John Lennon and Elton John forged a strong friendship in the 1970s. The two collaborated on a few songs, but their bond also formed outside the recording studio. While getting into some foul trouble, the pair had to avoid Andy Warhol, who could have exposed their activities.
John Lennon and Elton John hid from Andy Warhol
After The Beatles dominated the music industry in the 1960s, Elton John emerged as one of the brightest stars of the 1970s. The “Rocket Man” singer had several hits early in his career and caught the attention of Lennon, who was now a solo artist. The two worked on a few songs together, including Lennon’s “Whatever Gets You Through the Night” and John’s cover of “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds”.
They became good pals and often got into “naughty” business together. In an interview with Rolling Stone, Elton John recalled an evening when he and John Lennon got high on cocaine at a hotel. They heard a knock on the door, and it was Andy Warhol. The two didn’t want him to document anything accidentally, so they waited for him to leave.
“I can remember being stoned out of our mind on coke at the SherryNetherland hotel, and at 2:00 in the morning, there would be a knock on the door – of course, you know how paranoid you get on coke, you say, ‘Go to the door and look through the thing!’ And it took me about five minutes to get the door because I was so paranoid, but it was Andy f***ing Warhol! And I said, ‘It’s Andy Warhol,’ and he said, ‘Don’t f***ing let him in! He’ll have a camera and everything!’ So we just waited for him to go away. Little things like that, crazy things like that.”
Lennon had a life-changing performance with John
Elton John has fond memories of John Lennon. He said he only saw the “gentle, gorgeous” side of the former Beatle, not the heavy-drinking, wild side much of the public saw during his “Lost Weekend” period. Their friendship benefitted both of their careers, as “Whatever Gets You Through the Night” was Lennon’s first No. 1 hit in the U.S.
Sir Elton had made a bet with Lennon that if it reached No. 1, he would have to join him at a concert and perform the song live. Since Elton won the bet, Lennon made good on the bet by appearing at a 1974 concert at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
Elton told Rolling Stone that the “Imagine” singer was nervous since he had not performed for a massive audience in a while, but the ovation he received was legendary. Lennon also claimed that it was the night he reconnected with Yoko Ono after a brief separation, but that fact is often disputed.
“I kind of brought him back, in a way, to performing, with the Madison Square Garden thing, because I did the bet with him about ‘Whatever Gets You Through the Night,’ and it got to Number One,” John explained. “He was petrified – he hadn’t performed in years – but he came. I’ve never forgotten, I’ve never heard an ovation for anybody that was so heartwarming, and it moved him. It was, like, an eight-minute standing ovation. He was physically sick before he came on, he re-met Yoko that night, it changed the course of his life again. And I had something to do with it.”
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