EXCLUSIVE: How Elton John Was Branded a 'B----' by Legendary Songwriting Partner Bernie Taupin — Who Also Claimed Diva 'Faked' Oven Suicide Attempt for Attention
Bernie Taupin, right, has ripped into his music partner Elton John.
June 6 2025, Published 1:00 p.m. ET
Elton John is a “b***h” who staged an elaborate suicide stunt to get attention, his long-term songwriting partner has sneered, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
Bernie Taupin – who has famously collaborated with Elton for 50 years by writing his lyrics – recently brought out his memoir in which he gushed, which was touted as a tell-all tale of his years working with the notoriously hot-tempered Rocket Man.
But fans have said it was nowhere near as searing as comments he previously made about the singer.
They have now been sharing a story he told in a very candid interview about the reality of working with egomaniacal John.
Stormy Relationship
The duo have ad their ups and downs.
Taupin used it to confirm the words to John's hit The B---- is Back was about the singer’s notorious diva tantrums.
He added in one of his most candid interviews ever – seen by RadarOnline.com – he once came home to find depressed John with his head in the oven in an apparent suicide attempt.
But Taupin decided it was a cry for attention when he noticed he had turned the gas down, opened a window – and had placed a cushion under his head.
The 75-year-old, who has been sending John, 78, lyrics from his ranch in California for years, said about their Seventies hit The B---- is Back: "It probably was about Elton."
It's thought Taupin took the title from the first of his four wives, Maxine Feibelman, who would utter "The b---- is back" when John called on the phone.
Taupin was not a fan of John's diva antics.
Taupin insisted despite John's famous temper, they have never had a serious falling on.
But he has admitted he sometimes holds the singer in disdain.
He said about the time in the 1960s when he came in to the home they were sharing in London to find John's head in the oven: "He'd only turned the gas on low, he had left the window open and he'd even thought to take a cushion to rest his head on."
John staged the suicide 'attempt' as he was tortured about the prospect of coming out as gay.
Second 'Suicide' Attempt
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The singer has admitted he made a spectacle of himself in front of his grandmother.
His oven stunt inspired the song Someone Saved My Life Tonight – which is also a nod to Taupin persuading him not to marry a female pal in a bid to cover up his homosexuality.
John, who was also tormented by bulimia and addictions to booze, cocaine and food for around 20 years from the Seventies to 1990, also staged another audacious suicide attempt – which was ridiculed by his grandmother.
It came in 1975 when he swallowed 60 Valium and jumped into the swimming pool of his Bel Air mansion in front of his mother and grandmother, while screaming: "I'm going to die!"
John later confessed: "It was typical me. There was no way I was going to kill myself doing that.
"And, of course, my grandmother came out with the perfect line, 'I suppose we've all got to go home now.'"
