid-era South Africa by performing at Sun City. John was also struggling with alcohol and drug abuse throughout the decade, which had a role to play in the middling albums he released throughout the decade, with John hitting creative rock-bottom on 1986’s Leather Jackets. He was so high at the time that he barely remembers writing or recording the album.

But while his musical career was in the doldrums, John — who came out as bisexual in 1976 — spent the decade using his fame to further many worthwhile causes, performing at Live Aid, collaborating with Dionne Warwick, Gladys Knight and Stevie Wonder on a song to raise funds for HIV/AIDS research, and eventually creating the Elton John AIDS Foundation in 1992.

The 1990s saw the artist reinvent himself once again, this time as a purveyor of saccharine sweet piano ballads like Sacrifice and Healing Hands. John’s musical output since the 1990s — which included soundtracks for animated TV shows and Disney’s The Lion King, as well as a massively popular 1997 rework of Candle In The Wind dedicated to the late Princess Diana — would never reach the critical highs of his legendary 1970s run. But John and Taupin retained their talent for crafting enchanting, heavenly melodies and earned legions of new fans.

At the same time, John — once a controversial wild-child of rock and roll — transformed into the elder statesman of pop music. He is generous in his support and advice for younger musicians struggling with the same addiction issues he did, pushing Rufus Wainwright to check himself into rehab, becoming Eminem’s Alcoholics Anonymous sponsor, and constantly speaking out about his own struggles with addiction to encourage and inspire others to join him in sobriety. He took many younger artists under his wing, collaborating with everyone from grunge rockers Alice In Chains to popstar Lady Gaga. He also found success in musical theatre with Broadway hits like Aida and Billy Elliot the Musical.

It’s appropriate that the Rocket Man’s last flight sets yet another record, a final triumph for a man who has shattered expectations and achieved so much throughout his career. John is looking forward to spending time with his family — husband David Furnish and sons Zachary and Elijah — as he told CNN’s Anderson Cooper when announcing the farewell tour in 2018. He also says that he’ll still continue writing and recording music. His team also hinted at the possibility of future one-off performances (though no tours). But whether or not we get some more Elton John magic in the coming years, this is a moment to celebrate an artistic genius and a towering figure in the annals of pop music. Sixty years after he first started touring, John bows out — in his own words — ”looking like a true survivor, feeling like a kid.”