Although Elton John changed his birth name, he actually thinks that it’s quite fitting.
The iconic singer-songwriter shared Tuesday on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” that he was born Reginald Kenneth Dwight. However, his mother originally wanted to name him Raymond after her brother but settled on Reginald to appease her husband.
While Colbert said that John’s birth name is “also a lovely name,” the artist simply replied, “It’s a shit name.”
“I became Reginald, and I hated it,” the five-time Grammy winner added before mimicking his late mother screaming his birth name.
“It’s a more popular name in America, and they’ve had very many famous Reggies, but in England it wasn’t Reggie — it was Reginald,” John said.
After John shared that he legally changed his name to Elton Hercules John as soon as he could, Colbert noted that Reginald is the male equivalent of Regina, “which means queen.” John, openly gay, replied with a perfectly timed quip: “Thank you.”
“They got it spot on,” the musician joked, referring to his parents. “In 1947, they knew what they were doing.”
John then shared the origins of his chosen name, explaining that he took “Elton” from Elton Dean, a member of the British band Bluesology that John was also a part of.
Greg Allen/Invision/Associated Press
As for the rest of the name, he took “John” from another Bluesology member, John William “Long John” Baldry, and chose “Hercules” from the horse on the British 1960s sitcom “Steptoe and Son.” The beloved artist noted that the name change spurred poignant retrospection once he found fame.
“The sad thing about it was, by 1975, when I was Elton Hercules John, there was still a lot of Reg in me, and Reg had been lost, and I craved to find that little boy that I used to be,” he told Colbert. “I had become ‘Elton John — superstar,’ and I paid the price for being so famous and not having that foundation.”
“Fame is a very weird thing,” the 77-year-old continued. “I enjoyed every single minute of it until I realized that the only thing in my life was fame. I didn’t like it, and I got very unhappy. My moods shifted, I started doing drugs, and I just thought, ‘Where am I? Who am I?’”
John, who has abstained from drugs since 1990, said this directionless disposition vanished once he found sobriety, which allowed him to rediscover his younger self, telling Colbert that “it was lovely to find that little boy again.”
Check out the complete exchange from Tuesday’s interview below.