Part 2 – Pinky’s as perfect as the fourth of July - by Scott Johnson.

Name: Lynn T. Kurtts
From: Birmingham, Alabama
Age: 55
Profession: Nature Retail Store and Wild Bird Centre worker, homemaker, wife and mother
Year you first became an Elton fan: 1974

Quick Fire Questions

1. Favourite Elton John album?
   Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
   
   
2. Favourite Elton John song?
   Pinky
   
   
3. First Elton John concert that you attended?
   Tuscaloosa, Alabama in 1976 – the “Louder Than Concorde (But Not Quite As Pretty)” tour!
   
   
4. Favourite Elton John tour (so far)?
   The 1999 “Medusa” solo tour.
   
   
5. Favourite Bernie Taupin lyric?
   I don’t want to wake you / But I’d like to tell you that I love you
   
   
6. What is the one song you feel Elton should include on “The Final Curtain” tour?
   Pinky – for his biggest fan! Otherwise, it wold have to be Your Song.

Interview with Lynn T. Kurtts

Elton was everywhere in 1975. By that, I mean, everywhere. If you weren’t there, weren’t born, you might not be able to appreciate it, but if you were there (even if you weren’t interested), the sheer scale of Elton’s reach over those twelve months is pretty well unmatched.


LEFT: I won't be another page...: Lynn's treasured scrapbook, which began life when she was a teenager and in which she keeps her collection of newspaper and magazine cuttings. RIGHT: I saw you by the wall: Just one aspect of Lynn's Elton Room, which documents her meetings with Captain Fantastic herself and some of her most collectible items.

Lynn Kurtts became an Elton John fan in 1974. That’s the year of Caribou, the summer which debuted “The Bitch is Back”, “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down On Me” and (her personal favourite) “Pinky”. Oh, and of course “Solar Prestige A Gammon”, but perhaps we won’t go there. Lynn is the second “super fan” that I interview. Like others, she’s amassed a wide and varied collection of memorabilia. For her, it was those twelve months shortly after she became a fan – the year of “Captain Fantastic” – that really set her on that trail.

“I started collecting in 1975,” she told me. “Elton was everywhere, and my mother bought me my first poster. Elton was in all the newspapers and magazines, so my mother suggested that I put all the clippings I was accumulating from a box into a scrap book. So I did!”

She still has that scrapbook – lovingly cared for and now bulging with the weight of its decades-stretching collection – to this day. Those first newspaper clippings though, were the tip of the proverbial iceberg, the beginning of a collector’s paradise.

“I continued collecting various items at the concerts I attended all around the South: posters, tour books, coffee mugs, jackets, bobble head dolls, t-shirts… Back in 1997, I had such a huge bag of goodies when Elton came to my home town (Birmingham, Alabama) for the first time. I chatted with Clive Franks and he offered to hold my bag under his soundboard console until the end of the show for safe keeping. I let him! I used to go to record shows once a year in my city, and I started buying picture discs, older 45” singles, a few imported albums. Then, with the rise of the Internet, I started buying from eBay: singing dolls, unique posters, coloured vinyls…”

I have to admit, readers, to doing a little merry dance inside at the thought of Lynn’s collection. The bobble heads! The singing dolls! Hardened fans will know what I mean: who doesn’t love them and want to own them? They are little Elton treasures that no one really knows what to do with, but can’t be without.

But I digress. I asked Lynn if there is an item within her collection that she particularly treasures. That scrapbook still holds the centre of her heart. “It’s a foot thick. It doesn’t look like the artsy scrapbooking of today, but it came from an innocent teenage girl’s heart, with no frills, clippings and photos arranged to fit the pages in a simple style. It documents some of the highlights of Elton’s ‘70s and ‘80s to early ‘90s career. I only stopped due to the fact that I couldn’t extend the pages in one book any more. I thought about continuing and making a new scrapbook, but there was such a joy and innocence in the original one, I thought it best to just let it come to an end.”


The Red Piano: Lynn met David Furnish by chance at a Las Vegas concert in 2004.

Yet even as her collection has expanded, Lynn hasn’t felt the need to over-indulge in her passion. “I don’t own everything out there with Elton’s name on it,” she explains. “I bought whatever I personally liked, what I wanted and what I could afford. I have every official album, CD, a few 8-tracks, the cassettes, all the singles, and video/DVD releases from “Empty Sky” through to “The Diving Board”. As the years went by, and Elton continued to record and tour, my collection grew and grew!”

So where did it all go? “I didn’t have a spare room in my home to display my collection properly,” Lynn admits “so it remained in storage tubs in my basement. After a divorce and a short time of dating a wonderful man, I got married again. He built a bedroom in his basement for my daughter. About five years ago, she moved into her own apartment… and the Elton Room was born!”

Elton fans worldwide should take note here. When your children fly the nest, what better use to put their old rooms to than a dedicated display of Elton memorabilia? “I jokingly tell my daughter that if she ever moves back home, she has to sleep with Elton!” Lynn says. There is a definite air of the romantic about what Lynn says next, the kind of idealistic expression of fandom that we’d all like to have a slice of ourselves. “My husband is a fan as well. He and I go down to the Elton Room fairly regularly, listen to Elton together, with the disco balls spinning, the strobe light shining, lava lamps in assorted colours glowing, and incense and candles burning for atmosphere. I have all my t-shirts on display (over 200 in all), and pictures of my backstage encounters and posters surround each wall. There is a shelf with various assorted items, autographs from Elton and the band, and even the sunglasses from his Sotheby’s auction in 1988! Another long shelf full of tour books, records, 45” singles and assorted books and magazines.”

It’s the sort of collection that leaves you breathless just reading about it. So how is it for those who actually experience it in person? “It’s a blast!” Lynn enthuses. “Oh yes, and we sit on blue denim bean bags! Retro 70s décor! It took 40 years of collecting, but the Elton Room is here to stay. I love that my collection can be displayed properly for me to enjoy.” And how does it feel to actually look back on 40 years of accumulation? “Honestly, it still amazes me that I have all these items.”

I ask Lynn if there is anything in her collection that she doesn’t own, which she would ultimately like to. A “sought after” item that isn’t hers yet, perhaps? “One of Elton’s current sequined tour jackets would look wonderful on display!” she says. “I do have one of his Versace jackets from the 1990s that he sold in Atlanta during the “Out of the Closet” sale in 1996. Elton wore the jacket in interviews he did at the time and in the video for “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down On Me” with George Michael. I snatched it up when I saw it because I recognised it.


The One: Elton launched his World Tour to promote The One in 1992... but not before he met Lynn backstage in Tennessee to showcase the sunglasses she bought from Sotheby's!

“I don’t have the Captain Fantastic pinball machine either,” she sighs. She isn’t the only one!

It’s not just the ocean of memorabilia that sits at the heart of Lynn’s love for Elton John, though. She described his music as “the soundtrack to [her] life”. It might seem a cliché, but in her case, it's not without foundation. “Elton has been making music my whole life,” she says. “I can hear a specific song, know the year it came out, and that just brings back memories of whatever was going on in my life at the time – my innocent teenage years, getting married, having my children, deaths, and life’s other milestones. When I hear “Philadelphia Freedom”, I go back in time to when I was 15 on a church bus trip from Birmingham to Atlanta to go to Six Flags over Georgia. “Sad Songs (Say So Much) takes me back to 1984 when I met Elton for the first time. “Whispers” in 1989 takes me back to rocking my new-born baby in the nursery; the end of the song sounds like a lullaby to me. “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” always reminds me of my mother, it was her favourite song and she passed away in 2009. Yes, it’s the soundtrack to my life.”

Just as Elton’s music is the soundtrack to a generation of record collectors, so are his live shows the staple of (several) generations of concert-goers. Lynn is the kind of fan who has never been afraid to travel far and wide to see Captain Fantastic himself. “I have attended around 60 concerts to date,” she reveals. “Most have been around the [American] South where I live. I travelled to New York on two occasions for special concerts – “One Night Only” and Elton’s 60th birthday bash. At both of these shows, I had a few seconds of fame as I made it onto the video crowd shots! I’ve been to Las Vegas to see “The Red Piano” twice (once was my honeymoon). I was there when Elton first played the Grand Old Opry in 1979 with Ray Cooper. That was a fantastic show! I was also at the Opry in 1992 for the late, great Dee Murray tribute concerts. I was there for both shows. They were wonderful, even if Elton had a little frog in his throat during the second show.”

As Lynn reels off the (let’s face it, landmark) live shows that she has attended, she turns her attention to one particularly memorable occasion in Las Vegas when she crossed paths with someone entirely unexpected.


The sweetest winds blow across the South: Lynn presented Elton with a Birmingham t-shirt in 1992 to encourage him to play her home town.

“I was at The Red Piano in 2004 and we had tickets on row 8 in front of Elton. Across the aisle from us sat David Furnish. I just had to speak to him! He was very nice, autographed my ticket, and I asked him what my chances would be of getting up to the stage. In theory, only the first three rows were allowed. He said, “Just go for it. Elton wants his fans up there.” So I did. But unfortunately, I was stopped by security. So David stood up, approached the security lady and asked her to let us through. The security guard wouldn’t, even when David told her we were friends of his! We still didn’t get access, so I thanked him for trying and went back to my seat. After the show, David apologised and asked if I was coming the following night and, of course, I said yes. He told me to find the head of security and he would arrange for us to get to the stage, no matter where our seats were. So I did. He kept his promise! They were expecting me and, at the appropriate time, we were personally escorted to the front of the stage and up to the piano we went! It was amazing to get that close.”

That passion for Elton’s live performances has never dimmed for Lynn. She admits to having camped out for tickets in nearby states and won front row tickets in her home of Birmingham from local radio stations. Then, in 2014, a disappointment turned into a super-fan’s dream. “In 2013, Elton got sick and had to cancel his concert here in Birmingham. I was devastated because I had won front row tickets from the radio for that show. Elton re-scheduled the concert exactly one year later and, although, I didn’t win tickets that time, Elton’s management offered a very limited few front row tickets from Elton’s personal stash for a few lucky fans. You had to be at a certain place at a specific time, ID required, and if someone other than the purchaser was in the seats at the show, they would be escorted out of the arena. I got there 6 hours ahead of time and I was lucky enough to be first in line for those tickets, and they were front row centre!”

*That* is dedication.

Lynn is one of those lucky handful that have had the chance to meet Elton on the band – on more than one occasion. She admits that the route to her idol was a innovatively creative one. “I was once told by a staffer in the early 80s that, to meet Elton, you had to get the attention of a staff member closer to Elton. Just being a fan wasn’t enough, you had to be creative, get to the right person and convince them. So in 1984, I came up with the idea to petition to meet Elton. He had just married [Renate] and was threatening to retire, so I wanted to meet him before he did. So I had everyone I knew in my life sign my petition! My co-workers, my family, the mailman, the UPS/Fed-Ex man, customers, and my entire high school classmates! I typed a note to Elton, explaining why I wanted to meet him. I was fortunate enough to get it to a promoter for the tour and he took my letter and petition backstage to Elton. It worked! The guy came to my seat on the third row with a backstage pass and said, “Elton wants to meet you – come with me. He’s never been petitioned before!” Bingo! I was taken backstage into a hospitality room with about 50 other people.”


The one who writes the words: Lynn met Bernie Taupin in 2013 during an exhibition of his art...

How did that feel, stepping into the courtroom of the King, so to speak? “I was nervous and excited all at the same time. Nigel and Davey walked in, and I was able to get Nigel’s autograph and a photo with him. We had to line up in a hallway outside Elton’s dressing room, where we were told that he would come and meet each of us before he went on stage. There would be no time for photos, but he would give us all autographs. I was wearing a Watford Hornets shirt. He got to me and the tour promoter said, “This is the girl with the petition”. Elton looked up at me and said, “I have never been petitioned before!” and laughed. He had moved on to the girl next to me and while he was autographing a photo for her, he looked back at me and added, “I like your Watford shirt too!” He moved to the next person, but he continued to talk to me. I told him that I’d been to England the year before and bought the shirt at a match. “Did we win?” he asked. “I said, yes, two-nil.” He gave me a thumbs up, despite the fact he was about 4 or 5 people down the line! At the end of the meeting, we were all told to return to the arena as Elton was heading onstage. He was in a bit of a sprint, heading away. I just stood there and said to the promoter, “I have to have a photo with Elton!” He shouted Elton – loudly – and as he stopped and looked back, the promoter said “One photo” and pointed at me. Elton came running back and we had our picture taken. I was blushing! I left and headed back to my seat, and by the time I got there, Elton was into the first song [“Tiny Dancer” for any of you wondering…]. I was right in front of him and Elton just seemed to play to me all night, everyone around was amazed, but I was in heaven!”

I’m not sure if it’s the unwavering enthusiasm, the die-hard devotion, or just the “seize the day” attitude, but I can see why Elton once said that he “loves the South”. If Lynn is representative of fans in this part of the world, the atmosphere at a Birmingham concert must surely be something. That determination to seize the moment is never demonstrated better than through this next anecdote.

“In 1992, I went to Atlanta,” Lynn tells me. “I came armed with my scrapbook and a pair of Elton’s sunglasses that I won at the 1998 Sotheby’s auction. I was able to convince a staff member again that I needed to meet Elton because I wanted to display the sunglasses with a picture of him wearing them. I hadn’t been able to find a photo of Elton wearing these glasses anywhere! My scrapbook was the “proof” that I was a dedicated fan. But the tour was just starting, and Elton was running behind. The staffer came to me and explained that there was no time for a meeting, but asked if I could come to Nashville, Tennessee a month later. He said he would speak to Elton and was confident that I’d be able to meet him there. He told me to bring the sunglasses and the scrapbook! So I did just that. He kept his word and took me backstage in Tennessee, where Elton was waiting. I ended up having a chat with him for about fifteen minutes! Davey Johnstone and Clive Franks were looking through my scrapbook at one point, probably going down memory lane at the clippings. I met Davey and he gave me his autograph and posed for a photo. As we set up the famous photograph of Elton wearing the sunglasses, my cousin was with me and was supposed to take the shot, but she was so nervous about not doing it right! Clive Franks came over to help calm her down and take the picture. While we were waiting for her nerves to calm, Elton leaned over and whispered, “I’m very sorry I couldn’t meet you last month in Atlanta, but that was one crazy night backstage. The Mayor, the Diet Coke people were there and I was running behind.” I told him, “that’s okay, I understood”. Finally, she snapped the photo and Elton said, “Let’s take one more, just to be sure.” Of course, I obliged and didn’t move an inch! You can see his smile is different in the two photos.”


I should have stayed on the farm: ...and was lucky enough to get him to sign her Goodbye Yellow Brick Road CD!

So, when meeting your musical hero face to face, what does a super-fan talk about? “One thing we talked about in Tennessee was him coming to my hometown sometime. I told him how I hated ticket scalpers but they were my only resource for getting good tickets to his concerts. I said my whole family would love to see his show but we can’t pay the prices to do it. I have him a t-shirt that showed Birmingham, Alabama on a map – which lit up with this battery inside – and I’d written a message on the shirt, “Please come to Birmingham, Alabama sometime, from your biggest Birmingham fan, Lynn.” He was very gracious and tended to chat at random with me, asked about my kids, their names and ages etc. He said I didn’t look like I had three children! Actually, it was my birthday the next day and he even gave me a kiss. It was a dream come true to have had so much time to actually chat with Elton. One thing he told me as he was looking at my scrapbook was that he meets fans every day, everyone seems to be a fan, but he doesn’t get to meet the big, dedicated fans very often… Then he added, “although you’re not that big”. I’m 5’3”!”

Little did Lynn know when she started that wonderfully nostalgic scrapbook that years later, Elton would not only look through it, but autograph the front page. “He looked through it and then signed it. “To Lynn, with all my love, Nashville, TN, 1992.” He asked me if that was OK!”

And when did Elton make that long-awaited trip to Lynn’s home town? “A couple of years later, he scheduled a stadium tour with Billy Joel and in 1995, he was touring major cities to promote the “Made in England” album. Then, in 1997, to my amazement, Birmingham was on the tour schedule! He was touring the ‘lesser known’ smaller cities to promote “The Big Picture”. On that tour, in 1997, I was promised by the arena manager in Birmingham that if Elton ever came here, he would see that I went backstage. And he did! I remember waiting for Elton, and a large VIP group came in, all wearing suits, ties, high heels etc. In that group was a little boy of around eight years old with his mom. He had The Lion King music book that he was clutching. Elton took a group sot with those 30 people and then sought out the little boy and asked him if he’d like him to sign the book. He squatted down to speak to him face to face and signed it. That group left and Elton went back to his dressing room and shut the door. I was told to just wait where I was and Elton would come out just before he went on stage. I was the only fan there. I was able to meet him again, take a photo and thank him for coming to Birmingham, finally.”

Since then, Elton John has returned to Birmingham on several occasions. In 2000, Elton’s official website was launched and on his second visit to Birmingham, Alabama, they offered 50 lucky fans backstage passes. Lynn secured one. There, she met Elton again very briefly and, although they were told that individual photos couldn’t be taken, there was in her words, “no way Elton was in my home town and going to get away without a photo. So one was snapped!” Lynn treasures all of what she calls her “Elton encounters”, each one under different circumstances. “Elton is a sincere, funny, perfect gentleman. It’s wonderful to say he is such a nice guy!”

Perhaps incredibly, Lynn has also had the distinct pleasure of meeting the man behind the words: Bernie Taupin. What was it like to meet the man, without whom, there would be no Elton John? “I always heard that Bernie likes to remain a private person. I was very fortunate to catch a glimpse of him when I was in the audience at Madison Square Garden for the “One Night Only” concert. For some reason, I’d taken my first tour book from 1976 with me. I just had it, just in case. When I spotted Bernie in the audience, I folded it to Bernie’s photo, armed myself with a sharpie and approached him, handed it up to him and asked if he’d sign it. I purposely chose a moment in the concert where everyone was looking at Elton so I didn’t bring that extra attention to Bernie. It worked, Bernie too the programme and autographed it for me. Never in a million years did I think something like that would happen!

“Then, in 2013, Bernie came to Nashville, Tennessee to display his artwork in one of the galleries. When I called the gallery, they said that Bernie was not there to sign Elton John memorabilia and wouldn’t. He was there to show his art. You could mix and mingle with him, talk about his art, but not Elton John. I was told that if you made a purchase of his art, you would be able to meet him privately, pose for photos and get autographs. So my husband I decided to go to the exhibit just to see his work, maybe talk to him. Once there, my husband notices a particular painting and said, “That would look great in our den”. I thought, “well, yeah!” So I was then able to meet Bernie, pose for a photo, get his autograph. He signed a CD insert for “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” which I had previously asked Elton to sign and which I’d brought along, just in case! He was somewhat quiet, but happy to pose for photos. Charlie Morgan, the former drummer from the Elton John band was also at the exhibit. I approached him and he very kindly stopped to pose with us. The artwork that we bought is still in our den, and it looks great!”

In 2001, Lynn had the chance to put herself forward for a television programme on VH1 which showcased Elton John fans. “VH1 went to numerous fan sites,” she recalls. “They asked fans to submit an email to them if they thought they were Elton’s biggest fan and explain why. At first, I was hesitant. I didn’t want to be made fun of on TV, but I decided to give it a whirl and see what happened. VH1 contacted me soon after requesting a video of my collection, my work, my family, it was all part of the selection process. We were in contact back and forth for a while and the producers told me I was pretty high up there in the ranks to be selected. When I was called and told that I was indeed selected, they told me there were several hundred emails from fans, about 50 or so videos, but ultimately it was just me and three other fans who were chosen. The crew came to my home and they filmed for two days. I think they had around sixteen hours of footage, which they shaved down to a fifteen minute segment. My segment was framed around the “soccer mom” fan, someone with a job and a family, but passionate about Elton and his music. They were looking or four diverse people, I guess I fitted into one of those moulds for the show.

“I was the last of the four to be filmed. I was also told that Elton and his management were going to be given a copy of the final show, and that they had had no say in the selection process. Because a local gal had been interviewed on VH1, there was a huge spread in the local paper about it. It was also a lot of fun. When the crew arrived, the newspaper came along with a photographer and ran another story with photos. The morning they were flying back to California, the World Trade Centre attacks happened. They weren’t able to leave Birmingham by air, so they rented a car to drive back. That very morning, I was featured on local TV about the VH1 show and had been interviewed by our local entertainment writer for The Birmingham News.” Lynn looks back on the whole affair with a fondness. “It was a lot of fun, a very positive experience.”

Going back to Elton’s music, I wonder which albums and songs have most heavily influenced the South’s most enthusiastic Elton-ite? Despite the era she grew up in, it’s not the songs you might think. “It was “Pinky” that made me a fan. I knew all the hits at the time, songs like “Bennie and the Jets”, “Rocket Man” and “Crocodile Rock”, but it was the deep cuts and not the commercial singles that made me a fan. “The Last Song” is a standout song for me. The meaning behind that, the father/son relationship, the way it deals with Aids and love, the way Bernie wrote it and Elton sang it, it’s such a good marriage.

“In the 70s, when I turned sixteen, all I wanted was Elton John albums – I didn’t want a car! I even made a comment to my mother about making sure that my friends didn’t duplicate the albums. At the time, I was collecting Elton’s back catalogue of records and I was hoping to get different albums from everyone rather than five copies of “Greatest Hits”. It worked, I got what I wanted. I was then up to date in 1975 and I have those original records and extras I bought still in shrink wrap today.”

Looking back to the last two albums that Elton has released, and conscious that a new record is already in the can, what are Lynn’s expectations for the new release, as a super-fan? “I love Elton’s music because of his rock and roll piano playing, both live and on record. I hope he rocks out a bit. I hope it’s not filled with over-production, just simple rock and roll. Piano, guitars, drums, percussion and some extra keyboards would make me happy. His piano playing is better now than it was in the 70s. His voice is different, but I love the deeper sound these days. His music is why I am a fan. Period.”

That really starkly underlines why Lynn’s enthusiasm is so rich and alive after all this time. After all, without the music, where would we be? Although, there is one thing she misses. “I miss the band not featuring in the artwork on the albums they participate in. I’d love to see Davey, Nigel, John, Kim, Matt and Ray all pictured. Elton has the best band around, he should show them proudly!”

But, as I asked other super-fans, can Elton ever have a number one record again? There is only one answer possible for Lynn. “Absolutely he can! This forthcoming album could be the one!”

Elton has never played “Pinky” live on stage. I’m not sure he ever will. But if he’s ever in Birmingham, there is surely one song he should add to the set. I’ve never been to the South, although Elton loves it so I probably should. Just like Captain Fantastic itself, this corner of America has some of the richest musical backstory of anywhere in the world. It is here that you’ll also find one of Elton’s most devoted, and richly enthusiastic fans. It all started with a scrapbook, some newspaper clippings, and simple glue; the innocence of adolescence captured in the pages of a book. The book got bigger, and so did the music. Just look how far and wide it's reached today.

Related News