Sir Elton John is living without a piano for the first time during quarantine.
The ‘Rocket Man’ hitmaker – who has Zachary, nine, and Elijah, seven, with husband David Furnish – hosted the star-studded TV benefit, ‘Fox Presents the iHeart Living Room Concert For America’, on Sunday (29.03.20), but he could only manage a couple of lines of his 1974 hit ‘Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me’, as he’s without his beloved instrument for the first time, and he instead had to use his son’s keyboard.
Elton – who has played piano from a very young and started lessons when he was seven – said: "I have to be quarantined in the only house I have ever been in without a piano."
The hour-long production – a tribute to the health workers, first responders and local heroes who are trying to help others amid the coronavirus pandemic – encouraged viewers to support two organisations providing aid during the pandemic, Feeding America and First Responders Children’s Foundation.
The likes of Backstreet Boys, Mariah Carey, Billie Eilish, Dave Grohl, Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello, and Demi Lovato, to name a few, performed a song from their homes.
At the end, Elton said: "Everyone out there fighting to keep us safe is such an inspiration."
The performances were filmed using the artists’ own phones, cameras, and audio equipment to keep direct interaction with others to a minimum.
The benefit concert aired on Fox at 9pm – in the slot that would have originally broadcast the 2020 iHeartRadio Music Awards – as well as on the iHeart Radio app and on iHeartMedia radio stations throughout the US.
Elton, 73, recently admitted he’s having a "fantastic" time at home with his husband and sons, after cancelling tour dates due to the health crisis.
He said: "I don’t think realistically speaking that we, artists, can expect to go back on the road [before summer].
"And so people are going to take solace in music. They’re going to catch up on a lot of movies at home. They’re going to get bored. We’re playing every day, at 5:30 we play Snakes and Ladders, which in America is called Chutes and Ladders, and it’s become a family routine now and it’s fantastic.
"To be honest with you, it’s great to be able to spend this much time with my boys because normally I don’t, even though they’ve been on the road with us since November in Australia and New Zealand. It’s, this is 24/7 with them and it’s fantastic."
However, the ‘Goodbye Yellow Brick Road’ hitmaker joked his enjoyment of family time may change if they remain under lockdown for a long time.
He quipped: "I mean I’m saying that after a week, check on me in about three weeks."
Elton John living for first time without a piano in quarantine
