As legend Rod Stewart prepares to light up the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury, we take a look back at one of showbiz royalty’s longest running feuds…
Sir Elton John and Rod Stewart have kept up one of the longest running fallouts in showbusiness.
Despite the veteran rockers having known each other for over 50 years, they have been locked in a hostile feud that’s morphed from childish pranks to full blown character assassinations.
The catty pair have been handbags at dawn over the years and made some spectacular digs at each other in a seemingly never-ending war of words.
As Rod prepares to follow in Elton John’s footsteps with a performance on Glastonbury’s Pyramid Stage,we take a look back at one of showbiz royalty’s wildest ever feuds.
After launching music careers in the swinging sixties, Elton and Rod went from chart rivals to pals before amusing fans with a series of escalating pranks.
Rod once said he looked on Elton as a ‘fierce enemy’ in the music biz but said their public put-downs started out on just a ‘playful’ level before things really turned sour.
When Rod launched his Blondes ‘ave More Fun Tour back in the 1970s, Elton arranged for billboards with his own face were plastered on the opposite side of the street reading: “But Brunettes make more money”.
In another incident, Elton hired a sniper to shoot down blimps Rod hired to promote his music from the sky.
“We had the worst row, like a married couple. It went on forever,” Rod previously admitted.
Speaking about the fallout in his 2019 autobiography Me, Elton dedicated an entire chapter to his dislike of Rod and there are some incredible digs at him along the way.
Elton told readers their disdain for one another reached boiling point when Rod slated him during a TV appearance.
The crooner said Elton’s epic 300 date Farewell Yellow Brick Road retirement tour was ‘dishonest’ and ‘stunk of selling tickets.’
Rod added that he would never dream of announcing his retirement from music so publicly as it was not very ‘rock and roll.’
The public dig left Elton reeling for months and he exacted his revenge some time later in his no holds-barred autobiography.
Putting pen to paper, he scathed: “I certainly didn’t feel like I needed a lecture on the feral spirit of rock and roll from someone who’d spent most of the last decade crooning his way through the Great American Songbook and Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas.”
And he didn’t stop there…
“He was accusing me of being dishonest about one of the biggest decisions of my life,” fumed the hitmaker.
“What’s more, I thought he had a f***ing cheek, complaining about me promoting a tour while he was sat on a TV show promoting his own tour.”
When the book came out Rod made an apology… of sorts.
“She (Elton) doesn’t like me at the moment. I was bang out of order. Correct, but bang out of order,” he told reporters.
Rod blamed his loose tongue on TV producers plying him with too booze before the show.
“Four big shots of neat vodka and with me being a butch man, I knocked them all back.
“I said that 300 dates in three years sounded a bit money-grabbing to me. Look, I know where’s he’s coming from.
“He’s just got two kids very, very late in life but I’m planning my tours around my kids. I think he’ll miss it. I can’t wait for the next show.”
Rod made a plea for peace by inviting Elton’s young sons to play football on his personal pitch, an olive branch the Rocketman singer flatly declined.
In November 2020, a small thaw began to show in Elton’s grudge as he said he hoped to put an end to the disagreement with his old pal in time for Christmas.
He promised to send Rod a card and give him a “big hug” but later admitted: “In the end I just sent an email to his assistant.
“It said: ‘I wanted to be p****d at first but we’ve known each other for so long it’s water under the bridge. Who cares? Good luck with your new album’.”
Any hopes for a face to face chat were swiftly dissolved when Rod retorted that he would now only speak to Elton in interviews.
“I put something out there and it will be in the evening papers and he’ll say something in our morning papers. That is how we fight our battles,” he explained.
Elton said he did try to speak to Rod personally to smooth things over but received a message from Rod’s manager that he was on ‘constant vocal rest’ between his shows and unable to talk.
“That seemed fair enough, until I noticed his complete vocal rest didn’t preclude him going on more chat shows and radio programmes calling me ‘money grabbing’ and slagging off [my film] Rocketman,” fumed Elton.
“He was happy enough chatting away on Loose Women, he just didn’t want to speak to me.
“I haven’t heard from him since… It just seems really strange and sad, not least because it’s deprived me of the opportunity to point out how much better my tour’s selling.”
In another glimmer of hope of the two pals reuniting, just before New Year 2021, Rod was asked what he would say to Elton as he appeared on a US chat show.
“Love you baby,’ Rod replied. “Just good luck and I am so bloody annoyed that you have a Number One album.”
The Maggie May star, 76, told viewers: “I miss him. He just had a hip op so I do wish him well. We still love each other.”