Elton John would not sacrifice sex for a PG-13 rating—not in life, and not in Rocketman, the musical biopic starring Taron Egerton. “[E]veryone knows I had quite a lot of [sex and drugs] during the 70s and 80s,” John explained to The Guardian this month. “So there didnt seem to be much point in making a movie that implied that after every gig, Id quietly gone back to my hotel room with only a glass of warm milk and the Gideons Bible for company.”
Following last years Bohemian Rhapsody—which downplayed Freddie Mercurys notoriously prolific sex life—Rocketmans unapologetic love scene between Elton John and his first boyfriend John Reid (Richard Madden) delighted Cannes Film Festival audience members. And even though John and Reid ended up having a nasty, public falling out—more on that later—Elton John himself was thrilled to see his first sexual encounter, at the age of 23, recreated onscreen.
“I was a virgin until then,” John has explained of the 1970 encounter with Reid, who would become his manager. “I was desperate to be loved and desperate to have a tactile relationship. . .When they tear their clothes off in the movie, that was how it happened. It was in San Francisco. . . .Im so glad its in there, because I am a gay man and I didnt want to airbrush it under the carpet. This is who I am, and I was so joyous. When he is lying in my arms and Im sitting back with a smile, Im thinking, Ah, Im normal, Ive had sex. […] That night was a very, very important part.”
Tom Doyle, who wrote the book Captain Fantastic about Johns career through the 70s, further explained: “It took Reid to confirm Eltons sexual proclivities. Returning from a highly significant night with the Scot in San Francisco, he admitted to [music producer] Steve Brown, Im definitely gay. […] It was wholly liberating for Elton, at the relatively late age of twenty-three, to finally accept the true nature of his sexuality. Bravely, he didnt attempt to keep it hidden from those closest to him.”
In real life, the chemistry had not been as immediate for John and Reid—a Scottish music wunderkind who had first run into John, according to Doyle, at EMIs London office, where John was “cheekily scroung[ing] free vinyl copies of the latest releases.” Reid later told the Scottish Daily Mail about his first impression of John: "I remember this hip, shy young man," he recalled. “There was a gawky sweetness about him."
After the San Francisco trip, John and Reid moved into a flat in London together. “He was my first great love, and I was his,” John said. Johns producer Gus Dudgeon explained to VH1s Behind The Music that the two were “in many ways the perfect combination. . .Both [were] gay. . .both very up for spending money, partying, having a really good time.”
Reid had signed on to be Johns manager even though he was admittedly inexperienced in that area of the industry. According to Captain Fantastic, Johns boss at DJM saw the perk of the arrangement: “Who else can we rely on to get Elton out of bed in the morning than the guy hes in bed with?” Reid was confident and had killer instincts, however: the following year, he launched his own management company, and went on to negotiate unprecedented deals for John. (Later, the manager would reportedly lament how excessive they were—wondering whether he helped make the music industry “more vulgar.”)
But boy, did John and Reid know how to spend money. According to a 1974 Rolling Stone cover story, John bought Reid an Appaloosa racehorse and a powerboat for his 25th birthday. For Eltons birthday, Reid said he reciprocated by walking into a Paris jeweler and picking out the largest emerald ring he could find—allegedly worth a million francs.
Given that John and Reid were inseparable and living together, there was public speculation about the nature of their relationship. But when John was asked point blank by Rolling Stone in 1974, he claimed Reid was “just my manager. . . .I have a close circle of friends who just arent in the public—sort of like Elvis and his . . . motorbike people. They were the people who first gave Bernie and me encouragement. Its very much a family. Thats why its so incestuous sometimes.”
Reid was fiercely loyal to John, but also a bit of a hothead—with Rolling Stone devoting a paragraph to Reids history of violent antics: “He tossed a glass of champagne at a man for not having enough liquor at a reception for Elton; slapped a woman journalist who scolded him and reportedly called him a poof (meaning a gay); and he beat and kicked another journalist whom he said he heard had threatened Elton.” He was also sentenced to a month in prison in New Zealand in 1974 for assaulting a journalist.
John and Reids romantic relationship fizzled out in 1975—with both men claiming the relationship ended for different reasons. According to Reid, John “never had a sexual adolescence. He needed to go off and play the field.” But according to Captain Fantastic, John said that Reid had been “more unfaithful than I liked.”
Their working relationship continued until 1998—the same year that Johns auditors discovered a £20 million gap in his accounts, and John sued both PriceWaterhouseCoopers and Andrew Haydon, director of John Reid Enterprises. Speaking about his ex, John said, “I trusted him. . I never thought he would betray me, but he has betrayed me.” While Reid settled with John out of court, a high-court hearing examined Johns excessive spending over the years—with a judge ultimately siding with PriceWaterhouseCoopers and Haydon.
“Sir Eltons indifference to the details of financial and business matters was for a long time compounded by the fact that he had serious problems with alcohol and drug abuse,” the judge determined, according to The Guardian. During the lead-up to the judgment, the court heard how John spent nearly £40m during a 20-month period, and £293,000 on flowers alone. Reid alleged, meanwhile, that living with John was like “trying to hold back a racehorse. . .The vast leaps in style were exhausting. He would go out one day with brown hair and return the next with pink. One day he drove off in his Escort, aRead More – Source
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