Pro tip! Elton John shares two sons with his husband, David Furnish, and opened up about how he keeps 8-year-old Zachary and 6-year-old Elijah grounded at the Elton John AIDS Foundation Academy Awards Viewing Party on Sunday, February 24.
“They know that daddy is famous but … when we are out in the summer and people are taking our photograph or asking for a photograph, they say, ‘Why do they want your photograph?’ And we always say, ‘Because people like my music,’” the “Rocket Man” singer, 71, told Us Weekly and other reporters. “They know what daddy does, but I never bring Elton home. I try to leave Elton on the stage.”
John added: “They’re quite grounded, as far as that goes. They love their daddy’s music, but they also like a lot of other people’s music.”
The five-time Grammy winner’s sons have watched him perform only once in New York, but John still plans to “take a breather” when his tour ends. He announced his impending retirement in January 2018.
“By the time I finish [the Farewell Yellow Brick Road global tour] I’ll be at least 75, and that will be a chance to reassess what I want to do,” the Love is the Cure author explained at the viewing party. “I’d like to make more records, I’d like to write more musicals, but I would like to spend more time with my children and David.”
While he may consider a residency “once the dust settles,” John definitely doesn’t want to be traveling so much. “I just owe it to these children to be there for them,” the composer said.
His husband, 56, opened up about what the end of the tour meant to him on the Grammys red carpet last month.
“[It’s] really emotional, and bittersweet,” Furnish told Ryan Seacrest. “I think it’s drawing a curtain over something that’s been extraordinary, but also wonderful to have him home with the family more.”
With reporting by Kayley Stumpe
