Playboy Interview Elton John

A candid conversation with the unlikeliest, flashiest pop star of them all

- Eugenie Ross-Leming, David Standish

Five years ago, Elton John was just another schlub like the rest of us. He was broke half the time, he was shorter even than Robert Redford, his hair was already beginning to thin, he was usually more plump than he liked and he wore glasses as thick as Cokebottle bottoms. Hardly what you’d call a head start in the Rock Star Derby; he would have stumped any To Tell the Truth panel asked to make the real next Mick Jagger please stand up.

Last year he made $7,000,000—and did the impossible: released an album, Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy, that entered the charts at number one and shipped platinum—music-biz jargon for $1,000,000 worth of sales—overnight. Nobody had ever done both before—not the Beatles, the Stones, Sinatra, John Denver. Then, a couple of months ago, he promptly topped himself with Rock of the Westies, which shipped $1,400,000 and again entered the charts at number one.