“Very Depressing Experience”: The “Disastrous” Tour Elton John Had To Cancel Over Fighting With His Co-Bill

Red flags come in many forms, and for Elton John, it was a tense, tear-inducing phone call that foreshadowed the “disastrous” tour he would ultimately have to cancel over his (and his band’s) constant fighting with his co-bill. In theory, the tour would have been one for the ages: a flashy, flamboyant rock ‘n’ roll extravaganza featuring two high-energy artists as animated as they were talented.

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The only problem—and it was a rather glaring one—was that neither artist could stand to be on stage with the other.

The Trouble Started Before the Pair Even Hit the Road

The record-breaking success of Elton John’s reimagined version of “Candle in the Wind” from 1997 was the very definition of bittersweet. On the one hand, the single was a massive hit for the pianist decades into his career. But on the other hand, the only reason the single existed at all was because of the death of Princess Diana, with whom he had recently rekindled his friendship. Record sales weren’t enough to make up for the heavy burden of grief John bore at the time for not only Princess Diana but also Gianni Versace, who died earlier that year. John needed to embark on a new project to distract himself, so he started planning a joint tour with Tina Turner.

But if John thought going on the road with Turner would make him feel better, a fraught phone call likely cleared up that misconception. “She rang me up at home, apparently with the express intention of telling me how awful I was and how I had to change before we could work together. She didn’t like my hair, she didn’t like the colour of my piano—which for some reason had to be white—and she didn’t like my clothes. ‘You wear too much Versace, and it makes you look fat. You have to wear Armani,’ she announced. I could hear poor old Gianni turning in his grave at the very idea. I got off the phone and burst into tears,” John wrote in his autobiography, Me.

“Listening to one of the greatest performers of all time—an artist you’re meant to be collaborating with—explain in detail how much they hate everything about you is a very depressing experience.”

Ultimately, Elton John Had To Cancel the Tour

Musicians who aren’t particularly fond of one another on a personal level work together all the time. Sometimes, they’ve been in the same band for years. But for Elton John, his decision to cancel the tour with Tina Turner came down to on-stage preference. While rehearsing “Proud Mary” for a VH1 event, Turner began butting heads with John and his band, accusing them of playing the song incorrectly. What Turner was hearing was the band, and particularly John, improvising around the arrangement. Turner preferred each performance to be exact and precise. John preferred the freedom of experimenting in real time.

Their debate over these methods led to John telling Turner to “stick her f***ing songs up her a**” before storming off stage. “I sat in the dressing room, alternately fuming and wondering what her problem was. I’ve thrown plenty of tantrums in my time, but there are limits. There’s an unspoken rule that musicians don’t treat their fellow musicians like s***. Maybe it was insecurity on her part. She’d been treated appallingly earlier in her career, suffered years and years of being ripped off, beaten up and pushed around. I went to her dressing room and apologized.”

Ultimately, John decided to go on the road with Billy Joel instead. But he and Turner eventually made amends. “She came for dinner in Nice, and left a big Tina Turner lipstick kiss in the visitors’ book,” John wrote.

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