Rise to Fame
In 1967, he and Bernie Taupin separately failed an audition at Liberty Records in London. A staffer paired their submissions anyway. Three years later, that combination was performing at the Troubadour in West Hollywood to the kind of reviews that make careers overnight. Between 1972 and 1975, he put out six consecutive #1 albums in the US. He released four albums between October 1970 and November 1971 alone, an output rate that made the competition look like they weren't trying. The theatrical excess was the packaging. The songs were the product.
In the Spotlight
The Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour was supposed to be the end. It ran five years, grossed $939 million across 330 shows, and his Glastonbury headline in June 2023 drew 7.3 million BBC viewers, a record for any festival act. Then he got a severe eye infection in 2024 that left him with partial vision in one eye. He's since completed a new album with Brandi Carlile (Who Believes in Angels?) and is headlining Rock in Rio in September 2026. The retirement is ongoing, but it keeps getting rescheduled.
Side Notes
He started wearing glasses as a teenager to look like Buddy Holly, not because his eyes needed them. He wore them long enough that his vision eventually deteriorated to match, and now owns over 1,000 pairs. The glasses story tells you something about how he operates: the pose becomes the person. Born Reginald Dwight in Pinner, Middlesex, he assembled his stage name from two Bluesology bandmates, became Watford FC chairman and pushed the club three divisions up the English football table in five years, and in January 2024 completed an EGOT when a Disney+ concert film won him an Emmy. Not bad for a man who failed his first audition.