A frugal breakfast for the star – and friend – during the recording of Rock of the Westies, photographed by Terry O’Neill
At his 1970s peak, with seven US No 1 albums in four years, Elton John was a regular at Colorado’s Caribou Ranch studios. In 1974, he recorded Caribou in the winter snows, returning in August to make Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy. John had begun work on the music in July on a voyage to New York on the SS France (after which he popped down to Philadelphia to play tennis with Billie Jean King). In a cable to his PR at Rocket Records, Caroline Boucher, he told how he was summoned to see the captain after throwing a tantrum when his Yves Saint Laurent bow-tie fell apart: “Looking quite the perfect English gentleman (except for my green hair) I swish up to the Riviera Bar for drinks. I decide to break my no-alcohol rule and have a glass of Mumms – excellent. Someone says in a rather grand voice: ‘That man over there is Elton John – he is famous but I have never heard of him.’”
When told on a ship-to-shore call that Caribou had gone platinum, another dietary restriction went overboard: “I break my no-carbohydrate rule and I have one pretzel.”
Related: Elton John: 'When I was on drugs there was a monstrous side to me'
Continue reading...