Lily Allen “held much resentment” towards Elton John for years over lack of reply to letter – until she realised she never sent it
Lily Allen has revealed that she held a grudge against Elton John for years because he didn’t reply to her letter – until realising that she hadn’t actually sent it.
During the most recent episode of her Miss Me? podcast with Miquita Oliver (released on May 6), Allen recalled once being “managed by a management company that was owned by Elton John” and his husband David Furnish.
The singer and actor was on the Rocket Music Entertainment Group roster when she was making and promoting her second studio album, 2009’s ‘It’s Not Me, It’s You’.
“I loved being managed by them,” Allen explained. “And every year Elton would put on a Christmas party, and I’d always sit next to him and he’d make me feel really special.”
She continued: “He would call me, like, once every couple of weeks to check in and say hi and make sure that I was OK. And there were some times in that period where I wasn’t OK.”
Allen went on to remember how Sir Elton would send her to his house in the south of France “to go and relax and dry out a little bit” during the periods she “wasn’t living healthily”.
The ‘LDN’ artist then looked back on how she “parted ways” with the legendary singer-songwriter “just after” her third album, ‘Sheezus’, was released in 2014.
“I was very sad about it,” Allen revealed. “And I wrote this long letter to Elton to say how sad I was about the situation, and that I was particularly sad because he didn’t call me anymore, and I didn’t get my bi-monthly phone call from Elton checking in. And there was a big Elton-shaped hole in my life.”
Allen said: “Over the next few years, as my life began to sort of spiral out of control, I held much resentment for the fact that I’d made myself very vulnerable in this letter and told him all about my sobriety.
“He’s a sober person, Elton, so I thought that he would’ve responded to this letter. And I was quite cross with him for a few years for not having responded to this letter because I’d been very sort of vulnerable and open. I thought it was mean of him, actually.”
She added: “And when I moved here, to America, I was unpacking… and I found the letter. I never sent it! So I’d been harbouring all this Elton resentment [for no reason]. It felt so out of character [of him], which is why I was so upset. I poured my heart out and told him that I wanted to get clean.
“Anyway… Elton: if you’re listening – which you’re probably not! – I love you and I no longer harbour that resentment towards you. You will forever be the biggest queer icon of my life.”
Allen said her prior working relationship with Sir Elton had been “great”, explaining: “I spent many a good afternoon and phone call with Elton John.”
She continued: “I sat next to David Furnish at dinner recently and I told him about the letter, and he just looked at me like I was completely insane. Because I am, quite frankly […] I was like, ‘I might’ve been a bit frosty with you guys for the past few years – I’m really sorry about that!'”
Allen concluded the story by saying she was “very grateful” for “all the generosity” John had shown her. The singer also revealed that he sent her “three fully blooming cherry blossom trees” after she delivered her stillborn son, George, in 2010.
“I planted them and I planted George’s ashes underneath the tree in a box,” Allen said.
You can watch a clip of the conversation in the post above, or listen to the episode in full via BBC Sounds.
During an earlier edition of Miss Me?, Allen said she “stands to lose everything” if she drinks again while recalling the time she was banned from London’s Groucho Club.
In other news, she has given an update on her upcoming new music – saying there is currently no “deadline” to release anything.
Allen’s fourth and latest studio album, ‘No Shame’, was released in 2018.
Speaking about what’s to come recently, she said she’d been “trying some stuff out” in the studio, including country and western music. It came after Allen revealed that she had been working on new material in Nashville, Tennessee – which is known as the country music capital of the world.
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Tom Skinner
NME
