Chords for Elton John on Leon Russell Inductions 2011

Yes.
What does that mean to you?
_ It's an end to an amazing year.
I mean, in the last two years,
Leon's come back into my life for various reasons.
I did a show with Elvis Costello called Spectacle,
and I got to choose three songwriters
that I thought had been forgotten about,
and Leon was one of them.
_ And that was in November of 2008, 2009.
I went to Africa with my partner, David,
and he was playing his iPod,
and it was Leon's greatest hit,
and I was shaving, and I broke down and sobbed and sobbed,
and David asked me what was wrong,
and I said, you know, _ _ he was so great to me.
When I first came to America,
he came to see me the second night
at the Troubadour in Los Angeles.
He was my idol.
He was the man I wanted to play like,
sing like, look like,
and to see him in the second row was terrifying.
And then after the show, he came up and met me,
and he was so nice and so encouraging,
and he asked me to come on the road with him,
and we went and did about six or seven shows.
We played the Philmore East.
I met Bob Dylan through him,
and he couldn't have been nicer to me. _
At a time when he and I were basically doing the same thing.
We were singer-songwriters,
_ _ but he was, of course, so much more than that. _
And then I lost touch with him in about 1972, 73, _
and I got in touch with him in Africa.
I asked him how he was,
and he said he'd just been making ends meet, doing shows.
And I said, listen, let's have dinner.
When I get to America, let's have dinner.
And then I thought, no, that's not the reason I'm doing this.
Why am I doing this?
Why am I getting in touch with him?
And I phoned T Bone Burnett,
the producer who I'd never spoken to in my life,
and told him the story.
And I said, would you do an album with Leon and I?
And he said, yes.
So I rang Leon back, and I said, let's do an album.
[D#] We did an album last year, about a year ago.
In fact, to this day, we were in the middle of recording.
_ And it came out, and it came in at number three.
It was Rolling Stones' top three album of the year. _
Everything I wanted to happen for Leon,
I want people to acknowledge his greatness
as a piano player, as a songwriter, and as an artist.
And I thought that he'd been forgotten about.
And in the last year, everything that we wanted
to happen for him has become true. _ _
And this is the icing on the cake, this tonight.
I think he's, you know, it's [F#] been a year
where he's kind of defrosted, I think.
He wasn't bitter about being forgotten about,
but I think, you know, with everyone giving him
an accolades again, and me kind of trying
to take an interest in him, he's beginning
to sort of defrost, as I put it.
And he's beginning to remember things.
He's enjoying it.
And he's feeling the love.
And I think that was the most important thing,
to feel the love and respect of other musicians,
when you're such a great musician yourself.
I mean, then I found out what he played on.
And not only had he made his own records,
and been such an influence in the career of Joe Cocker,
and Delaney and Bonnie, and people like that,
but then he played on Strangers of the Night.
He played on all the Spector records.
I'm sure he played on all the Darlene Love records
that she's being inducted tonight.
So that's a great coincidence.
He played on Feeling Groovy.
He played on all the Beach Boys records.
He played on Monster Mash, Bobby Boris Pickett.
He played on so many different records.
It's CV.
I have a pile of paper that, from 63 to 68,
and how many records he played on.
It's astonishing.
And so tonight is the culmination of that for him.
And I think, you know, it gives me great joy.
And I think tonight he'll finally realize
what that phone call in Africa _ meant,
because it meant that we both got together again.
And I found, I was recording with my hero.
He took me under his wing in the early 70s,
and I've taken him under my wing in the 2010s or 11s.
And it's been great.