The oddest rivalry in rock
As Rod taunts Elton over sales of their latest albums, a wickedly entertaining guide to . . .
FOR five long decades, they’ve been playing a good- humoured game of one-upmanship. Last week, Rod stewart, 71, revealed that his latest battle with his old mucker Elton John, who turned 69 last week, is over whose new album is shifting the most copies.
The affection they have for each other is clear, even dubbing themselves Phyllis and sharon (Rod is Phyllis and Elton sharon).
But despite the years of friendship, their rivalry is all too real and is only heightened by their very different temperaments. Elton is famous for his tantrums and profligate spending, while Rod might be affable but he’s notoriously stingy.
so who comes out on top in the battle between Rod and Elton? ALIsON BOsHOFF reveals all …
WHO’S REALLY TOP OF THE POPS?
LATEST ALBUM SALES: ROD: 600,000 ELTON: Less than 200,000
TOTAL ALBUM SALES: ROD: 100 million
ELTON: 250 million MuCH to Rod stewart’s delight, his new album Another Country has easily outperformed Elton’s latest offering, Wonderful Crazy Night.
Released in November last year, Rod peaked at No 2 in the uK album charts and is now at a respectable No 30. It is already certified platinum, meaning sales of 600,000 or more (record companies are notoriously cagey about giving precise album sales figures).
In contrast, Elton’s album was released just a month ago and has plummeted from No 6 to outside the top 100. It has yet to get a silver certification, meaning sales of less than 200,000.
It’s a big blow for Elton, who threw everything into publicising it— including a free gig in Hollywood and even a stint busking at London’s st Pancras station.
Rod is relishing his latest victory, saying: ‘We have been in contact with each other a lot lately, bitching everybody out. We are still competitive. We text back and forth … how many albums I’ve sold and how many albums he has sold. I’m winning.’
But Rod shouldn’t get too carried away, because in terms of lifetime sales, Elton is far more successful.
He has the accolade of the biggest selling single of all time with his 1997 reworking of Candle In The Wind, which sold 33,000,000 copies, and he is third in the league of total single sales, only behind The Beatles and Madonna. Rod, meanwhile, languishes at No 19.
And while Elton is No 5 for total album sales, Rod is at No 36. In total, Elton has sold around 250 million records and Rod 100 million.
WINNER: ELTON
WHO’S MADE THE MOST MILLIONS?
PERSONAL FORTUNE: ELTON: £340 million ROD: £166 million PERHAPs the best anecdote to sum up the intense competition which surrounds Elton’s and Rod’s wealth took place when both were performing in Las Vegas. A banner outside Caesar’s Palace for Rod’s Blondes Have More Fun tour was matched by one Elton put up on an opposite building, which read ‘But Brunettes Make More Money’.
Indeed, much to Rod’s chagrin, Elton is right. He’s one of the wealthiest entertainers in the world, with £340 million to his name — and that’s not taking into account the £140 million he’s raised for charity via his Aids Foundation.
In comparison, poor old Rod is worth ‘only’ £166 million.
Perhaps that’s why Rod is known to be a little more, er, careful with money than Elton.
One Christmas, he scoured the shops before finding what he considered to be the perfect gift for his rival: a novelty portable drinks refrigerator.
Elton’s present for Rod that year? A Rembrandt.
WINNER: ELTON
WHO’S WON MOST GONGS?
NUMBER OF HONOURS: ROD: 1 ELTON: 2 NUMBER OF MUSIC AWARDS: ROD: 7 ELTON: 31
HAs Rod paid the price for tax avoiding (he moved to America to escape the British taxman) and skirt chasing, as he remains firmly un-knighted? Although he was created a a CBE in 2007, Rod has yet to join Tom Jones, Mick Jagger and, of course, Elton (who also has a CBE) in the sirs club.
‘sharon’s been knighted,’ Rod said of Elton’s 1998 investiture,
adding, ‘ I don’t know why I haven’t ... I do my bit for charity.’
Sir Elton also wins on the trophy cabinet front, including six Grammys; five Brit awards plus a Brits Icon award; 12 Ivor Novellos; a Tony award for the score of Aida; an Olivier for Best Musical for Billy Elliot, and even an Oscar, which he won for composing the Lion King music.
Meanwhile Rod has seven, with one Grammy, awarded in 2005 for his album the Great American Songbook III, plus a solitary Brit award.
Before he won his Grammy, Rod said it was ‘astounding’ that he had never won one. ‘ They tend not to give it to the British unless you’re Sting.’ Or Elton, of course.
WINNER: ELTON
WHO BEAT THEIR BAD HABITS BEST?
YEARS SPENT ON DRUGS: ELTON: 16 ROD: AROUND 10 NUMBER OF TRIPS TO REHAB:
ELTON: 1 ROD: 0
If ThERE’S an addiction, Elton John has had it — from cocaine, which he first took in 1974, to alcohol and even food.
his decadence soon took its toll, and in 1975 he attempted suicide by swallowing 60 Valium and jumping into the swimming pool of his Bel Air mansion — all in front of his mother and grandmother, while screaming: ‘I’m going to die!’ Elton later confessed: ‘It was typical me. There was no way I was going to kill myself doing that.
‘And, of course, my grandmother came out with the perfect line: “I suppose we’ve all got t o go home now.”’
Bulimia, too, dominated his life: ‘I was bulimic, so I wouldn’t eat for three days, then would gorge on six bacon sandwiches and a pint of icecream and throw it up.’ he finally became clean in 1990. By contrast, Rod’s early fondness for cocaine in the Seventies seems not to have resulted in any serious consequences for his physical and mental health. And his liking for alcohol never seems to have veered into something more worrying.
But his old rival could always consume more drugs and booze than he could ever manage, as Rod himself has admitted. ‘Oh, Elton could always do me under the table. I found the sideeffects of cocaine, especially, drastically horrible. Just awful.
‘I can drink and not fall over. Tonight, I could drink a bottle of wine and still make sense, no problem.
‘ Elton . . . he could j ust stash it away. But there was a lot more of him than there was of me.’
WINNER: ROD
WHO’S KING OF THE CONCERTS?
CONCERTS PLAYED IN 2015: ROD: 44 ELTON: 76 ThEIR rivalry in this field goes back decades, as Rod admits: ‘ In 1985, I had a bunch of massive footballs, the size of blimps, tethered above Earls Court to mark the fact that I was doing concerts there. Elton hired a sniper to shoot them down with an air rifle.’
But while both are masters of the tour, Elton has something of a love-hate relationship with going on the road, constantly saying he is going to scale back his travels.
That, however, is yet to happen. To date, he has played more than 3,500 concerts in 80 countries. Indeed, his Million Dollar Piano show, one of the most lucrative in Las Vegas history, is set to recommence again this April.
Elton began his residency at Caesar’s Palace in 2011 with a three-year deal, and was then tempted to sign for a further three years, so is committed to the show until 2017. Then canny Rod encroached on his old friend’s territory with a residency at Caesar’s Palace last year — which was promptly voted the best show in town. he is playing there again for a month now, until April 5.
Despite the crossover and the fact they are ‘still fairly competitive’, Rod insists that he doesn’t think Elton ‘minded’.
‘his is a different show. his is more stationary, if I may use t hat word,’ he s ai d, r ather cattily pointing towards the fact Elton sits at the piano for his whole performance.
WINNER: ELTON
WHO’S GOT THE HOTTEST HOMES?
NUMBER OF MANSIONS: ROD: 3, VALUED AT £38 million ELTON: 6, VALUED AT £52 million ROD’S property portfolio is not to be sniffed at. he has a lavish new house in Essex, as well as homes in Palm Beach and Los Angeles. his Californian home is particularly sumptuous, overflowing with Roman busts, Regency furniture and an enormous collection of preRaphaelite paintings.
however, he is rather outdone by his old pal Elton, who has twice as many places to l ay his head: London, Windsor, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Venice and Nice.
Indeed, Elton cannot resist teasing his rival over his lesser collection. As Rod once revealed: ‘he marked my marriage to Rachel hunter with a £10 voucher from Boots. On the card, he wrote: “Get yourself something nice f or the house.”’
WINNER: ELTON
... AND THE FINAL VERDICT?
ELTON rockets to the top, winning five out of eight categories. But would he swap it all for Rod’s luscious barnet? Arguably — making it a dead tie between the pop titans. here’s to many more years of warring.