When Elton John was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nearly 30 years ago, he gave his trophy to Bernie Taupin in recognition of the lyricist's shared role in his success. Taupin gets his own owner this year, receiving one of the Rock Hall's Musical Excellence Awards on Nov. 3 in Brooklyn.
Elton John's longtime lyricist Bernie Taupin will receive a Musical Excellence Award from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at the 38th Annual Induction Ceremony on Nov. 3 in Brooklyn “I’m kind of cheating standing here,” he told the crowd at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York, “because without Bernie There would never have been an Elton John at all.
Taupin held on to the trophy “for years” before returning it to John. Still, he notes, “those around me” have been pointing out his exclusion from the Rock Hall over the years. “They say things like, ‘You’re not in there already? I just figured you were in there’ or ‘You should have been in there long ago,’” he notes.
“It’s funny because I don’t refer to myself as a songwriter,” Taupin says. “I’m just basically a guy who writes stories. In our early days, I was featured on the album covers, and there weren’t many people who really wrote songs the way Elton and I did, where I wrote first and melody came after.
He’s tried his hand as a performer as well, with three solo albums and, during the ‘90s, two with a band he formed called Farm Dogs. “When I was originally told I’d been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame I thought, ‘Oh, is that in the non-performer category?’” Taupin says. “I’ve made five albums and performed on stage, so wouldn’t have been wholly correct in their assumption of what I am.
Taupin’s induction also comes after the September publication of his memoir “Scattershot.” He spent two years working on it, including editing it from an 800-page draft to “just under” 400 pages. “It’s not a conventional rock slog biography, Taupin says. “It’s not an A to Z life story. It’s non-linear. It’s more vignettes of my life...I’m not comparing it to Dylan’s ‘Chronicles,’ but it has the same sort of free-form feel to it. I couldn’t be tethered to any restrictive autobiographical code.
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