Elton John longed for ‘Billy Elliot moment’

The 63-year-old music maestro is one of the world’s most talented men, and as well as enjoying immense success as a recording artist, has composed music for highly praised theatre productions such as Billy Elliot the Musical.

Based on the 2000 film Billy Elliot, the musical follows the struggle of a young boy who is desperate to gain acceptance from his family when he pursues his talent for ballet.

Elton admits he experienced the same struggles as a youngster, because his father – who divorced Elton’s mother when the singer was 15 – never took much interest in his musical career.

“You know, my father never came to hear me play. Not ever. He was a tough and unemotional man. Hard. In the RAF [Royal Air Force]. He was dismissive, disappointed, and finally absent. I just wanted him to acknowledge what I’d done. But he never did. I never had that Billy Elliot moment,” lamented Elton in an interview with British newspaper The Times.

“It wasn’t that he didn’t know how to relate to kids. He left us, remarried and had another family, and by all accounts was a great dad to them. It wasn’t children, it was me.”

The multi-talented star is thrilled about his new role as a father to he and husband David Furnish’s first child together. The baby boy, named Zachary Jackson Levon Furnish-John, was born via an anonymous surrogate mother on Christmas Day, and Elton and David are settling well into fatherhood.

The successful pair have been outspoken in their desire to give Zachary a normal childhood, and they have no plans to spoil him. According to the proud parents, all that is really necessary for a newborn child is “a couple of Babygros and a lot of muslin”. 

“Friends are being really great, giving us hand-me-down stuff,” they added.