The irony of entertainment fame is in just how quickly the life of the recipient can change.
Naturally, to pursue a career in the arts, a financial sacrifice must be made at the start. Sofas must be surfed and tables waited on just to afford a few crumbs of sustenance to fuel a dogged pursuit of fame. Then, when it clicks, the plastic forks are quickly swapped for diamond-crusted silverware, and the days of street-stricken poverty are over.
Perhaps no artist took to the change in social circumstances like Elton John. In the heady days of music’s opulence, he took to exclusivity like a duck to water, branding himself in whatever extravagant outfit he could get his hands on. And it worked perfectly for him, as his entire artistic identity was steeped in this idea, albeit worryingly fuelled by his drug use.
But, as I’m sure you won’t be surprised to hear, Elton’s life wasn’t always like this. As easy as it is to imagine him emerging from the womb in a feather boa jacket and diamond-plated sunglasses, he, too, was once a working-class artist, looking for his big break.
At that time, he was playing in a band called Bluesology, as well as helping Patti LaBelle by assisting her on the piano. While LaBelle wasn’t exactly selling out baseball stadiums at this point, she was giving Elton a small view into the world that awaited him.
Nevertheless, when she invited Elton and the rest of Bluesology over to her part-time London flat to play cards, she wasn’t afraid to teach them the art of losing, for that is, after all, the foundation of enduring future success. “I took all their pounds—all their money,” LaBelle recalled of the evenings spent playing cards. But she later explained that because of their scratchy circumstances, which were later compounded at the hands of LaBelle’s card victories, she would have to “feed” the band then, because they had “no money to eat”.
While that was a kind enough gesture in itself, Elton likely thought he was worth a little more than a quick dinner and so took it upon himself to steal some practical souvenirs. LaBelle noted, “They had no food, so I made them food to take home in my Tupperware”.
And like any lady with a household, she too claimed, “So my Tupperware is very important to me, I don’t give it out. So I gave them some food to take back home, and they never paid me back. And I said to Elton, ‘I want my durn Tupperware!’”
It wasn’t long after that, at the turn of the 1960s, when Elton started to experience major industry breaks. But despite the most obvious trappings of fame soon digging their nails into him, he never forgot the humble days of when LaBelle cooked for him.
Just two years after the Tupperware thievery, Elton invited LaBelle onstage to perform with him. While that was, of course, a fitting payback, she still wanted her precious Tupperware back. A wish that was somewhat granted in 2005, when the pair performed a special rendition of ‘Your Song’. LaBelle remembered that Elton “took his rings off and put them on the piano. When we finished, I said, ‘Elton, there’s your ring’. He said, ‘That’s your Tupperware’”.
