In profile: Elton John

In addition to the many, many singles that became worldwide hits, Elton John has also released some less popular ones. One is called "Friends Never Say Goodbye," an ode to solidarity. But sometimes you just have to say goodbye. To say the least, the musician has fallen out with the Labour Party. Last year, he supported the party in its election campaign, but now that it has won, the British musician is bitterly disappointed. "Absolute Losers" would be a fitting song title, but it's just the testimonial Elton John gave the government in a recent BBC interview.

The absolute losers are those politicians who want to allow tech companies to use copyrighted works without the artists' permission—or, more precisely, to tamper with them. Because, if Peter Kyle's ideas are followed, the material should also serve as the basis for artificial intelligence to generate newly generated music . Elton John now calls Kyle, the United Kingdom's Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, an idiot and the proposed regulation a criminal offense—more precisely, theft.

Since AI is spreading rapidly almost everywhere, governments must quickly come up with legal regulations. The British government is currently discussing the possibility of allowing corporations to use any music available on the internet – unless the authors explicitly object. Elton John and many other artists believe this opt-out option is impractical; it would be like the "Wild West" and the creatives would ultimately be withheld from their pay. He prefers the current regulation, according to which the musicians' consent must be obtained before programs like Chat-GPT are trained on their works. Elton John says the government probably thinks "old people like me" can cope with it, but not everyone earns as much money as he does.

The British may not be able to identify with his exuberant lifestyle and certainly not with his outstanding talent, but he was so radically open over the past decades that they still feel for him. The biopic "Rocketman," which he approved, has relentlessly illuminated the highs and lows of Elton Hercules John, as Reginald Kenneth Dwight once called himself. The film begins with him, as a young man, listing his addictions to a support group: alcohol, cocaine, sex, drugs, weed, and shopping. He also claims to be a bulimic.

Born in northwest London in 1947, he won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music at the age of eleven. In his early 20s, he met Bernie Taupin, with whom he wrote one hit after another. From piano ballads like "Candle in the Wind" and "Your Song" to uptempo pop like "I'm Still Standing" and the danceable remix of "Cold Heart," which reached number one in the UK charts as a duet with singer Dua Lipa four years ago—he's achieved this ten times in total.

His songs are so catchy that they're even more memorable to listeners than his glasses and costumes—a feat not to be underestimated, given his extravagant fashion sense. In any case, he's one of the most successful and, yes, richest musicians of all time. His life offstage has never lacked drama. In the 1970s, he spoke out about his bisexuality; in the 1980s, he married a German sound engineer who tried to take her own life on their honeymoon. He's been clean since 1990. Three years later, he met David Furnish; the two now have two sons together.

After his big farewell tour last December, he revealed that he could barely see after a serious eye infection. But he continues to make music. Being replaced by artificial intelligence is not one of his fears. "A machine is not capable of writing something with soul," he told the BBC.