October 25 and 26, 1975. Sheila Dwight singing in full voice with tears streaming down her cheeks as her son, Elton John, sits at the piano in front of more than 50,000 fans singing “Your Song” is a touching moment. John always referred to the two sold-out shows in Dodger Stadium as the pinnacle of his career. A high point made even more special due to his relationship with the City of Angels, where he kick-started his career five years earlier with performances at The Troubadour. Robert Hilburn’s review in the LA Times catalyzed the young singer’s rise to stardom.
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It Was the First Time a Rock Concert Had Been Held at Dodger Stadium in Nine Years
The last time a rock show had occurred was August 28, 1966. The Remains, Bobby Hebb, The Cyrkle, The Ronettes, and The Beatles performed in front of 45,000. A security staff of 102 was no match for the crowd, which led to dozens of injuries and over 20 arrests as violence broke out when the concert was over. The owners of Dodger Stadium vowed not to have any more events that would attract the wrong element. John’s manager, John Reid, convinced them to lift the ban since the singer had such a strong connection with the city.
Elton John Week
A few days before the shows, a chartered Boeing 707 brought John’s mother, stepfather, grandmother, record label staff, journalists, and friends so they could participate in the celebration. They took tours of Universal Studios and visited Disneyland. Reid hosted a party on his yacht.
The mayor of Los Angeles, Tom Bradley, declared it “Elton John Week.” A star was unveiled on Hollywood Boulevard, where John arrived in a gold golf cart with a giant pair of illuminated glasses and a bow tie on the front. There were so many onlookers that Hollywood Boulevard had to be closed.
Rock of the Westies had been released three weeks earlier and debuted at number one. No other artist had achieved that feat, and John was doing it for a second time. Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy had done the same thing earlier in the year. He was at the top of the charts. Friends and family surrounded him. He was just about to play two nights to a packed stadium. Everything was going perfectly. While his family gathered for dinner, John excused himself, went upstairs, and attempted suicide. He took a handful of Valium, returned downstairs, announced he was going to die, and threw himself in the pool.
He was rescued and given something to empty the contents of his stomach. It was a cry for help.
In his 2019 memoir, Me, Elton John Recounted the Aftermath
“I suppose I was doing something dramatic to try and get attention. I realize that, on one level, it sounds nuts, given that I was living in a city that had declared it was Elton John Week, I was about to play in front of 110,000 people, and there was an ITV camera crew in the process of making a documentary about me. How much more attention can a man need?
“But I was looking for a different kind of attention from that. I was trying to make my family understand that there was something wrong; however, well, my career was going: it might seem that it’s all great, it might seem that my life is perfect, but it’s not. I couldn’t say to them, ‘I think I’m taking too many drugs,’ because they would never understand; they didn’t know what cocaine was.
“I hadn’t got the guts to tell them, ‘Look, I’m really not feeling very good; I need a bit of love’ because I didn’t want them to see any cracks in the facade at all. I was too strong-willed – and too afraid of her reaction – to just take my mum aside and say, ‘Listen, Mum, I really need to talk to you – I’m not doing very well here, I need a bit of help, what do you think?’ Instead of doing that, I bottled it up and bottled it up, and then eventually, I went off like Vesuvius and staged this ridiculous suicide bid. That’s who I am: it’s all or nothing. It wasn’t my family’s fault at all. It was mine. I was too proud to admit that my life wasn’t perfect. It was pathetic.”
31 Songs & Nearly as Many Outfits
Twenty-four hours later, he was onstage at Dodger Stadium. Emmylou Harris and Joe Walsh opened the shows. Cary Grant was a backstage guest. The Southern California Community Choir performed; even tennis star Billie Jean King sang background vocals. John was hitting on all cylinders onstage.
He summed it up in Me, “You don’t even have to concentrate, you just feel as free as a bird, you can do anything you want. Those are the gigs you live for, and Dodger Stadium was like that on both days. The sound was perfect, and so was the weather. I can remember standing onstage, feeling the adrenalin coursing through me.
It was a pinnacle, and I was smart enough to know that it couldn’t last, at least not at that pitch. Success on that level never does.”
The set list on both nights included 31 songs, and the show included multiple outfits. Bob Mackie designed a sequined Los Angeles Dodgers uniform just for the occasion.
In 1992, John returned for another two-night stand at Dodger Stadium featuring a guest appearance by George Michael. In a bookend sort of way, it was announced John would perform three nights at the baseball stadium to mark the end of his Farewell Yellow Brick Road North American Tour. The final night was live-streamed on Disney+, and Brandi Carlile and Dua Lipa joined John onstage, as well as Kiki Dee reprising her role in the duet of “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart.” For the encore, John returned to the stage wearing an updated, sequined Dodger uniform.
(Photo by Scott Dudelson/Getty Images)
