Elton John’s friendship with John Lennon explored in new documentary, 'Elton John: Never Too Late'

In a new documentary, Elton John: Never Too Late, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival over the weekend, the 77-year-old Tiny Dancer singer says he may have been “the catalyst” for John Lennon and Yoko Ono getting back together and having their son.

The film, directed by Elton’s husband David Furnish and R.J. Cutler (The September Issue), is intimate, somewhat confessional tapes recorded by a journalist who’s been helping Elton write his memoir.

As Elton narrates in the doc, he first met John in 1973 at a video shoot for John's Mind Games album, at a time when the former Beatle and Yoko had broken up after four-and-a-half years of marriage. John, with Yoko's encouragement, had entered into a relationship with the much younger May Pang, who had been assisting them on the album.

Elton recalls how “in awe” of John he was, despite being someone who, himself, was already a global superstar and had sold 30 million albums. John, in turn, had been a huge fan of Your Song, which had been a massive international hit.

The two bonded over growing up in the ‘50s and ‘60s in England, and over songs and radio shows they liked; both were fans of the British comedy series Round the Horne. In an earlier interview with Sean Lennon, the singer said he and the Beatle also “did a lot of naughty, naughty things together".

In the documentary, which will premiere on Disney+ on December 13, the pop star reveals that at least one of those “naughty” things was definitely cocaine.

He tells the story of a 2am drug binge in which he and John had “mountains of cocaine coming out of our noses,” and both became extremely paranoid. They heard a knock on the door and thought it was the police. “It took me about five minutes to walk across to the peephole, and I saw it was Andy Warhol. And I went to John, ‘Andy,’ and John went, ‘No way!’ So he kept ringing the bell,” says Elton in the film.

They knew Andy “carried the camera everywhere – the Polaroid,” so they just hid inside the room and didn’t let him in. “Like, no thanks,” Elton says. “That was the fun part of cocaine.”

Although it faded once John became a dad, it was during their two-year friendship - which gets a remarkable amount of time in the doc, illustrated by never-before-seen archival photos - that John asked Elton to sing and play on Whatever Gets You Thru the Night.

Elton said he would, but only if they made a deal that if the song got to No. 1 on the charts, John would join him onstage at a concert. John thought it would never chart that high. But, of course, it did. And true to his word, John joined Elton for his 1974 Thanksgiving Day concert at Madison Square Garden.

When he stepped out that night, the New York crowd went nuts. “It was probably the greatest night of my professional career because I remember how the audience reacted,” John told Howard Stern in an interview.

In the film, he says, “I’d never heard a roar like it.”

They played I Saw Her Standing There, Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds and Whatever Gets You Thru the Night. And afterwards, Elton was crying so hard with joy and emotion he had to hide in the bathroom. John gingerly went in there and sat with him.

The film doesn’t go into details, but it seems that Yoko's gardenia was an olive branch. “I was probably the catalyst of John and Yoko getting back together,” Elton says in the film. “If I hadn’t told him to do the show, maybe he had never met Yoko again.”

He recalled coming out as bisexual to Cliff Jahr in a Rolling Stone cover story in 1976 and the weight that lifted off him. (He came out as gay in Rolling Stone in 1992.)

Elton was named Sean’s godfather. “I didn’t know it was John’s swan song, which it turned out to be,” Elton says in the film. That was his last concert before his murder in the archway of the Dakota in 1980.

After the Toronto screening, Elton teared up multiple times during a Q&A. It was amazing to see his life on-screen, he said. “I was closed before. I was so tightly wrung, but I was so tired of hiding away.”

He recalled coming out as bisexual to Cliff Jahr in a Rolling Stone cover story in 1976 and the weight that lifted off him. (He came out as gay in Rolling Stone in 1992.)

At the time, he said, everyone in the business knew he was gay. “And most people knew I was living with my manager [John Reid], for Christ’s sake!” he said, laughing. But, still, it was hard. “No one had ever asked me before Cliff if I was gay or what my sexuality was,” Elton said onstage. 

The film takes us through not just Elton’s relief at coming out, but his addiction to drugs and alcohol. “Fame is a dangerous thing if you don’t have something else, and that something else is honesty,” said the singer. “If you don’t have the honesty to go with the fame, then you’re going to be in real, real trouble like I was before I got sober in 1990. It’s been 34 years now.”

The moment, Elton said, “was a definitive time in my life, because I was being honest and it was so good … It was a wonderful time for me because at least I got that kind of thing off my back.”

The point of the documentary is that “the truth should always be told,” he said. “And it took me so long to, and it made me so unhappy, and it was so stupid, the amount of years that I lost by not telling the truth and by fooling myself. And when I stopped fooling myself, obviously my life turned around.”

For that, he gave thanks to the kindness of strangers who’d come up to him and give him their phone number, back in his worst days. People are good and kind and generous, he said, and that’s borne out his whole life.

“Kindness will out. Kindness will always out, and that’s what I hope for the American election next November,” he said.

Elton met David at a dinner party in 1993 and onstage credited him for saving his life. They entered into a civil partnership in 2005 and officially got married nine years later when same-sex marriage became legal in the UK. They now have two sons. Elton retired from touring in 2023 to spend more time with his family.

“This is the greatest feeling I’ve ever had in my life. More than having the first No 1 album in Billboard. Yeah, that was really nice for about five minutes. This is a lifetime,” he said.

“Listen, I’m 77 years old. I’m having the best time of my life except for this f***ing eye. I wish I could see you, but I can’t,” he told the crowd, laughing, referring to a severe eye infection that has left him with limited vision in one eye. He believes he’ll regain his sight in time.

Before the crowd went home, he had one thing left to add: “On my tombstone, I don’t want it to say, ‘He sold a million records.’ I just want it to say he was a great dad and great husband.”

This article was first published by Washington Post via the NZ Herald and is republished here with permission.