Rockers behaving badly

By DAVID USBORNE

Old rockers want a little respect nowadays. They yearn to be inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Some even think they can help sell presidential candidates. (Nice work, Bruce Springsteen.)

How unwelcome then that a new sitcom is in the works that will shine a spotlight on their oversized egos and look at the wackier side of their lifestyles - the trophy girlfriends, the desperate diets and the comb-overs.

And the brains behind the idea? It's none other than a man who was, in years long gone by, one of the wildest of them all - Sir Elton John.

As the Herald reported yesterday, it all came spilling out in Daily Variety, the Hollywood trade paper. There it is in black and white. Sir Elton has done a deal with ABC to develop a new sitcom precisely about the hardly mainstream lives of his rock'n'roll buddies and the people who flutter around them.

You might think Sir Elton himself would be sufficient as the model for such a show. After all, it is only in the last few weeks that he has revealed his more ill-tempered side.

Last month he called paparazzi photographers in Taiwan "pigs" for invading his privacy, and lashed out at Madonna for allegedly lip-synching some of her live concerts.

But the programme, being penned by Sex and the City writer Cindy Chupack in 30-minute episodes, will feature a lead character who will actually be an amalgam of all those rock phenomena he has known over the years, like Rod Stewart, Mick Jagger, David Bowie and Freddie Mercury.

Only the late Mr Mercury will have nothing to say. The other gentlemen, you might imagine, will be placing calls to Elton.

Missing from the list so far may be craziest of all the big music stars, Michael Jackson. Perhaps he is not in the right generation. Or maybe the lawyers at ABC know better than to even utter his name.

"It's not about me, but about everybody we've encountered over the past 30 years," Elton told Variety. "We've met every star and seen every misbehaviour. And it's about the people around the star, who have to put up with them. It's an upmarket Spinal Tap."

The idea has been percolating for a while. It first came to Sir Elton's long-time business manager, Bob Halley, three years ago and Sir Elton recently warmed to it. Also involved in putting the show together, which will be filmed with a single camera and have the look of the BBC hit The Office, is songwriter Bruce Roberts and producer Michael Edelstein.

"Elton's been very public about the craziness of his life," Edelstein commented. "There's nothing like the world of rock'n' roll. He's got a hairdresser, valet and two straight SWAT bodyguards on staff. They've assembled their own wacky family."

He added: "Elton's witty, relevant and has always been on the cutting edge in both his personal life and musically."

Just last week, Sir Elton, 57, told the German celebrity magazine, Gala, that for years he lived "like a wild animal", thanks to drugs, depression and occasional suicide attempts.

But he said "that person no longer exists", adding that he and his partner of many years, the Canadian film producer David Furnish, 40, intended to marry soon.

Meanwhile, however, a full history of its lead character is under development, spanning his life from the early 70s until today.

Sir Elton has already written a song for the show, called Him and Us, which will feature on his 43rd album, Peachtree Road. The album is to be released in the US today.

As for his occasional outbursts, Sir Elton is repentant. "I don't seem to have anger - I have rage," he told the Sunday Times recently. "There are still times, especially when I'm tired, when the bad temper and the irrationality come out. The rage and the temper, and I think the irrationality are there, but it's part of being creative."

We didn't know it until now, but Sir Elton's creativity is about to extend to television and - possibly - to embarrassing his own friends.

- INDEPENDENT