Elton is still standing... but he’s hurt his father never saw him play

ELTON John has revealed that he still feels hurt over the fact that his ‘tough and unemotional’ father Stanley Dwight never came to watch him perform before his death. The music icon admitted that he was never sure of the reason why the former World War II fighter pilot, pictured, did not attend his shows but hinted that homophobia could have played a part.

Writing in The Times, Elton, stated: ‘My father was sealed off from my talent and I never knew why. Was it homophobia? Was it fear?’

He mused: ‘ That was a painful loss for me. But it was also a painful loss, I think, for my dad. That’s what prejudice does to people.’

Elton previously touched on the subject of his father’s lack of support at shows soon after the birth of son Zachary in 2011. Elton, who started playing the piano when he was just three and went on to attend the Royal Academy of Music, said his disciplinarian father had no interest in his budding career even though Mr Dwight had also been a keen musician, having played the trumpet.

‘You know, my father never came to hear me play. Not ever,’ said Elton, who was born Reginald Dwight.

‘He was a tough and unemotional man. Hard. In the RAF. He was dismissive, disappointed and finally absent. I just wanted him to acknowledge what I’d done. But he never did.’

Mr Dwight, had wanted his son to have a more conventional career and steered him towards banking.

He divorced Elton’s mother Sheila when the singer was 15.

The 68-year-old said: ‘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.’ Elton has been in a bitter feud with his mother for the past seven years and speaking to the Mail’s David Wigg recently, Sheila revealed her initial falling out with the musician stemmed from his anger at her longstanding friendship with his former PA, Bob Halley, and ex-manager John Reid – and his desire for her to sever ties with both.

‘I had no intention of dropping John and Bob and I told Elton that,’ she said. ‘He told me I thought more of Bob Halley than I did of my own son.

‘To that I said to him, “And you think more of that f****** thing you married than your own mother”.’

Harsh words were exchanged and the pair have not spoken for seven years – although Elton is believed to have sent her a single orchid on the occasion of her 90th birthday.

Despite the feud, Elton – who is worth an estimated €280 million – is still believed to pay her bills.