(Credits: Far Out / YouTube Still)
Sun 18 January 2026 16:00, UK
In reality, Elton John has two adopted children. But metaphorically speaking, he is a father figure to at least half of the music industry.
If there’s something that John has become known for in recent years, when it’s not feigning retirement and then, in the next breath, coming out with a new project, it’s the fact that he is a stalwart champion of new artists in the industry, no matter their genre, age, or walk of life. It’s what keeps him young, as they say.
That makes the whole thing seem really flippant, which this is definitely not an attempt to do. Through this open-minded approach to welcoming in the newer classes of pop and rock greatness, John has cultivated some genuinely strong friendships across the breadth of music, ranging from Brandi Carlile to Jacob Alon and everyone in between.
But within these scores of stars, there is one woman who stands out above the rest for having the greatest impact on John’s heart, as well as his family. That could only be Lady Gaga. To all intents and purposes, they might have seemed like an odd pairing in the early days, yet now, there’s nothing that could ever break their bond.
Recalling how their friendship took flight in the first place, John wrote in his 2019 autobiography Me: “I had started working with a lot of younger artists, everyone from The Scissor Sisters to Kanye West. It was always flattering to be asked to work with people who weren’t even born when my career took off. But of all the young artists I collaborated with, I had a special bond with Gaga.”
He added, “I loved her from the moment I clapped eyes on her. The music she made, the outrageous clothes, the sense of theatre and spectacle. We were very different people – she was a young woman from New York, barely into her 20s. But as soon as we met, we were cut from exactly the same cloth. I called her the bastard daughter of Elton John.”
In this sense, John is not far wrong in his assessment. If he were to have come about and had his heyday in the late 2000s, there’s no denying that the image of Lady Gaga would be one of the muses he would lean most strongly against. Let’s be honest with ourselves: he’s in his 70s, and he still seems to lean strongly on her now.
Calling her one of his children might be taking things to a new extreme, but it’s clear that John and Lady Gaga are intrinsic sonic spirits of the closest kind. Never faltering or wavering in any of their pursuits, they are a pair who have stormed into the music industry and shown them what they want to be, and not the other way around.
That’s exactly what makes John the all-seeing and all-knowing grandfather of the modern music industry. His casting eye knows a spark of talent as soon as it walks in the door, no matter the age of the person or where they come from. Why does he know that, you ask? Because he was once that very same person himself.
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