Rod Stewart and Elton John have always weathered a turbulent friendship. Despite reportedly having patched things up earlier this year after yet another falling out, Rod Stewart has told the BBC Sounds podcast Headliners that in fact he has not spoken to John since 2018, when Stewart made fun of his retirement tour (which he has now postponed due to a hip injury).

Stewart, who at 76 is three year’s John’s junior, told the US talk show host Andy Cohen that the tour was a “dishonest” ploy to earn money that “stinks of selling tickets”. Stewart finished off by delivering the damning verdict that by making a literal song and dance of his retirement, John was “not rock and roll”.

Stewart could never be accused of being two-faced in his approach, however. He also let John know his feelings when the news first broke. “I did email her [Elton] and say: ‘What, again dear?’”, he told Cohen. “And I didn’t hear anything back.”

But then John added a new chapter to his autobiography Me in 2020 to address the feud. “I certainly didn’t feel like I needed a lecture on the feral spirit of rock and roll from someone who’d spent most of the last decade crooning his way through the Great American Songbook and Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas”, he wrote. “What’s more, I thought he had a f__ing cheek, complaining about me promoting a tour while he was sat on a TV show promoting his own tour.” 

Three years later, John is still giving Stewart the cold shoulder. He told Headliners that Elton stopped answering his phone calls, despite him inviting his children over: “He is my old mate. We don’t speak to each other much any more. I miss him. I invited his sons to play on my football pitch and never got a reply. We have not spoken since. He just had a hip op so I wish him well. We still love each other….We have rows  – we sort of almost speak through the press!”