Rocket Man: The Life of Elton John

by Mark Bego

Overview

The colorful and kaleidoscopic life of one of the world’s most original and talented musical artists.

Here’s the book every pop music lover has been waiting for—full of the scandals, addictions, affairs, and tantrums that underscored the life of arguably the world’s greatest pop musician. Flamboyant, iconic Elton John is as much part of the American musical landscape as he is in his native England.

In the 1970s, when popular music on both sides of the Atlantic fragmented into disco, soul, hard rock, pop, and folk, Elton John embraced them all with his signature creative panache. Emerging in the late 1960s as a singer/songwriter, Elton was widely acknowledged as the most prolific pop and rock star of the decade by the mid-1970s. His peerless musical style and ability to jump from sensitive ballads to bawdy rock anthems to campy pop have made him a musical superstar for the ages.

From his heartfelt ballads like “Tiny Dancer” and “Your Song” to his rock & roll hits including “Bennie and the Jets” and “Crocodile Rock,” Elton has lived one of the most outrageous and colorful lives in show business.

Having met the “Rocket Man” the first time in the 1980s, Bego has drawn upon his personal observations and vast research, and has been able to interview dozens of Elton’s collaborators and lifelong friends to produce the the ultimate story on the amazing and larger-than-life Elton John.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781643133133
Publisher:	Pegasus Books
Publication date:	01/07/2020
Pages:	384
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.30(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

Mark Bego, described as "the #1 bestselling pop biographer" by Publishers Weekly, has written over sixty-five books involving rock & roll and show business. He is the author of the three-million-copy bestselling pop music biography Michael! and the million-copy selling Madonna!. Bego also wrote the biography Leonardo DiCaprio: Romantic Hero, which spent six weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. His writing often appears in People, Us, Billboard, Record World, and Cosmopolitan. Mark lives in Los Angeles.

Editorial Reviews

10/28/2019

Bego (Michael!) narrates the ups and downs of musician Elton John’s career and music in this fawning set of fan’s notes. Drawing on interviews with John’s colleagues and on archival research, Bego chronicles Reginald Dwight’s (he would become Elton John in 1967) childhood in 1940s and ’50s Middlesex, England, where he developed a love of piano and rock and roll, and overcame his shyness through his outrageous performances. He experienced early musical success in the late 1960s with Long John Baldry and Rod Stewart, before gaining international acclaim in the 1970s, fueled by albums such as Madman Across the Water, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, and 11-17-70. In the 1980s, John fell into alcohol and cocaine abuse, encountered financial problems, and struggled in his relationships; by the 1990s, however, he recovered and began playing sold-out stadium tours with Billy Joel, and found a younger audience when he performed “Candle in the Wind” at Princess Diana’s funeral in 1997. Bego marches rapidly through John’s career in the 21st century, highlighting albums such as 2004’s Peachtree Road and the 2019 biopic Rocketman. In breathless prose, Bego cheerleads for John: “Is he a musical genius? Definitely. Is there more great music coming from Elton John? Years worth... Is he a ‘mad genius’? Absolutely.” This will be of most interest to diehard John fans. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

The life and times of Elton John are explored in this fascinating read—and no details are left uninvestigated.

Star Magazine

Rocket Man is a formidable work that satisfies. A reader that doesn’t fall a little bit in love with Elton John after reading Rocket Man is hard-hearted indeed.

BookTrib

Bego discusses John’s extensive recording output as well as his drug addiction and various health issues, his failed suicide attempt, his coming out, his forays into musical theater (Aida, The Lion King, Billy Elliot), his marriage to David Furnish, and the making of Rocketman...Elton fans won't want to miss this.

Booklist

Bego discusses John’s extensive recording output as well as his drug addiction and various health issues, his failed suicide attempt, his coming out, his forays into musical theater (Aida, The Lion King, Billy Elliot), his marriage to David Furnish, and the making of Rocketman...Elton fans won't want to miss this.

Booklist

12/01/2019

In 1969, Elton John released "Your Song," which launched his career and, says celebrity biographer Bego, shaped the diminutive, piano-playing Reginald Kenneth Dwight into one of rock's most iconic and flashiest musicians, Elton Hercules John. This memoir—and a worldwide farewell tour—celebrates John's 50-year journey. Bego tells a gripping story of the musician's escalating fame and fortune, including his excesses and addictions, his musical ups and downs, and the tipping point that turned him sober in the early Nineties. Bego follows John from his childhood near London and his early family life to his budding years as a musician and finally to his songwriting partnership with Bernie Taupin and breakthrough success in the early 1970s. Bego details John's acceptance of his sexuality (he came out as bisexual in 1976 and as gay in 1992), his dedication to charity work, and his campy and often outrageous persona. Drawing from published sources and interviews with John and those in his life, the fast-paced narrative loses steam covering the last 25 years of John's life; it devolves into a dry recitation of album releases, concert appearances, and newsworthy events. VERDICT Whether readers have been listening to Elton John since Goodbye Yellow Brick Road or know him only from the film Rocketman, they'll find this a comprehensive biography, infused with a satisfying dose of dishy gossip.—James Collins, Morristown-Morris Twp. P.L., NJ

Library Journal

2019-09-29
Straightforward biography of Sir Elton John, master of rock piano and camp performance.

Part Mona Lisa and part Mad Hatter, John astounded his parents with his child-prodigy skills at the piano at the age of 3 and, early on, took his talents and ran with them. Whether that adds up to his being "the most remarkably beloved rock and pop artist of rock history," as Bego (Eat Like a Rock Star: More Than 100 Recipes From Rock 'n' Roll's Greatest, 2017, etc.) writes, is surely debatable. The remark is suggestive of the tossed-off way in which the author treats a subject who deserves deeper consideration. It's inarguable that John turned his skills as a pianist and crowd-pleasing showman to materially impressive ends, earning and spending millions of dollars while working his way through trauma and "looking for love in all the wrong places." Bego, who has authored biographies of Tina Turner, Cher, Billy Joel, and others, covers all the familiar ground: John's lifelong musical partnership with Bernie Taupin; the dazzling costumes and improbable acrobatics onstage; the friendships with Lady Diana and, for that matter, Ru Paul; the decades of decadence; the generosity to charity; the dawning realization that his habits, as John put it, had made him "a piano-playing Elvis Presley"; and the willful recovery. An effort to tie the book to the unrelated movie Rocketman yields only the observation that Elton John can now add "cinematic hero" to his resume. Philip Norman's Elton John (1992), albeit slightly updated in reissue, cuts off three decades ago; even so, it is by far the better book, digging deeper into John's life and work. Bego's book is filled with glancing chapter titles ("Glitter and Be Gay") and painful turns of phrase ("Whatever he does, he does it one hundred and fifty percent, whether it is doing drugs, having wild parties, or alphabetizing his CD collection"). In the end, this biography is an exercise in superficiality, about as muscular as a handshake from Andy Warhol, who "would present his hand like he had just handed you a dead chicken."

For ardent collectors of Eltoniana only.

Kirkus Reviews