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Elton John · S6 E4
Breaking Hearts & Ice on Fire
'Sad Songs (Say So Much)' and 'Nikita.' Moderate hits, but the cocaine is consuming everything
Mid-1980s. Elton John is found on the floor of his home having cocaine-induced spasms, carried to bed by his staff, and thirty minutes later is back on the floor doing the same thing.
Elton John -- I Don't Wanna Go On with You Like That (1988). Three years after Ice on Fire, this becomes Elton's first US top 5 hit since 1983. The title sounds like it could be addressed to the cocaine.
The Mask
Breaking Hearts drops in 1984 and reaches number two in the UK. The singles chart, the reviews are decent, the tour sells out. From the outside, nothing looks wrong. From the inside, Elton is using cocaine every day and has developed bulimia.
“There were times I was having chest pains or staying up for three days at a time. I used to have spasms and be found on the floor and they'd put me back to bed and half an hour later I'd be doing the same.”
— Elton John, Me (2019)
TAP TO REVEAL: Who returned to produce Ice on Fire after a nine-year absence?
Hiding in Plain Sight
"Sad Songs (Say So Much)" goes top five in America. "Nikita" becomes one of his biggest European hits. The albums sell, the tours keep rolling, and nobody outside Elton's inner circle grasps how bad things have gotten. The music is a mask.
The Sol, Cookham, Berkshire
The studio where Ice on Fire was recorded with Gus Dudgeon in 1985. A quiet English village, miles from the chaos of Elton's private life.
Breaking Hearts & Ice on Fire: The Numbers
Which legendary producer returned to work with Elton on Ice on Fire after a nine-year gap?
Cry to Heaven -- Elton John
A ballad from Ice on Fire (1985) that strips away the pop gloss of the singles and exposes something rawer. Bernie's lyrics are about loss and despair, and Elton's vocal sounds like a man singing from inside a hole he can't climb out of. This is the Ice on Fire track that tells the truth the hit singles don't.
Cry to Heaven, Elton John (1985)
Bernie Taupin writes about reaching out to something bigger than yourself when everything on the ground has failed. The lyrics are heavy with images of falling and reaching. In the context of Elton's mid-'80s crisis, every line carries extra weight.
The Body Keeps Score
The cocaine, the bulimia, the drinking, the spending. Each addiction feeds the others in a loop that Elton won't break for another five years. The music keeps coming because the music is the one thing that still works. Everything else is falling apart.
In the middle of all this, Elton gets one moment of clarity. Next: July 13, 1985, Wembley Stadium, Live Aid, George Michael by his side, and a performance that reminds the world who he really is.
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