Watford did save Elton’s life tonight
HORNETS HELPED POP SINGER IN HARD TIMES
ROCKET MAN Sir Elton John has paid tribute to his proudest addiction, admitting: “Watford might have saved my life.”
Lifelong fan Sir Elton had two spells as chairman spanning 26 years, and his double act with Hornets godfather Graham Taylor presided over five promotions, finishing runners-up behind champions Liverpool and reaching the FA Cup final in 1984.
Now, in his long-awaited autobiography, the great showman lays bare the importance of Watford on his life.
He reveals how fellow rock star Rod Stewart, who called Elton by his pet drag name ‘Sharon’, ridiculed his decision to join the board in the mid-1970s.
Stewart, whose drag name was ‘Phyllis’, said: “What the f**k do you know about football, Sharon? If you knew anything you wouldn’t support this lot.”
He recalls his ticking-off from another famous resident of Windsor, the Duke of Edinburgh, who lambasted him for driving around a royal estate in an Aston Martin painted in Watford colours – yellow with a red and black stripe down the middle.
“Ridiculous. Makes you look like a bloody fool. Get rid of it,” chuntered Prince Philip.
And Sir Elton recalls another dressing-down when he turned up for a Boxing Day fixture at Watford “hungover after a coke bender” and helped himself to generous measures of whisky from the boardroom.
The man delivering the lecture was Taylor, Watford’s greatest boss, who died in January 2017.
But the magic carpet ride Taylor navigated was worth more than winning matches. Sir Elton wrote: “I’m incredibly proud of what we achieved together, but I owe Watford far more than Watford owe me.
“If I hadn’t had the football club, then God knows what would have happened to me. I’m not exaggerating when I say I think Watford might have saved my life.
“I was chairman throughout the worst period of my life: years of addiction and unhappiness, failed relationships, bad business deals, court cases, unending turmoil. Through all of thatWatford were a constant source of happiness.
“For obvious reasons there are chunks of the eighties I have no recollection of – but everyWatford game I saw is etched on my memory.
“The night we knocked Manchester United out of the League Cup at Old Trafford, when still a Third Division side, the newspapers that never normally bothered writing about us were calling them Rocket Men.
“The night in November 1982 away to Nottingham Forest in the Milk Cup: They beat us 7-3 but I thought it was one of the greatest games I had ever seen in my life.
“Forest’s legendary manager Brian Clough agreed with me, before turning to Graham (Taylor) and telling him he’d never allow his chairman to sit on the bloody touchline the way I did.”
Sir Elton even did not mind listening to rival fans serenading him with an unflattering refrain to the tune of My Old Man Said FollowTheVan after he announced he was gay. “I thought it was funny. Mortifying, but funny.” ●Me Elton John, published
by Pan Macmillan, £25 hardback.