What’s in a reputation?
Elton John nonetheless can’t perceive how his mother and father might have given him a “s – – t” beginning title.
The “I’m Still Standing” singer, 77, spoke about his given title throughout an look Tuesday evening on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.”
“You weren’t always Elton John,” host Stephen Colbert talked about throughout their chat. “You were born Reginald Kenneth Dwight, which is also a lovely name.”
John didn’t agree. “It’s a s – – t name,” he advised the late-night host.
“Agree to disagree,” Colbert replied.
The Grammy winner, nonetheless, defined why he nonetheless can’t make sense of the title selection made by his mother and father, Stanley and Sheila Eileen Dwight.
“Who the hell calls their — a little baby; a little baby? ‘Reginald, oh Reginald,’” he requested, befuddled.
John, who not too long ago revealed he misplaced his eyesight after an an infection, went on to supply some context to the origins of his beginning title.
“I was named after my mum’s brother because she wanted to call me Raymond, but my father disagreed so they had a huge argument — which wasn’t unusual — and I became Reginald and I hated it,” he stated.
And although “Reginald” might be swapped for the considerably cooler sobriquet “Reggie,” John didn’t really feel that the nickname was any higher, telling Colbert that whereas there have been many well-known “Reggies” within the US, it was not a preferred title within the UK. Plus, “Reggie” nonetheless wouldn’t have been his precise title.
“It wasn’t ‘Reggie,’ it was Reginald,” he continued. “Like, who the hell? As soon as I could change it, I did.”
John legally modified his title in 1972.
Searching for a silver lining to the star’s given title, Colbert stated, “Reginald’s the male version of Regina, which means ‘queen.’”
“Thank you,” John responded straight-faced to laughter from the viewers.
“They got it spot on. In 1947, they knew what they were doing,” he quipped.
Explaining why he exchanged “Reginald Kenneth Dwight” for “Elton Hercules John,” the music icon shared that he took inspiration from two members of the British blues band Bluesology, who he carried out with within the ’60s.
“The saxophone player was called Elton Dean. And I thought, ‘Elton! There’s not many Eltons in the world, that’s pretty unusual,’” the “Tiny Dancer” singer recalled pondering.
His new surname derived from Bluesology’s vocalist Lengthy John Baldry, whereas his center title “Hercules” was taken from the horse on a preferred British sitcom, “Steptoe and Son.”
However altering his title didn’t come with out its uncomfortable side effects.
“The sad thing about it was, by 1975, when I was ‘Elton Hercules John,’ ‘Reg’ had been lost, and I craved to find that little boy that I used to be,” he defined.
“I had become ‘Elton John: Superstar’ and I paid the price for being so famous and not having that foundation.”
“Fame is a very weird thing,” he added. “I enjoyed every single minute of it until I realized that the only thing in my life was fame. I didn’t like it and I got very unhappy, my moods shifted, I started doing drugs, and I just thought, ‘Where am I? Who am I? What have I become?’ And all that changed in 1990 when I did get sober, when I re-found my old self, and it was lovely to find that little boy again.”
