"I changed so much – the looks, the costumes, everything. I’m not as flamboyant as I used to be but this show does give me the chance to revisit my past. I’m now wearing the glasses that I sell in my own gift shop. I’ve had a long career, there’s going to be a lot of changes but, until you see them put in a montage like that, you don’t realise what you’ve actually done.
"So it’s a nice chance, without being cheesy, to look back at my career and say yeah, this is what I’d done up to now."
The set showcases Elton’s songwriting partnership with Bernie Taupin.
"I’ve been writing with Bernie Taupin for 38 years," he explains. "It seems like five minutes ago since we were kids and the way we actually write songs together hasn’t changed at all.
"He writes the lyrics and then I go away and I write the melody and we’re never in the same room at the same time – that’s never changed.
"There are a lot of enquiries about what does this song mean, what does that song mean?
"Daniel had more enquiries than any other song that we ever wrote and it’s because, when Bernie wrote the song, in long hand, I looked at the paper and I thought this is too long. And I hadn’t ever read the lyric but I just crossed the last verse out and the last verse explained the whole song."
The centrepiece of the show is Elton’s homage to Marilyn Monroe – Candle In The Wind.
"It’s exactly like the photographs and the footage of Marilyn," he explains. "It’s nice to be able to do that one on my own because it’s such a sad song and a very emotional song and, of course, it’s tied in with what I did with Princess Diana as well.
"I didn’t want to do it with a band, I wanted to do it just me and her and that way the song works. Because the song has been done so many times – this way, I think, it really gets the meaning of the song, which is closing the door at the end and she says goodbye."
As well as the hits, Elton also peppers the show with anecdotes.
"I talk to the audience a great deal more. There’s so much going on on stage, you have to bring the focus back to yourself. It allows you to have conversations and tell the audience about the songs and how they were written and be funny.
"I’m the most famous poof in the world, and I love it and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
"I wouldn’t want to live my life hiding, running away, having something I was ashamed of. I didn’t ask to be this way but it just came out like that.
"I’m very happy with who I am."
ELTON JOHN is at the Echo Arena on Wednesday, October 28. Call 0844 800 3680 for tickets.
