Elton John is still standing better than ever in his engrossing new documentary, Elton John: Never Too Late, a look back at the highs and lows of the singer’s 50-year performing career.
Premiering on Disney+ on Dec. 13, the documentary features never-before-seen film footage, diaries, and audio interviews for his memoir Me, plus animations that recreate the Grammy winner’s memories. Directed by Elton’s husband David Furnish (who also produced the 2019 Elton biopic Rocketman) and R.J. Cutler (The September Issue), the film follows the rock star as he performs his last shows in America, culminating in a Nov. 20, 2022, concert at the Dodgers stadium in Los Angeles.
The filmmakers hope that by showing how Elton John went from struggling with drug addiction to overcoming abuse and starting a family, it will inspire others who are looking to make a change in their own lives. Per its title Never Too Late, “the message of the film [is] that it’s never too late to make the decisions that will impact your life,” Cutler tells TIME.
Here’s a look at some of the most memorable moments from the film:
A history of abuse
Elton describes his parents as violent. He endured beatings while being potty-trained and even while walking down the street in front of people.
From a young age, he had the gift of being able to hear a tune and then play it on the piano. His father hated rock ‘n’ roll and so he set out to prove him wrong. He enrolled in the Royal Academy of Music, and started a band called Bluesology. In the late 60s, he answered an ad for Liberty Records, which was looking for songwriters, and met his longtime collaborator Bernie Taupin. As a way to distance himself from his abusive childhood, he stopped going by his birth name Reginald Kenneth Dwight, and started going by Elton John. His father never saw him perform.
Elton says his former manager and lover John Reid, whom he dated from 1970 to 1975 was also abusive to him, once smacking him in the face so hard that he had cuts all over his face and his nose started to bleed.
By performing onstage, Elton says that he is able to transcend the dark moments of his past. In the film, Elton describes music as “my sex” and “an escape,” noting, “I’ve never taken my personal life onstage.”
His friendship with John Lennon
The film dives deep into Elton’s friendship with another legendary British rock star, John Lennon.
Elton recalls one time he was doing “mountains” of cocaine with John Lennon in a hotel, and Andy Warhol knocked on the door.
In the film, there’s footage of John Lennon surprising the crowd at Elton’s Thanksgiving Madison Square Garden concert on Nov. 28, 1974. They performed “Whatever Gets You Through the Night.”
Lennon’s ex, the artist Yoko Ono, ended up being in the audience. Lennon and Ono got back together shortly after the show. Elton ended up becoming the godfather to their son Sean.
The 1974 Thanksgiving show would end up being the Beatle’s last major concert performance. He was fatally shot on Dec. 8, 1980 in New York City.
Desperate to settle down
One of the most surprising things that Furnish found out about his husband was in a 1976 Rolling Stone interview, in which the star said ”I crave to be loved” and “I just want to settle down” and “I’d like to have some children.” Elton appeared to come out as bisexual by saying, “I haven’t met anybody that I would like to settle down with — of either sex.”
Elton got sober in 1990 at the age of 43. “It did take me 43 years to learn how to function as a human being, rather than as a rock star,” he says in the documentary.
When Furnish first met Elton, it seemed like the musician’s career didn’t leave time for kids. Plus, the 1997 documentary Elton John: Tantrums and Tiaras (also directed by Furnish) gave a widespread impression that the rock star was a hothead. As Furnish tells TIME, “Unfortunately, it associated Elton with tantrums and this notion that he loses his rag at the drop of a hat. And there were no tantrums in the making of this film.”
Elton John: Never Too Late makes clear that what keeps Elton calm is his marriage to Furnish and their two sons Zachary and Elijah. In the film, Elton is shown to be a doting father. He shares sweet moments with his sons, taking their phone calls and asking how school went.
“I’ve never felt happiness as I have now,” Elton, now 77, said at the film’s Sep. 24 premiere in Manhattan, where he performed “Tiny Dancer.” He said music on its own “didn’t satisfy me”; he only felt complete when he married and became a parent. “I found utopia. You can get here if you have a little faith.”
