Elton John shares unseen footage from 2023 Glastonbury headline set

Sir Elton John has shared a new behind-the-scenes YouTube video called “The Road To Glastonbury 2023”, to mark a year since he headlined the festival.

The never-before-seen clips show the star rehearsing with his band and thanking the crew backstage next to a cake shaped like the Pyramid Stage.

He also meets the 88-year-old founder of the festival, Sir Michael Eavis.

John told Eavis, “I think it is serendipity that I’m here because (it’s) the last show I’ll ever do probably in Britain, and it couldn’t be better, and you’ve been amazing. All my guys said this is so great.”

Eavis replied: “We’ve waited for years for this.”

John revealed during the rehearsal why the setlist for the gig at Glastonbury differed from the other performances in his 330-date Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour.

He explained: “I hadn’t played ‘Are You Ready For Love’ for a long, long time, and it’s a wonderful song by Tom Bell and having the choir do that and having Jacob [Lusk] sing on it, this has been a shot in the arm, it has given us impetus.

“The world is pushing apart at the moment, it’s not bringing together, and “Are You Ready For Love”, this is what we need more of.”

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The show was his last ever UK performance. An estimated 120,000 people gathered in front of the Pyramid Stage on 25 June 2023 to watch the show, making it the biggest ever overnight audience for a Glastonbury set, while a record 7.3 million people watched it live.

John says in a voiceover: “You can’t be in a position like mine and not give back. I’m all about promoting new artists, passing the message on, encouraging people who have real talent to be themselves, be there for them, phone them up, that’s what giving back is, the young hold the future.

“Music heals and music is joyous, all I can do is do what I do, bring people together with my music.”

Several younger artists made appearances during the set: Brandon Flowers of The Killers sang “Tiny Dancer”, while Jacob Lusk of soul band Gabriels performed “Are You Ready For Love” alongside the London Gospel Community Choir.

Meanwhile, Rina Sawayama joined in with “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart”, and US singer Stephen Sanchez came out to perform his original song, “Until I Found You”.

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All of John’s Glastonbury collaborators praised the veteran singer in the new video. Lusk called John’s support “life changing”.  Sanchez said: “Elton John taught me that it doesn’t matter who you are or how grand your career gets, you can still be loving and kind to the little guy.”

Sawayama said: “You go to his concerts and there’s people from all ages, all backgrounds, he shows the true power of music, the lasting power of music, the uniting power of music.”

Flowers called the experience an “honour.” He added: “My earliest memories of music are from my father listening to people like Elton John. He’s a once-in-a lifetime kind of a performer and songwriter and I love him.”

In The Independent‘s five-star review of the performance, critic Kate Hutchinson called it “the glitziest and most high-energy retirement party the world has ever seen.” The star paid tribute to George Michael. His inclusion of so many less known artists felt “like a subtle handing of the pop baton to the next generation.”