Elton John & Bernie Taupin Win First Joint Oscar

Last night (February 9th), Elton John and Bernie Taupin won their first joint their first joint Oscar for “(I'm Gonna) Love Me Again” — the theme to last year's Rocketman biopic which is sung with Elton's silver screen counterpart, Taron Egerton.

Elton famously snagged the 1995 Best Original Song Oscar for his and lyricist Tim Rice's theme to Disney's The Lion King, “Can You Feel The Love Tonight.” Amazingly, that year Elton and Rice were battling against themselves when two other songs from the film — “Circle Of Life” and “Hakuna Matata”– were also vying for the Academy Award.

Elton and Bernie's “(I'm Gonna) Love Me Again” beat out Randy Newman's “I Can’t Let You Throw Yourself Away' from Toy Story 4; Diane Warren's “I’m Standing With You” from Breakthrough; Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez's “Into The Unknown” from Frozen II; and Joshuah Brian Campbell and Cynthia Erivo's “Stand Up” from Harriet.

On Thursday night (February 6th), Elton John won the coveted “Major Tour Of The Year” award at the 31st annual Pollstar Awards in Los Angeles. Elton is currently on tour Down Under with his ongoing “Farewell Yellow Brick Road” tour — and flew in for the event, last night's (February 9th) annual Elton John AIDS Foundation (EJAF) Oscar viewing party, and the Academy Awards — for which he and Bernie Taupin were nominated for Best Original Song for their theme to Rocketman — “(I'm Gonna) Love Me Again.”

Upon accepting his Pollstar prize, Elton joked, “I’m very competitive so I want to win the f***ing thing next year as well. . . In all seriousness, when I played The Troubadour in 1970, I had an agent in Howard Rose who’s still my agent. I think that’s pretty amazing, 50 years. He’s guided through a mine field and made my career interesting. What I want now to say those who manage people who are young is don’t put them in big arenas too soon.”

Elton went on to say, “To have a career as long as I have, A you have to a bit of talent and B, you have to have people who think behind the scenes, like all you people out there tonight. You’re the people who arrange for your artist to be on tour, you book them and advise them. I’ve had such great advice and that’s why I've lasted so long I think. Plus the fact I love what I do, and I’m very lucky to be able to do what I do.”

When we last caught up with Elton John, he looked back to his legendary 1970 tour when he supported his hero, the late-Leon Russell: “It was fantastic, 'cause I would come out onstage first, and play, and then Leon would come out and play, and I'd watch him, and y'know, try and get some tips on how to play the piano properly, and then at the end we all came out and played together. And we did that every show we did — whether it was Anaheim Convention Center, Tulsa — or. . . I don't think we did that at the Fillmore East, though — but we definitely did it everywhere else. I was in seventh heaven.”

Elton John will next perform on February 15th in Hawke's Bay, New Zealand.

His next North American dates kick off over two nights — March 28th and 29th — at Toronto's Scotiabank Arena.