Launch emerging Australian talent
The pair met in Sydney during John’s tour of Australia. Since then, Ruel has amassed more than 300 million streams for his music and toured the world.
John’s Crocodile Rock was the first song Ruel learned to play on the piano, so when the rock legend requested a meeting, Ruel “freaked out” at his school locker.
“I was five when I learned that on the piano and I was so certain Elton John was Australian, he’s talking about crocodiles. I was so upset when my parents said he wasn’t,” he said at the time.
“Just to think 10 years later after learning that first song that he wants to meet me is just so overwhelming.”
John found his Australian opening act Tate Sheridan on that same trip in 2017, telling the ABC: “There’s an artist in Australia called Tate Sheridan who I’ve been trying to help for a long time and his music is music from the past, like when I started, but it’s great music.
“I try and encourage him as much as possible.
“And if I hear something from someone new and I like it, then I phone them up.”
More than 650,000 fans will witness the Farewell shows in Australia which range from “intimate” arenas to wineries and stadiums.
Chugg has promoted nine Elton John tours of Australia since 2006 and declares the Farewell concert to be “the greatest show” in the Rocket Man’s 50 years of touring.
“He’s absolutely driven; he won’t compromise in any way. He walks on that stage and performs like he’s still a kid in his 20s,” Chugg says.
“In a way, yes, he is competing with the big pop stadium concerts we have seen in recent years in Australia but in another way he’s raising the benchmark, because this is the never-ending three or fouryear farewell tour and he wants it to be the greatest.”
Chugg estimates the tour, which kicks off in Perth on November 30 and will conclude in Sydney on March 7, will have generated employment for up to one million people.