Elton John has performed “Rocket Man” countless times, but it wasn’t until recently that he learned the inspiration behind it.
In a recent interview, his longtime collaborator Bernie Taupin revealed that the lyrics were inspired by Ray Bradbury’s collection of sci-fi stories, “The Illustrated Man”.
He shared, “In that book, there was a story called ‘The Rocket Man’, which was about how astronauts in the future would become sort of an everyday job . . . so I kinda took that idea and ran with it.”
To which Elton responded, quote, “Do you know, I never knew that.”
(Uproxx)