Elton John's TIFF documentary leaves the Rocket Man 'physically shaking'

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Documentary filmmaker R.J. Cutler was in the audience for one of the truly amazing moments of Elton John’s concert career, which has spanned half a century.

That would be when John was joined by John Lennon at Madison Square Garden in 1974 to perform their collaborative song, Whatever Gets You Thru The Night, and The Beatles’ I Saw Her Standing There.

“That was the concert that I went to (when I was 13),” said Cutler, who co-directed the new TIFF documentary, Elton John: Never Too Late with John’s husband and Torontonian David Furnish. The doc had its world premiere on Friday night.

“It was one place where I was with Elton and David wasn’t.”

Meanwhile, the 61-year-old Furnish — seated beside Cutler in a Toronto hotel room on Saturday — didn’t see John in concert “until the late ‘80s in London and it was at an AIDS benefit. Although the first concert I felt very proud and very lucky to see was Abba. They came to Toronto in the ‘70s at Maple Leaf Gardens.”

The MSG performance is just one of the many pieces of archival gold that have ended up in the emotional documentary, which gets a limited theatrical run on Nov. 15, and later streams on Disney+ on Dec. 13.

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But Cutler said the real rarity was John’s 1976 audio interview with Rolling Stone in which he came out as bisexual in a cover story.

“The Cliff Jahr tapes, those were buried in an archive in Columbia University,” said Cutler.

The film starts and ends with John performing at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles — in 1975 after his big breakthrough and again in 2022 on his farewell tour — while looking back at his prolific time as an artist in the ‘70s, including his unhappiness behind the scenes with his abusive boyfriend-manager John Reid, and an addiction to cocaine and alcohol.

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“This remarkable time in music history, where was rock and roll going to go? And the answer was Elton John,” said Cutler. “Suddenly, Elton becomes a pop writer because he can write for guitar now (after Davey Johnstone joined the band). I mean, it’s really a fascinating evolution from singer-songwriter to massive pop star.”

John attended Friday night’s screening and answered questions from the audience.

“Seeing some of the old footage made me very, very tearful,” he said. “And it was good playing and I had a great time. But fame is a dangerous thing if you don’t have something else and that something else is honesty. And if you don’t have honesty, you’re going to be in real, real trouble like I was before I got sober in 1990.”

Although Cutler did interview John before he went on stage in various cities on his ‘Farewell Yellow Brick Road’ tour, the pop star’s audio interviews with British music critic Alexis Petridis for John’s 2019 autobiography formed the spine of the documentary.

“The discovery of (those) tapes was a revelation,” said Cutler. “Because here was Elton in conversation with one of his very best friends.”

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Furnish said John, 77, was “physically shaking” after he watched the documentary in its final form for the first time on Friday night at Roy Thomson Hall with the audience.

“I’ve never seen him shake after something,” said Furnish. “I turned to him and I said: ‘Are you OK?’ It was quite a profound moment because he’s always looking forward. He’s not someone who looks back.”

Speaking of which, while John has given up touring to spend more time with Furnish and their two sons Zachary, 13, and Elijah, 11, he’s still making music. He teamed up with Brandi Carlile on the new song Never Too Late, which plays over the documentary’s end credits and gave the film its title.

“Brandi is one of the great Elton musicologists, as well,” said Furnish. “He’s been her greatest inspiration on her artistic journey and I wanted to share (a rough edit of the film) with someone who knows the nitty gritty details and Brandi felt so inspired that she turned that lyric out and they wrote it together.”

There are also two new musicals for which John has written the music — the Tammy Faye opening at New York in November and the London opening of The Devil Wears Prada opening in December — as well as his Rocket Hour show on Apple, where he likes to introduce upcoming artists.

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Cutler also let it slip at the Friday-night screening that John and Furnish make an appearance in the upcoming Spinal Tap sequel.

“Elton is like a shark,” said Furnish. “If sharks stop moving, they die. He has such a hunger and such an appetite that he will continue creating.”

THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE HOME

Toronto gets a nice moment in the new TIFF documentary Elton John; Never Too Late when Elton John is in a local studio working with a producer and his sons, Zachary and Elijah, call him and are seen speaking on FaceTime.

“I have mixed feelings about it because I feel very protective of our children and our family life,” said John’s husband and documentary co-director David Furnish, who hails from Toronto. “But I also am well aware of the incredible, cultural power of cinema, and we’ve always lived our life honestly and openly and we’ve been blessed with two beautiful sons and I think we’re great parents. And I’d like the world to see that. You know, love is love and it comes in all shapes and sizes.”

Otherwise, Furnish says he and John, who live in London, are currently in the middle of constructing a new Toronto home but try to visit about twice a year.

“It won’t be ready until a year from now,” said Furnish. “We will definitely be spending more time because we have family here and our boys love Canada. Our sons have great relationships with both my brothers and adore coming here and so I’m excited to have a base here.”