Just because you saw the movie doesn't mean you know the truth. When it comes to these legendary artists, their real-life stories had more than a few deleted scenes.
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00:00Just because you saw the movie doesn't mean you know the truth.
00:03When it comes to these legendary artists, their real-life stories had more than a few
00:07deleted scenes.
00:09Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody did plenty of playing with the truth, but the movie's
00:13fabrications are only half as bad as the things it totally left out.
00:17Here's how Bohemian Rhapsody ignored the true story of Queen.
00:21That scene where Freddie Mercury meets his future bandmates and wows them with his singing
00:25voice is good for a meet-cute, but that's not really how it all went down.
00:29The movie leaves out the fact that Freddie Mercury, Brian May, and Roger Taylor actually
00:33knew each other before they were all a band together.
00:36In real life, Mercury was also friends with Tim Staffel, the dude who quits the band in
00:41a huff in Bohemian Rhapsody.
00:42The truth is, there was no ugly incident preceding Staffel's departure.
00:46Staffel himself wrote in Esquire,
00:48"'My departure from Smile' was completely amicable.
00:51Freddie and I were good friends at college.
00:53Freddie joining the band was very natural, as he was really good friends with the band
00:57members before I left and simply dovetailed in.
01:00In fact, these guys were all part of a close-knit group of musicians who were constantly joining
01:04and quitting each other's bands."
01:06Staffel wrote,
01:07"'You couldn't separate the social aspect from the musical aspect.
01:11So we had a big pool of musical friends that would combine and recombine, trying different
01:15band ideas out.
01:16Freddie socialized with us, we socialized with Freddie.'
01:19Eventually they hit on just the right combo and the rest is history, just not quite as
01:24Bohemian Rhapsody tells it."
01:26Bohemian Rhapsody totally skims over the fact that Queen went through three other bassists
01:30before John Deacon finally joined the band.
01:33In the film, Deacon joins Queen almost immediately after Mercury does, but in reality, it took
01:37a lot longer than that.
01:39According to a 1996 profile of Deacon in Bassist & Bass Techniques magazine, Deacon hit it
01:45off with the band partly thanks to his quiet demeanor and less-than-flamboyant playing
01:49style.
01:50Queen's previous bass players were reportedly too showy in their performance styles, drawing
01:54attention away from the other band members, the opposite of what they wanted in a bassist.
01:59But the eventual union between Queen and Deacon still wasn't love at first sight.
02:04Deacon saw Queen perform in October 1970, and reportedly did not find them to be that
02:08interesting of a band.
02:10But then in early 1971, a mutual friend formally introduced Deacon to May and Taylor, and for
02:16some reason, Deacon had a change of heart.
02:18Once he joined up with the group, Deacon became known as the yin to the other's yang.
02:23Roger Taylor would later tell the Daily Mail,
02:25"...we were so used to each other and so over-the-top, we thought that because he was quiet, he would
02:30fit in with us without too much upheaval.
02:32He was a great bass player, too."
02:33Cheers!
02:34In the film, Queen sells their touring van so they can afford to make their first album.
02:38Shortly after that, they meet their new manager, John Reed, and everything suddenly falls into
02:43place.
02:44But the film skipped over a ton of drama that happened before they got to that point.
02:48In real life, the band didn't sell a van.
02:51They sold their souls.
02:53Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
03:00Well, kind of.
03:02Queen's first manager wasn't John Reed, but a man called Norman Sheffield, co-owner of
03:06Trident Studios.
03:08According to The Guardian, after Queen's album Sheer Heart Attack made it to number two,
03:12the band was left wondering why they weren't rolling in cash.
03:15As it turns out, it was because they'd signed a somewhat predatory contract with Trident,
03:20which basically said Queen would make the albums and Trident would sell them to EMI,
03:24meaning there wouldn't be enough money left over for the band to buy a new set of drumsticks,
03:28much less anything else.
03:30The band was so angry about the arrangement that they wrote a super-unflattering ode to
03:34Sheffield called,
03:35"'Death on Two Legs,' Dedicated To."
03:38That song was so harsh that Brian May even later admitted he felt bad singing it.
03:42It called Sheffield, among other things, a
03:44sewer rat decaying in a cesspool of pride, and angered the band's former manager so much
03:50that he decided to sue Queen and EMI for defamation of character.
03:54Paul Printer is the undisputed villain of Bohemian Rhapsody.
03:57He keeps Mercury locked away in his own mansion, answers all of his calls for him, shuns all
04:02of his friends, and is implied to be the reason why Mercury contracted HIV.
04:06But the extent of the real Paul Printer's villainy is debatable.
04:09It is true that he sold Mercury out to the media in 1987, but the idea that Mercury was
04:15isolated and shut away by Printer is almost totally fictional.
04:19In reality, Mercury definitely didn't spend all his time in his home waiting for Printer
04:23to bring the party to him.
04:25He had a whole entourage of people, and spent plenty of time with them at nightclubs and
04:29parties.
04:30In those days, his entourage included not just Paul Printer, but the likes of actor
04:33Peter Straker, Elton John, and Princess Diana.
04:36The movie doesn't show any of that, though, because it would have jumbled the narrative
04:40and turned Printer into a more watered-down villain.
04:43And at some point in every film, you gotta have somebody to hate.
04:47Bohemian Rhapsody — the song, not the movie — was Queen's crowning achievement.
04:51Sure, they did a lot of great stuff afterward, but nothing would ever quite match the epic
04:55scale of that six-minute, operatic rock suite that gave the film its title.
04:59And like many great works of art, Bohemian Rhapsody didn't really come together over
05:03the course of a few days.
05:05In the film, we see Mercury tapping out the first notes on his piano, but we don't see
05:09any of the flashes of inspiration that came before all that.
05:12According to Rock Music Revival, Mercury started writing Bohemian Rhapsody in college.
05:17The famous opening words, "'Mama just killed a man," were the first to come to mind, and
05:21led Mercury to think of it under the temporary title of the Cowboy Song.
05:25The band started working on the song together in 1975.
05:29The operatic sessions took 70 hours to record, and happened not just in that one studio in
05:34the muddy middle of nowhere, but in five different studios — and that was just for the vocals.
05:39One thing the movie did portray correctly was the song's reception, and many of Queen's
05:43contemporaries reacted exactly the way Mike Myers' fictional character did.
05:47"'To these words, if they're not careful, by the end of the year, no one will know the
05:52name Queen.'"
05:54But Queen wouldn't back down, the song remained uncut, and music history was made.
05:59In the movie, Mary Austin insists to Mercury that he's gay, and from that point onwards,
06:04the movie continues by portraying Mercury as a man who is only interested in men.
06:08While this may have simplified the narrative a bit, it was far from the whole story.
06:13In reality, Mercury was a lot more complicated than that.
06:16The truth is that he didn't just go on to have relationships with men alone, but also
06:20with women, and the film excluded all of the latter.
06:24According to Biography, Mercury had a number of relationships with men, including Jim Hutton,
06:29who does actually have a part in Bohemian Rhapsody.
06:32During the 1980s, however, he also had a relationship with German actress Barbara Valentin.
06:37The two met in Munich and even shared an apartment, although, to be fair, she would later describe
06:42him as, quote, "'mostly gay.'"
06:44Of course, her presence in the film would have complicated the more simplistic narrative
06:47the filmmakers had in mind, so instead of telling Mercury's story in all of its romantically
06:52complex glory, they opted to let viewers believe that Mercury was strictly gay.
06:57In Bohemian Rhapsody, Freddie Mercury is depicted as focusing on a single musical pursuit, Queen,
07:03with a short side track for some solo stuff.
07:05In reality, however, Mercury collaborated with many other artists and musicians, including
07:10a famous opera singer named Montserrat Caboulet.
07:14Mercury met Caboulet in 1987, and their creative union produced one of the world's most influential
07:19marriages of classical and contemporary music, the anthem Barcelona.
07:23That's probably not especially shocking, though, since even Queen newcomers will know
07:27about Mercury's fondness for opera.
07:29It's a huge part of the Bohemian Rhapsody song, after all.
07:32What might surprise even Queen fans, however, is that Mercury also performed with the Royal
07:37Ballet, though he did require a little convincing before he agreed to take part.
07:42After initially thinking they must have been mad to consider him, Mercury was eventually
07:46convinced to perform after speaking with the head of EMI, who was also chairman of the
07:51Royal Ballet's board of governors.
07:53You don't become a ballet dancer overnight, though, and Mercury later recalled his punishing
07:57practice sessions in the London Evening News.
08:00He said of his training,
08:01"'It was murder.
08:02After two days I was in agony.
08:04It was hurting me in places I didn't know I had, dear.'"
08:06Mercury made his ballet debut in October 1979 in front of an audience of 2,500 theater patrons.
08:13He told the London Evening News,
08:15"'I wasn't quite Baryshnikov, but it wasn't bad for an aging beginner.
08:19I'd like to see Mick Jagger or Rod Stewart try that.'"
08:22It's not just his side projects outside of the arena rock realm that Bohemian Rhapsody
08:26leaves out.
08:27The movie also doesn't really touch on any of Mercury's many musical collaborations with
08:32artists in the rock genre, or the friendships he forged with some of the greatest musicians
08:37of his time.
08:38You probably already know that he was acquainted with David Bowie, if only because of Under
08:42Pressure, Queen's iconic collaborative song with the Thin White Duke.
08:46But they didn't just meet as fellow rock stars.
08:48Mercury's relationship with Bowie went all the way back to his college years, when Bowie
08:52played a gig at Mercury's university, and Mercury helped him push a bunch of desks together
08:56to make a stage.
08:58Mercury recorded with other big names, too, including Michael Jackson.
09:01In 1983, the pair worked together on the songs There Must Be More to Life Than This, State
09:06of Shock, and Victory, but the songs were never released.
09:10Why?
09:11Because of a llama.
09:12Yes, the recording sessions were interrupted by Jackson's pet llama, and Mercury couldn't
09:17take it, finally calling manager Jim Beach and begging to be rescued.
09:21He told Beach,
09:22"'You gotta get me out of here.
09:23I'm recording with a llama.
09:24I've had enough and I want to get out.'"
09:26Freddie Mercury's decline was slow and quiet.
09:29Practically none of it is depicted in Bohemian Rhapsody, because producers decided to give
09:33the film a triumphant ending rather than a tragic one.
09:37In real life, Mercury's AIDS diagnosis didn't actually come until two years after the iconic
09:42Live Aid performance, and he lived for another four years after that.
09:46So while the movie's ending may feel inspiring, it's also one of the movie's most misleading
09:51distortions potentially affecting how audiences view the legendary real-life concert.
09:56Like many of the movie's distortions, it's based on a kernel of truth.
10:00Years after the Live Aid performance, when Queen made an appearance at the 1990 Brit
10:03Awards, Mercury was gaunt and pale and said little to the audience.
10:08Outside of the public eye, however, Mercury kept on working.
10:12Brian May later explained to The Telegraph,
10:14"[Freddie wanted his life to be as normal as possible.
10:16For him, the studio was an oasis, a place where life was just the same as it always
10:21had been.
10:22He loved making music.
10:23He lived for it."
10:24According to The Telegraph, Mercury kept recording until he could no longer do it.
10:28His last session was in May 1991, and the last song he recorded was Made in Heaven's
10:33Mother Love, recorded between the 13th and the 16th of that month.
10:37But at that point in his life, he was very sick.
10:40May explained,
10:41"[We got as far as the penultimate verse, and he said, I'm not feeling that great.
10:44I'll finish it when I come back next time.
10:46But of course, he didn't ever come back to the studio after that."
10:50Mercury died in November of that same year, and Brian May sang the last verse of Mother
10:54Love.
10:55In the world of rock biopics that gloss over the more unsavory aspects of their subjects,
11:00the supposed honesty of Motley Crue's The Dirt is refreshing.
11:04But even a good movie can't keep everything in.
11:07Here are parts of Motley Crue's story that The Dirt ignores.
11:12Early on in The Dirt, we see Motley Crue gleefully fighting during their first concert.
11:16Though it's played largely for laughs, it establishes the idea that Motley Crue is a
11:20band that'll happily throw some punches, apart from Mick Mars.
11:24He remains onstage with his guitar, though he does get a kick in.
11:30Later on in the movie, drummer Tommy Lee punches a confrontational girlfriend on a tour bus,
11:35and everyone, including Lee, reacts with dazed shock.
11:39These scenes make it appear like The Dirt fearlessly depicts the band members' most
11:42violent instincts.
11:44In reality, the movie pulls quite a few punches.
11:47It certainly doesn't show just how comfortable most Motley Crue members were when it came
11:51to hurting people.
11:52Vince Neil has allegedly assaulted women multiple times.
11:56In fact, actor Nicolas Cage once had to intervene during one of Neil's alleged altercations.
12:01Tommy Lee was sued for assaulting a photographer in 2013.
12:05As E! Online notes, he was also sentenced to six months in jail for spousal battery
12:10in 1998 after a nasty scuffle with Pamela Anderson.
12:14Although Nikki Sixx's destructive tendencies were mostly aimed at himself, Rock Candy magazine
12:19reports that he once got himself and his manager arrested by throwing a bottle at a man's head
12:24in a bullet train from Osaka to Tokyo.
12:28The most glaring character omission from The Dirt is arguably actress Pamela Anderson,
12:33whose turbulent relationship with drummer Tommy Lee would probably have sparked a lawsuit
12:37or nine had it been featured in the movie.
12:39Why do bad things happen to good people?
12:42Still, while Anderson is noticeably absent from the film, she definitely left an impression
12:46on more than one band member in real life.
12:49As Vince Neil is all too happy to share in his autobiography, Tattoos & Tequila, Anderson
12:54briefly dated him before she got together with Lee.
12:57But Neil's brief involvement with Anderson is nothing compared to her scandal-ridden
13:00marriage to Tommy Lee.
13:02They became one of the most famous couples in the world, and managed to make waves wherever
13:06they went.
13:07They also inadvertently starred in what's generally considered the most famous celebrity
13:12sex tape of all time.
13:14And as we mentioned, the couple had an intensely ugly falling out.
13:18Absolutely none of this is touched upon in The Dirt.
13:22As MTV News reports, Tommy Lee found himself in a strange predicament in 1999.
13:27He evidently thought his glam metal days were behind him and decided to try his hand at
13:31something else.
13:32That something else turned out to be… hip-hop.
13:36He put together a rap metal act called Methods of Mayhem and started collaborating with such
13:41artists as Snoop Dogg, Busta Rhymes, and even Limp Bizkit's Fred Durst.
13:45We imagine this strange career turn was omitted from The Dirt because it would have caused
13:48a lot of undue confusion.
13:50Plus, Lee reportedly got the idea for Methods of Mayhem during his six-month jail sentence,
13:56so it sounds like a potential plot point that would have been worthy of a veto for a number
13:59of reasons.
14:01John Carabi's fate in Motley Crue is that of the classic new guy.
14:06Things never really warmed up to him, and he was quietly phased out when Vince Neil
14:09returned to the fold in 1997 for the Generation Swine album.
14:13As Carabi told Rock by Wild in 2012,
14:16I was in Motley, and I never knew that they were gonna bring Vince back, you know?
14:21So things have a way of just… life just has a way of working itself out.
14:26The Dirt deems him such an unimportant piece of Motley Crue lore that we only briefly see
14:30him on screen, and he never utters a single word.
14:34As Raw Music TV notes, Carabi actually offered more to the band than a goofy grin and a lackluster
14:39album.
14:40In fact, the publication claims the new singer outright saved Motley Crue from fading into
14:45irrelevance.
14:46When Neil left the band in 1992, Motley Crue tried to produce a worthy follow-up to its
14:50most commercially successful album, Dr. Feelgood.
14:54But in the context of the era, this proved to be an impossible feat.
14:58Grunge music was rapidly showing hair metal the door, and artists such as Poison and Rat
15:02were quickly finding out that their brand of rock just didn't have legs anymore.
15:07Carabi ushered in a different songwriting style, forcing the band out of their comfort
15:11zone.
15:12Unfortunately, his fellow band members undermined this new injection of creativity with a bunch
15:16of awful mistakes, like firing their manager, lawyers, and accountants while attempting
15:20to produce the record themselves.
15:23But Carabi was reportedly never an issue for them, and they liked him so much they wanted
15:27to keep him around despite the 1994 album's lack of success.
15:32Until Neil returned, that is.
15:35The Dirt devotes some time establishing Motley Crue as a band that thinks about their image
15:39pretty carefully, if drunkenly.
15:41That's why it's not exactly a surprise that the movie never mentions the time they turned
15:45in a miscalculated music video that got them banned by MTV.
15:49The lyrics to the 1987 single, You're All I Need, are particularly vicious, and Motley
15:54Crue decided to double down in the video.
15:57It depicts a doomed, destructive relationship and features the man trashing their home and
16:01ultimately killing his significant other.
16:04As you can see, much of the video was shot in the matter-of-fact style of a news story.
16:08Let it suffice to say, the clip didn't go over well with MTV executives, who banned
16:13it from the channel.
16:14Nikki Sixx later admitted that the song's dark lyrics were inspired by his own failing
16:18relationship with a girlfriend he was convinced had been cheating on him.
16:23Sixx says he dealt with the situation by writing You're All I Need, playing it to his now-ex-girlfriend,
16:28and dramatically walking out of the door when she started crying.
16:33According to The Dirt, guitarist Mick Mars first met Nikki Sixx and Tommy Lee during
16:37an audition, and he quickly proved that he was the right man for the job.
16:40Listen to me, there's only room for one guitar player in this band, and that's me.
16:46However, the movie conveniently ignores the fact that the real Mars and Sixx had met long
16:50before that, even if they didn't realize it at the time.
16:54In 1978, Sixx was reportedly working at a liquor store, when who should walk in but
16:59Mick Mars?
17:01According to Loudwire, the guitar player had a gig with his band White Horse at a nearby
17:04venue called Stone Pony.
17:07He allegedly snuck away to grab a bottle of tequila, because the Pony's $2 shots were
17:11just too pricey.
17:13Mars reportedly recognized Sixx as a fellow rocker and struck up a discussion, asking
17:17what bands he liked.
17:18Unfortunately, Sixx's answer included Kiss, which didn't impress Mars at all, but the
17:23guitarist still invited the kid to White Horse's concert.
17:26After Sixx finished his shift, he reportedly got wasted and walked into the bar, only to
17:31witness the magnificent sight of Mars grinding out a guitar solo by using a microphone stand
17:35as a slide.
17:37The highly impressed Sixx hung out until the very end, and the two later resumed talking.
17:42Mars even drunkenly gave Sixx his phone number.
17:45However, the chance encounter never led anywhere, until years later, when the guitarist happened
17:49to join his drinking buddy's band.
17:53The Dirt doesn't hesitate to show us some of Motley Crue's more… inspired rock star
17:57behavior.
17:58In the same way 80s action films have training montages, The Dirt has a montage that's dedicated
18:03exclusively to the band destroying hotel rooms and terrorizing people.
18:07Wow, this is a nice place.
18:11Time to redecorate.
18:13The movie has a tendency to gloss over these antics as boys will be boys misadventures,
18:18and the band doesn't really suffer any consequences beyond massive hangovers the next morning.
18:23Really, cop cars only seem to turn up for the real-life-and-death stuff, namely when
18:27Vince Neil crashes his car and kills the Hanoi Rocks drummer Nicholas Razzle-Dingley.
18:33Of course, in the real world, it's very easy to get in trouble for Motley Crue's brand
18:37of obnoxious behavior.
18:39Apart from the more serious stuff that landed Motley Crue members in hot water, they've
18:42also been involved in a fair share of bizarre lawsuits over the years.
18:47In 1999, MTV reported that Motley Crue harassed a security guard during a concert and almost
18:52started a riot.
18:54In 2016, Metal Sucks reported that a supporting band sued Motley Crue for assorted shenanigans,
19:00including members of the Crue entourage spraying urine at them.
19:04And yet, when the band is forced to face consequences for their actions, they evidently prove to
19:08be rather thin-skinned.
19:10In 2005, MTV reported that Motley Crue was suing NBC.
19:14Why?
19:15Because the network reportedly banned the band after they dropped an F-bomb during a
19:19live Tonight Show broadcast on New Year's Eve.
19:23The Dirt presents Motley Crue as a rather amazing live act, so it's not particularly
19:28surprising that the movie chooses to ignore all the times their rock concerts took a decidedly
19:32nasty turn.
19:34For example, in 1985, a 13-year-old fan was reportedly partially blinded during a concert
19:39in Alabama.
19:41That's because something — possibly a chunk of dry ice from malfunctioning equipment — flew
19:45into his eye.
19:46The 1988 trial was reportedly heated and difficult.
19:50As president of the band's business affairs, Nicky Sixx was in town for the duration of
19:54the proceedings.
19:55His stay was reportedly something right out of a Fish Out of Water movie.
20:00Following his near-fatal 1987 overdose, Sixx had reportedly straightened himself out somewhat.
20:05Instead of an outlandish rock star, the locals reportedly found a friendly, super-famous,
20:10nice guy who offered Lifesaver candies to fans.
20:13He even struck up an oddball friendship with a local lawyer.
20:16Sixx gave the lawyer guitar pointers, and the lawyer taught Sixx how to tie a necktie.
20:21The case ultimately ended in a mistrial, and Motley Crue later settled out of court.
20:26The Dirt is based on the book of the same name, a book that has certainly added to Motley
20:30Crue's notoriety thanks to its avalanche of filthy rock stories.
20:34But wouldn't it be strange if much of the memoir was built on untruths?
20:38We're not saying it was, because we don't need to.
20:41As Loudwire reports, Nikki Sixx has basically admitted as much himself.
20:46In 2019, Sixx was in hot water over a story in the book that described a wild party.
20:51That party evidently ended with Sixx and Tommy Lee committing sexual assault on a woman by
20:55fooling her into switching partners mid-act.
20:58The bass player defended himself to Rolling Stone, claiming that he actually didn't remember
21:02the incident ever happening.
21:04He also claimed he didn't recall giving a lot of his interviews for the book.
21:08Sixx said the interviews were conducted in 2000, a year before he went into rehab, and
21:12a year in which he was allegedly going through a particularly rough patch with his drug and
21:17alcohol intake.
21:18Will we ever know whether the incident actually happened?
21:21Probably not, but it's one of those moments when you really hope the person is lying.
21:26The Dirt introduces Mick Mars when the guitarist shows up for an audition, outplays the blonde
21:30guitarist, and promptly fires the guy when Nikki Sixx and Tommy Lee can't work up the
21:34nerve to do it.
21:35Really?
21:36As Ultimate Classic Rock reports, there's no proof this ever happened.
21:40We imagine the scene was included to establish Mars as a detached, cynical veteran.
21:45However, it just so happens the Motley Crue did originally flirt with another guitarist
21:50before Mars came along.
21:52But Greg Leon was a far cry from the sad sack we see in the film.
21:55He was a well-known singer and multi-instrumentalist in the Los Angeles hard rock scene.
22:00Lee was a huge fan of his, in fact, he ended up joining Leon's band, Sweet 19, for a year
22:05and a half.
22:06In 2017, Leon claimed that Lee had wanted him to join Motley Crue early on, but he was
22:11reportedly uninterested because of Sixx's involvement.
22:14Basically, he thought Sixx was a terrible musician.
22:17He also didn't like that Sixx was intent on recruiting a frontman because he was sick
22:21of sharing lead vocal duties.
22:23Motley Crue and Leon went their separate ways, but the guitar player didn't exactly fade
22:27into obscurity.
22:28He became Randy Rhodes' replacement in Quiet Riot, played with Dokken, and fronted a number
22:33of other bands, too.
22:35So that's that.
22:36But one more thing before we go.
22:38You know what else wasn't included in the dirt?
22:41This commercial.
22:42If you have a touch-tone phone, call us on the Motley Crue hotline, 1-900-932-8-CRUE!
22:50Although most music biopics tend to offer up conventional retellings of their subjects'
22:54life and times, Rocketman proudly identifies as an epic musical fantasy, where the more
22:59conventional parts of the story are intertwined with musical numbers and dreamlike, choreographed
23:04sequences.
23:05Of course, this approach comes at a price, and a few vital aspects of Elton John's story
23:09are noticeably missing from the final film.
23:12One of the most glaring omissions in the first third of Rocketman is Long John Baldry, an
23:16integral part of Elton's life who is nonetheless nowhere to be found.
23:20In case you don't know, Baldry was a popular musician of the time who enlisted Elton's
23:24band Bluesology as his backing band before Elton left to shape his own destiny.
23:29Baldry is a significant character in the Elton John story partly because, from 1967 to 1969,
23:35the very much closeted Elton was in a relationship with a woman named Linda Woodrow.
23:40The two were scheduled to get married, but Elton grew increasingly desperate and unhappy
23:44in the relationship, even at one point contemplating taking his own life.
23:48That's when Baldry stepped in, telling Elton to put aside his suicidal thoughts, embrace
23:52his sexuality, and call off the wedding.
23:55Although Elton didn't fully come out of the closet, he still took the advice.
23:58In fact, Baldry's influence loomed so large that he and Bernie Taupin later immortalized
24:03his advice in the 1975 song, Someone Saved My Life Tonight.
24:07Rocketman depicts a slightly deluded version of this story, but gives Baldry's crucial
24:11role to Taupin.
24:12While this is somewhat understandable, since the lyricist was present during Baldry's pep
24:16talk, it's still strange that the movie chooses to completely omit a man who so heavily influenced
24:21Elton John's formative years.
24:24At its core, Rocketman is a story about family and the quest for familial love.
24:28Elton John's difficult relationships with his mother and father receive copious screentime,
24:33and the members of his extended family are depicted in their droves.
24:36His grandmother here, his stepfather there, and there's even a scene featuring his young
24:40half-brothers from his estranged father's new marriage.
24:43When John patches things up with Bernie Taupin at the end of the movie, their mended relationship
24:48is underlined when Taupin specifically identifies himself as John's brother.
24:52With such emphasis on family and brotherhood, it's a little odd that the movie doesn't even
24:56bother mentioning that Elton actually does have a half-brother from the family he actually
25:01grew up with.
25:02Elton's mother, Sheila Fairbrother, and his stepfather, Fred, have a son named Frederick,
25:06who is conspicuously absent from Rocketman.
25:09Seen as the movie makes it clear that Fred Fairbrother is a reasonably stand-up guy and
25:13a supportive stepfather to Elton, you'd think his son with Elton's mother would at least
25:17warrant a mention.
25:19As Bohemian Rhapsody's Paul Printer will tell you, a music biopic needs an antagonist, whether
25:24or not its hero actually had one.
25:26Rocketman's bad guy is John Reed, the sharp-dressed, handsome businessman who seduces Elton John
25:31and takes over as his manager before Elton gets the chance to find out what a cold, calculating
25:35monster he really is.
25:37But Rocketman eventually allows Reed to shimmer out of focus as it shifts its focus to the
25:42real villain of the story, addiction.
25:44But real life, as always, is another matter.
25:46The actual John Reed was virtually joined at the hip with Elton for three decades, first
25:50as a lover and then as a manager.
25:53This ended in a bitter court battle in 2001 after some of Reed's correspondence leaked
25:57to the press, and Elton became convinced that the manager had turned into a mismanager.
26:02Reed eventually paid Elton a $2.54 million settlement, and the latter cut all connections
26:07to his longtime associate, to the point that he ended up pretending that Reed didn't exist
26:11at all.
26:13Rocketman goes to some lengths to portray Elton John as a man who is always alone, even
26:17when he's surrounded by people.
26:19After he becomes Elton John, his lyricist, Bernie Taupin, is pretty much the only positive
26:23force in his life right up until he decides to get sober.
26:27While this is no doubt true in a sense, it implies that Elton had no real friends to
26:31speak of.
26:32But this is patently untrue.
26:33In fact, Elton had some very famous friends, indeed.
26:36For example, Elton was very close friends with Queen's Freddie Mercury, who was ironically
26:41portrayed in a similar fashion in 2018's Bohemian Rhapsody.
26:45Even in his final days, Mercury took the time to arrange the delivery of a particularly
26:49thoughtful Christmas present to Elton, a painting by one of his favorite artists.
26:53Another good rock friend of Elton's is Rod Stewart, who has known Elton for five long
26:57decades.
26:58Like all great mates, the pair regularly snipe at each other with humor, elaborate practical
27:02jokes, and cutting insults.
27:04They wanted me to make Christmas albums, and, you know, cover albums, Motown records, but
27:09that is so silly, you know.
27:11I'll leave that to Rod Stewart and people.
27:15Mercury and Stewart also knew each other, and the trio got along so well that they once
27:19briefly considered forming a drag trio called Nose, Teeth, and Hair.
27:23Rocketman isn't particularly big on the concept of Elton John's bisexuality.
27:27In the movie, he tries his hand at passing himself off as bisexual for all of one scene,
27:32and his musician drinking buddies almost immediately dismiss the very idea.
27:36This could be a nod to Elton's out-and-proud attitude and status as a gay icon today, but
27:41in real life, his closeted phase lasted slightly longer.
27:44In fact, he didn't come out until 1976, and even when he did, it was as a bisexual.
27:50He didn't officially come out as a gay man until 1988, when he divorced Renata Blau.
27:55To be fair, Elton had certain professional reasons to keep that closet door closed, and
27:59the movie uses the villainous John Reed to stealthily convey them.
28:03In one scene, Reed outright tells the enamored Elton that they must keep their relationship
28:07secret because the backlash from the reveal could end him.
28:11Indeed, when the musician gave his I'm Bi interview in 1976, his album sales temporarily
28:16dropped.
28:17If nothing else, Rocketman is really very honest about the many, many vices of Elton
28:22John.
28:23In fact, Taron Egerton's Elton pretty much starts the movie by rattling off his assorted
28:27addictions and issues.
28:29Despite this ready admission of his many weaknesses, there's one that even this movie doesn't dare
28:33touch, soccer, or as Elton would call it, football.
28:36Elton has followed his favorite club, Watford FC, since childhood.
28:40As time progressed and his finances allowed, he moved from the mild stuff, that is, simply
28:44watching matches as a fan and booster of the team, to harder substances, in this case,
28:49actually buying the club and sitting as its chairman on two different occasions.
28:54Elton's involvement in Watford FC is considerably more relaxed these days, though he's still
28:58the honorary chairman for life and has a stand at the club's stadium named after him.
29:03It's fairly understandable why this side of Elton didn't make it into Rocketman.
29:07After all, a hearty game of soccer midway through might have disrupted the film's attempt
29:10to portray a drug-fueled, tortured artist.
29:13John Lennon's role in Rocketman is somehow both much larger and much smaller than it
29:17was in Elton John's actual life.
29:20In the movie, Lennon is the inspiration for the John part of Elton John, when the star
29:24only has the Elton part down and has to quickly improvise a surname.
29:28This anecdote isn't true in the slightest, however.
29:30The John actually refers to Long John Baldry, but the film also completely ignores the fact
29:35that Lennon was very much a part of Elton's life.
29:38The two superstars knew each other very well.
29:40In fact, they were such good friends that Lennon's last on-stage performance before
29:44his death was at an Elton John show in 1974, an appearance made due to a lost bet.
29:50However, the famously acerbic Lennon was enough to make even Elton John nervous.
29:54While the ex-Beatle was never anything but pleasant toward the Rocketman, Elton has since
29:58admitted he was rather intimidated by Lennon's reputation as an abrasive guy toward people
30:03close to him.
30:04Long-term soulmates are a rare thing in any avenue of life, let alone in the notoriously
30:09fickle music industry.
30:11Perhaps that's why Rocketman leans so hard on the relationship between Elton John and
30:14Bernie Taupin, one that was as vital to Elton's story in real life as it is in the movie.
30:19He's never said to my face, I'm not sure about that.
30:23Even though there must have been times when he thought, oh, I didn't think it should turn
30:26out like that.
30:27He's been brilliant.
30:28We've never had an argument."
30:29Rocketman also makes a point of emphasizing the way their business and personal relationship
30:33falls apart at the seams when Elton's assortment of addictions get the better of him.
30:37In the movie, Taupin leaves their partnership a couple of times, once at the height of their
30:41fame, as the partying becomes too much for him, and again near the end of the movie,
30:45when Elton's partying becomes too much for him.
30:47He doesn't return after that second time until Elton seeks help for his addictions and promptly
30:52restores the artist's confidence with some brotherly words and a stack of fresh lyrics.
30:56While it's true that the real Elton and Taupin had a time out at one stage of their career,
31:01it was a significantly more mundane affair than the movie would have you believe.
31:04The pair broke up for a period in the late 1970s, but this was chiefly so they could
31:09collaborate with other people for a while, and they were soon back at work together.
31:13As for the second breakup, Taupin fully admits they had a creative slump in the late 1980s
31:18and early 1990s, but this wasn't because they had broken up.
31:21It was simply because they had a lot of stuff going on and weren't communicating enough.
31:25Elton John's piano skills might be world-class, but as with most artists, it's his voice that's
31:30the real star of the show.
31:32As such, it's curious that Rocketman completely ignores one of the most dramatic events of
31:36his 1980s, his surgery-induced voice change.
31:39Imagine the shock if Freddie Mercury had suddenly started singing with a completely different
31:43voice.
31:44Well, this strange scenario actually happened to Elton in 1987, when spasmodic bouts of
31:50pain forced him to seek medical help.
31:53As a result, something was removed from his vocal cords.
31:55The exact nature of his ailment has been speculated to have been throat cancer, described by his
32:00team as nonmalignant lesions, and described by Elton himself as cancerous whatever.
32:06Whatever the culprit, the operation altered Elton's voice in a way that greatly pleased
32:10the man himself but disheartened a portion of his fans.
32:13And while Elton could now sing more fully than ever before, he had lost some of the
32:17falsetto that had helped make him famous.
32:20Rocketman's only nod to the existence of British royalty comes in the form of a quick aside
32:24where a character notes the Queen Mother is an Elton John fan.
32:28While this is certainly no mean feat for an artist, it also deftly sidesteps the fact
32:32that Elton has been hobnobbing with the royals pretty much ever since he had his breakthrough.
32:37Elton has been a member of the royal family's inner circle since 1970, when the Queen Mother
32:41and Princess Margaret first took a liking to his music.
32:44He became friendly with Princess Margaret to the point where they often attended art
32:48events together, and even danced jive with Queen Elizabeth herself on at least one occasion.
32:53And then the Queen came in and she said, can we join you?
32:56And I was going to say, no, f— off, right?"
33:00In 1981, he added Princess Diana to his friendship notebook, and later, her sons as well.
33:06For decades, Elton has been a permanent fixture on the royal family's guest list, save for
33:10a slight hitch in 1997, when his involvement with Gianni Versace's lewd photography book
33:16Rockin' Royalty sent him into a temporary deep freeze with the family.
33:20That same year, though, Gianni performed his updated version of Candle in the Wind at Diana's
33:24funeral.